The 6 Best Supplements for Heart Health

There are no guarantees in this supplement world, but here’s what we suggest and why.

1. Omega-3 Fatty Acids (Fish Oil)

Cardiologists agree that heart disease is a disease of inflammation. Granted, there’s all kinds of bad mojo associated with heart disease, including calcium deposits, plaque in general, ventricular thickening, and stiffening of blood vessels. Still, all of it is precipitated or at least exacerbated by inflammation, and that’s where fish oil comes in.

Fish oil can modify cardiac ion channels, improve vascular endothelium, modulate autonomic nervous system activity, and enhance cardiac energy metabolism, in addition to simply thinning the blood. All of that translates to:

• Reduced triglycerides, a type of fat in your blood.
• Reduced risk of developing an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmias).
• Slowed buildup of plaque, a substance comprising fat, cholesterol, and calcium, which hardens and blocks your arteries.
• Lowered blood pressure.

2. Magnesium

There’s a growing body of evidence that there’s an inverse relationship between magnesium levels and heart disease. That’s likely because magnesium is involved in so many enzymatic reactions and metabolic processes. Among the latter are ATP-dependent biochemical reactions, synthesis of DNA, RNA expression, cell signaling (at muscle and nerve levels), and glucose and blood pressure control, among other stuff.

On a more macro level, higher magnesium levels result in improved glucose and insulin metabolism, which leads to reduced glycation levels, a process that affects the suppleness and pliability of blood vessels, crucial to cardiovascular health. Magnesium also improves lipid profiles and acts as an antihypertensive and anti-inflammatory agent.

3. Nattokinase

Nattokinase is an enzyme derived from natto, a Japanese food made from fermented soybeans. It looks like zombified soybeans that are connected by long, cheesy strings of organic matter that refuse to let go when you pull them apart.

Nattokinase appears to destroy clots through several mechanisms. Most prominently, it leads to an increase in Tissue Plasminogen Activator (TPA), a potent clot buster often administered to heart or stroke patients in hospital ERs. Nattokinase also kneecaps a serine-protease inhibitor known as PAI-1 that plays a role in clotting. Lastly, nattokinase enhances the production of urokinase, another clot-dissolving agent.

Lastly, nattokinase appears to “thin” the blood. While lots of people take aspirin to prevent heart attacks, stroke, and atherosclerotic diseases, studies comparing nattokinase with that old standby show it to be equal or superior to the task without the possible side effects.

4. Niacin

Until a few years ago, vitamin B3 or niacin was one of two supplements (the other being fish oil) widely recommended for heart health. But then along came the cholesterol-lowering statins. At first, doctors recommended people take statins and niacin together, but then a couple of studies showed that statin therapy did just fine on its own. So, niacin was relegated to the island of misfit supplements until a new research paper exonerated her.

The paper said that niacin positively affected the lipid profile and matched up well against statins but without any negative side effects. Niacin also helps cardiovascular health in another, easy-to-understand way – it increases the production of nitric oxide synthase, which relaxes blood vessels and causes them to pop open, allowing increased blood flow.

5. Vitamin K2

K2 has a superpower that makes it an essential component of your heart-health toolbox, and it has to do with its effects on calcium. The mineral helps maintain heart rhythms, but it has a treacherous side – it tends to accumulate on the insides of the arteries and around heart valves. This “misdirected” calcium ends up accruing on the inside of blood vessels, eventually impeding blood flow. Essentially, it can clog your pipes.

Vitamin K2, however, regulates calcium homeostasis through the activation of the “anti-calcific” protein named matrix Gla protein. In its “inactivated” form, the protein is associated with increased arterial stiffness, vascular and valvular calcification, and even insulin resistance, all of which contribute to the possibility you might drop dead prematurely.

6. Coenzyme Q10

CoQ10, also known as ubiquinone, is a coenzyme synthesized in the inner membranes of mitochondria. It’s found in all organ systems, but the highest concentrations are found in the heart, kidneys, liver, and muscles.

Most clinicians think that CoQ10’s primary role is as an antioxidant, thus preventing the oxidative stress and inflammatory cytokines that can lead to hypertrophy of the heart (lessening the heart’s blood-pumping capabilities).

CoQ10 possibly has a more important role: helping determine the energy and vigor of the heart. When the heart beats, it involves the release of calcium ions from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (a part of muscle cells), and the subsequent activation of contractile proteins requires energy, energy provided by the mitochondria, courtesy of CoQ10. Adequate levels of CoQ10 would then, presumably, lead to a more vigorous heart.

There’s also some evidence that CoQ10 regulates nitric oxide production, thus “blowing open” blood vessels, enabling more oxygen-rich blood to flow to and feed cells, especially those of the heart.

Copyright: https://forums.t-nation.com/