Take Nutrition to Heart

Properly feeding your heart is partly a matter of head knowledge. What is it that’s right for your individual chemistry and cardiovascular metabolism? The following update and overview of nutritional support measures, both for maintaining heart health and for various cardiovascular concerns, might help you navigate the valleys of vessels and miles of vitamin isles, and finally get to the heart of the matter.
Foundational Essentials

Many age old foods and supplements are still the base upon which heart health is built.

Minerals are the building blocks of many enzymes and co-enzymes essential to cardiovascular function. The electrolyte minerals potassium and sodium, for instance, work in tandem to carry the electrical impulses that produce (heart) muscle contraction and maintain normal rhythm. Another mineral marriage is magnesium and calcium. Magnesium is mentioned first for a reason. Involved in over 300 different enzyme systems throughout the body, it is outstandingly critical at various levels of heart function. Magnesium deficiency, when properly tested for, is frequently found in virtually all cases of heart disease, especially arrhythmias such as tachycardia. By the way, the original, age-old, mineral supplement was ashes. That’s another story for another time. While green vegetables are a good food source of magnesium, most supplemental forms are notoriously difficult to absorb. Separating it from any calcium supplementation (mag by day, cal by night) can help some individuals. Many professional and prescription types are in a slow-release form to enhance absorption. Dosages range from 200 mg to over 1,000 mg. Diarrhea may result from taking 400 mg or more at one time.

Next to the right multi vitamin, omega-3 fish oil is perhaps one of the most important heart nutrients. It not only regulates inflammation and lipoprotein cholesterol, but also platelet stickiness and a host of other cardiovascular functions. Fish source omega-3 appears to be more cardio specific than flaxseed, primrose, and other sources, but all are helpful for the heart as well as numerous other body systems. One to two grams is a preventive dose, while two to four grams is needed therapeutically. Look for a type that is purified to remove mercury and cholesterol.

Top Five Heart Herbs

Hawthorne is an outstanding heart herb, perhaps one of the best on the planet. It is a tonic in the truest sense, not fast-acting but, over time, through its cardio-specific flavonoid antioxidants, strengthening and fortifying the entire cardiovascular system against even the worst forms of heart disease, including strokes and heart attacks (cardiac arrest). While it is helpful and supportive for everything from high cholesterol and blood pressure to angina and congestive heart failure, it is specifically most effective for normalizing an irregular heartbeat, including various arrhythmias. The proper part of the Hawthorne tree that is used is vital for good results. While the berry is the most commonly available form, it is a blend of the flower, leaf and berry that has proven most medicinal.

Garlic and Cayenne should not go without mention. Volumes have been published on their versatile cardio-specific, and many other, benefits. Some heart health formulas combine the above three herbs together for hypertension and other heart conditions. In the food form, cooked garlic is more advantageous for the circulatory system than it is raw, while raw garlic is superior for anti-infective immune support. Tailored herbal dosing guidelines are important for therapeutic effectiveness and should be determined by a competent health professional for one’s individual need. Many a bonus comes with the big G and C.

Willow Bark has been referred to as nature’s aspirin by many herbalists. It is the original plant source from which the active ingredient of commercial aspirin, salicylic acid, is derived, generally is without side effects such as stomach lining irritation and imparts broader benefits beyond just blood thinning.

Yarrow (flower) has cardiotonic and blood pressure regulating effects (hypotensive). Like Hawthorne, it is mild acting but often effective. Bonus: Yarrow also benefits the liver and gall bladder.

Food: First in the Mouth, Then the Stomach, and Finally the Way to Your Heart

While veggies seem to shine as anti-cancer foods, fruits take the cardiovascular cake. All of the foods below contain potent anti-oxidant anti-inflammatory, and other heart healthy, properties.

- Pomegranate, Red Grapes, juice, wine.

- Melon.

- Grapefruit juice and fiber contain compounds that not only increase circulation and decrease cholesterol, but also increase the effect of many medications, so that less is more. If you are drinking grapefruit juice, mention this to your prescribing doctor(s).

- Coconut, especially the oil, rich in MCT.

- Olive Oil.

- Fatty Fish: Salmon, Mackerel, Sardines, Tuna.

- Lecithin is a gentle but potent fat emulsifier/dissolver, naturally abundant in soybeans and egg yolk.

- Fresh Eggs: The bad cholesterol rap originated from early, flawed studies using rancid/oxidized cholesterol. Rancidity and oxidation are the primary disease culprits, not the cholesterol. Egg yolk is rich in the highest quality lecithin (see above).

- Vegetables of every color--and lots of them. The latest recommendation for daily produce consumption is nine servings, no longer five. Ten would not be excessive. Neither would 20! My number one dietary recommendation to patients is “eat more vegetables.”

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

The Latest Heart-Shaped Nutrients

Resveratrol, a grape skin extract, reduces blood stickiness by inhibiting platelets from clumping together and improves blood flow by tonifying the smooth muscle lining of blood vessels. Bonus: it mimics calorie restriction, one of the best documented strategies for longevity and reduces blood sugar and insulin resistance. It works; just ask the French about their low incidence of heart disease.

Anyone with heart disease, and anyone wishing to prevent it, should be tested for vitamin D deficiency, which not only recently has become near epidemic, but is proving to play a role in many diverse conditions aside from osteoporosis, including heart disease. As much a hormone as it is a vitamin, D is involved in regulating inflammation, blood pressure, cholesterol, and much more. Proper testing and interpretation is essential. A two page update on the “Big D” (including related conditions, testing guidelines, considerations for foods, supplements and sun as sources, revised dosing guidelines, and a personal vitamin D calculator) is posted on the author’s website, listed at the end of this article.

Nattokinase is a fermented soybean supplement with potent enzymatic blood thinning (anti-coagulant/fibrinolytic) activity.

Co-enzyme Q10 (Ubiquinone) is one of the more well established cardiovascular oxygenating/antioxidant and heart energizing nutrients. It is involved at the intimate level of the Krebs ATP cellular energy production cycle. Its newest cousin, Ubiquinol, is thought to be twice as potent as Ubiquinone, for assimilation at the functional intra-cellular level.

Beta Glucans help the heart directly, by reducing cholesterol with its fiber like properties and indirectly, by stabilizing blood sugar levels, thus helping to manage metabolic syndrome (disturbed sugar/carbohydrate and insulin metabolism usually leading to heart disease). Beta Glucan also acts as a mild anti-inflammatory. Bonus: immune support and anti cancer properties.

Don’t forget vitamin X -- exercise!

All of the best, even individually tailored, nutrition will do little good without adequate physical activity to circulate nutrients and deliver them to target tissues -- that is, to take nutrition to your heart.

Karl Mincin is a clinical nutritionist in practice locally for 24 years, trained at Bastyr University. He specializes in nutrition assessment testing and is available for telephone consultation. Karl may be reached at (360)336-2616 cell (360) 770-8486. References, resources, and related article reprints are available on Karl’s website. www.Nutrition-Testing.com This article is not meant to be used for self-diagnosis or treatment. Please contact your health care provider for more information.

Quick Reference Summar

FUNCTIONAL HEART NUTRIENTS

Anticoagulant (blood thinner)

Omega 3 oils from fish, flax, etc.

Herbs: Willow bark, Garlic, Cayenne, Ginger, Ginkgo

Nattokinase

Antioxidant (cell protectant & tissue oxygenator)

Co Q10 (prefer ubiquinol)

Grapeseed extract OPC, Pomegranate

Hawthorne blend

Alpha Lipoic Acid

Vitamin E complexes and fractions

Anti-inflammatory (reduces inflammation)

Omega 3 Fish Oil, Olive Oil

Vitamin D


Karl Mincin, Clinical Nutritionist Professional nutrition services determine your personal health profile