By Jolie Martin Root
Nutrition for a Healthy Heart
What vitamins will protect your heart?
February is heart month. We can expect the media to be flooded with commercials promoting cholesterol lowering drugs and blood pressure medicines. “Get your check-up; know your risks” will be the message. On Wear Red Days all across North America, women will be encouraged to wear red to work as a reminder that heart disease is the number one killer of women, too.
It is good to be aware, and great advice to know your risks. However, I disagree on the type of action needed to best deal with those risks once you are aware. I favour the integrative approach to cardiovascular health. Choose a drugless approach first and fill a prescription only when lifestyle changes are not sufficient.
Let’s look at the major risk factors for heart disease and the many nutritional approaches:
Consider your cholesterol and lipid levels. Are they where they should be, or is your LDL too high, or your HDL too low? Maybe you have elevated triglycerides. Your doctor should ask you to change your diet and start exercising before he or she suggests medications such as statins. Adopting the Mediterranean Diet is always a good place to start for both weight control and heart health. This diet includes olive oil, lots of fish and fresh vegetables and fruits to support healthy lipids and blood vessels. You should also begin daily walking, working up to 30 minutes to an hour each day. Exercise normalizes blood pressure, works off extra pounds, lowers LDL and triglycerides and raises HDL.
There are many dietary supplements that may help. Fish oils are fundamental to heart health and are the best place to begin. Fish oils that provide at least 1,000 milligrams of combined EPA and DHA are recommended for anyone with a heart disease risk factor or history of cardiac problems. EPA and DHA do not lower LDL but they do make the LDL particles larger, more buoyant and, consequently, less dangerous. Fish oils do support higher HDL levels and they are marvelous for reducing triglycerides. The caveat with EPA and DHA for triglyceride reduction is the recommended dosage: no longer only 1,000 milligrams, but 4,000 milligrams daily. Fatty fish such as salmon, cod and mackerel are good sources. Elevated LDL also responds well to time-released niacin, or vitamin B3. You may become facially flushed by taking larger doses, but it will usually pass within a half hour. Niacin not only helps support ideal LDL levels, it also raises HDL, lowers triglycerides and even lowers Lpa, a separate cardiac risk factor. Good food sources include meat, poultry, fish and some legumes such as peanuts.
Don’t be fooled by reports that claim vitamins E and C don’t support heart health. The largest study to date on vitamin E and heart health found that vitamin E supplementation significantly reduced the number of heart disease–related deaths in healthy women over a 10-year period. In the study, 39,876 women over the age of 45 took either a vitamin E supplement (600 IU alpha tocopherol every other day) or a placebo. There were 24 percent fewer deaths due to heart disease in the women between age 45 and 64 receiving vitamin E than in those receiving the placebo. In women over age 65, at the greatest risk for cardiovascular death, there was a 49 percent reduction in deaths due to heart disease. To my knowledge no drug has been proven to be as effective in reducing cardiovascular deaths. The Physicians Study and the Cambridge Heart Antioxidant Study found that vitamin E also protects men’s hearts.
Vitamin E may also be so important for other reasons. Larger doses of vitamin E have been found to reduce inflammatory markers associated with increased heart attack risk. In diabetic and healthy patients, vitamin E doses of 800 to 1,200 IU daily reduced C- reactive protein and interleukin 6, which are markers of inflammation. Heart disease is an inflammatory condition; therefore, reducing C-reactive protein and interleukin 6 might be protective. Good food sources include mustard, turnip and dandelion greens, chard, spinach, sunflower seeds and almonds.
Vitamin C is required for the production of collagen and elastin, compounds that help to support blood vessel elasticity. Vitamin C has had its share of successes in reducing heart risk, too. The NHANES I Study showed the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases was 42 percent lower in men and 25 percent lower in women who consumed more than 50 milligrams/day of dietary vitamin C and who took vitamin C supplements, boosting total vitamin C intake to about 300 milligrams/day. Higher levels of vitamin C had major benefits. Low serum ascorbic acid levels (blood levels of vitamin C) were associated with prevalence of coronary heart disease and stroke; a 0.5-milligram per dl increase in serum ascorbic acid was associated with an 11 percent reduction in coronary heart disease and stroke. In another study, more than 290,000 adults who were free of coronary heart disease (CHD) were followed for an average of 10 years. Those who took more than 700 milligrams/day of supplemental vitamin C had a 25 percent lower risk of CHD than those who did not take vitamin C. Good food sources are broccoli, bell peppers, strawberries, oranges, kiwi fruit, papaya, cauliflower, kale, mustard greens and Brussels sprouts.
When it comes to promoting heart health and living a long and healthy life, nutritional information really does provide some important answers. Happy heart month, everyone!
Jolie Martin Root
Jolie Martin Root, NC, is a licensed practical nurse, nutritionist and medical journalist in private practice in Denver, Colorado. She counsels and educates about the role of nutrition in integrative medicine. She lectures nationally and has been interviewed on dozens of television and radio programmes.
