Taking Heart Healthy Supplements, Vitamins, Minerals and Herbs for Overall Good Health

Dietary supplements recommended for heart disease typically include Gingko Biloba, Sam-E and Co-enzyme Q-10, but there are numerous vitamins and minerals, as well as other botanicals that may be helpful, as well. These are components found in food, but not present in the standard American diet, which is sometimes referred to simply as SAD. The best heart healthy supplements, vitamins and botanical compounds should contain ingredients that address the major controllable risk factors of developing heart disease, which include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, stress and physical inactivity. It is doubtless that there are products on the market that may provide no benefit whatsoever, but other products have been designed by nutritionists and researchers to naturally lower cholesterol levels, blood pressure levels, reduce stress and increase energy levels throughout the day to encourage increased physical activity. Some heart healthy supplements, vitamins, minerals and botanicals that increase energy levels and help to stabilize them throughout the day include Green Tea, folic acid, magnesium, vitamin C and the B vitamins. These nutrients serve many unique functions in the body, but all are necessary for energy levels adequate to improve physical activity levels. Short-term stress is in our lives is unavoidable. Chronic or long term stress caused by frustrating jobs, money problems and/or troubled personal relationships may also be unavoidable. Often it is impossible to change these situations, but it is possible to change the way you respond to them. Chronic stress can also lead to depression, which often accompanies heart disease. This is one reason that dietary supplements recommended for heart disease patients include Sam-E, a natural anti-depressant. Gingko Biloba, when combined with ginger, has been shown to reduce anxiety, caused by chronic stress. Those people under chronic stress also need additional vitamin C. Stress quickly depletes the level of vitamin C in the blood stream, which serves many essential roles in the human body. A lack of vitamin C leads to low energy levels, visual problems, bleeding from the mucus membranes and eventually scurvy and death. Taking heart healthy supplements, vitamins and minerals can reduce the effects of long-term stress on the body, particularly when combined with increased physical activity, meditation and other stress reduction techniques. You may have seen news articles and information from alternative health care providers and other researchers maintaining that unhealthy cholesterol levels can be controlled naturally. Prescription medications (statin drugs) designed to inhibit the production of cholesterol within the body can also inhibit the production of Coenzyme Q-10. This enzyme can be created by the human body when overall nutritional levels are good, but when production is inhibited, muscle death (including death of the heart muscle) can occur. When statin drugs were originally patented, the designers recommended adding CO Q-10 to the mixture, but the manufacturers never followed through with this recommendation. They simply added the warning that muscle pain, particularly in the legs, should be reported to your doctor. It is the opinion of many health care professionals, including this writer, that once deep muscle pain is felt, there could already be a problem. Along with regular exercise and dietary changes, taking heart healthy supplements, vitamins and botanicals that contain rutin, policosanol, inositol and vitamin C can lower levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol naturally. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of these again and again. If you are currently taking a statin drug, you should also be taking a CO Q-10 supplement. You can safely take supplements that naturally lower cholesterol, increase your physical activity, and watch your diet, as well. Eventually your doctor may be able to take you off of the statin drugs and you can avoid the health risks associated with them. High blood pressure can also be controlled naturally, with proper diet, exercise, stress reduction techniques and heart healthy supplements, vitamins and botanicals that contain grape seed extract.