Do you want to keep your heart vigorous and healthy? Then provide it with what it needs. Your heart is unique. It has a special demand for a few key nutrients to produce its extraordinary energy output. I have learned from my clinic that most people aren't getting them. I believe it is the main reason heart disease continues to be the number one killer in America.

Unfortunately, when I ask people they can't tell me even one nutrient your heart needs to produce energy. Many people have never even heard of them. What's worse is that most doctors will prescribe drugs before even considering nutrition for your heart.

I must admit that even with my lifelong commitment to nutrition I was humbled and surprised to discover the power of these supplements for the heart. Through the research from our Wellness Research Foundation and my South Florida practice, we have been repeatedly successful at eliminating heart drugs. Today I will tell you about the most important superstars for natural heart health.

*The Fantastic Four*

I have developed a list of four nutrients. They are the most effective for energizing both healthy and diseased hearts:
• CoQ10
• L-carnitine
• L-arginine
• Tocopherols
Include these in a daily regimen. It is your first step to keeping your heart muscle strong and your arteries clear and flexible:

Coenzyme Q10

I first talked about Co Q10 in Health Alert 3. I explained about the importance of measuring and CoQ10 levels in Health Alert 54. I mentioned its role in treating heart problems in Health Alert 56. Yet the most important role of Coenzyme Q10 is to provide high octane energy output for the heart.

Co Q10 is essential to the normal function of all of your major organs; it amazes me that conventional medicine has still not caught on this vital nutrient. I patient just last week showed her CoQ10 to her cardiologist. He became irate and took her CoQ10 and through it in the garbage.

There are at least 100 studies showing cardiac benefit from this unique nutrient. Over 50% of patients coming to my office with high blood pressure taking blood pressure drugs have been able to stop those drugs with CoQ10. Several double-blinded clinical trials have corroborated CoQ10's blood pressure-lowering effects.

For instance, a University of Texas study proved CoQ10's ability to make blood pressure medications unnecessary. Hypertensive subjects took oral CoQ10. Within one month, they began to find marked improvements in blood pressure. Overall, 51% of subjects were able to discontinue their blood pressure medications.

No matter what your blood pressure, insist on blood testing for CoQ10. If your levels are low, start with 100 mg. a day. Monitor your levels after 3 mos.
Coenzyme Q10 is soluble in oil only. Eat some kind of fat or oil with your CoQ10 or your gut won't absorb it very well.

L-carnitine

L-carnitine is necessary for fat burning and energy production in every one of your cells. It brings fatty acids to the mitochondria of your cells where they produce energy. Your heart muscle has the highest energy requirements. That is why it is particularly vulnerable to carnitine deficiencies.

Over 20 placebo-controlled studies support carnitine's role in protecting your heart. The benefits of carnitine are seen in healthy subjects as well as in patients with heart disease. Carnitine's benefits also include reducing arterial plaque, lowering LDL cholesterol and increasing HDL levels.

Fat burning and energy production are the main outcomes of carnitine's cellular activity. So with carnitine you also gain energy and lose fat. And fat loss itself is important to your heart health.

You can get carnitine from red meat and dairy. But it is hard to get enough from your daily diet. I see the best results with 500 mg of carnitine per day. It is important that you choose the naturally occurring L-carnitine and not the synthetic D,L-carnitine. The D form interferes with the action of the L-carnitine.

L-arginine

L-arginine is a precursor of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide plays an important role in the health of the endothelial cells that line your heart and blood vessels. It helps these cells to dilate.

Without nitric oxide, your blood vessels narrow. In the presence of arterial plaque, these vessels also become rigid and blood flow is restricted. Conventional doctors often prescribe aspirin or dangerous statin drugs to counteract this effect. Recent studies show that arginine increases the elasticity of your blood vessels. This gives you a much safer alternative. Like carnitine 500 mg once a day does the trick.

Tocopherols

Tocopherols and tocotrienols are eight different Vitamin E like compounds. They lower risk of heart disease by increasing blood circulation and decreasing platelet aggregation. Many of my patients have been able to give up their blood-thinning drugs with tocopherol supplementation.

There is also evidence that a daily dose of 400 IU of mixed tocopherols increases the elasticity of your arteries.

The best way to get them is as a mix of the four tocopherols and the four tocotrienols. The problem with taking only Vitamin E is that too much of one tocopherol in the body can stop the absorption of the other tocopherols. I recommend a daily dose of 400 IU. Like CoQ10, tocopherols and tocotrienols are oil soluble so take them with some fat or oil.

In the next Health Alert, you will read about real heart conditioning exercise.

Al Sears MD