It’s ridiculous to think that a retailer like Coca-Cola could be dictating medical standards.
But the American College of Cardiology (ACC) announced the results of a new study with lots of fanfare. They said that multivitamins, vitamins C and D, and calcium had NO benefits in cardiovascular disease.1
In other words, stop wasting your money on supplements that don’t work.
And guess who was happy to pay for that message? You got it… the food industry and drug companies.
You see, the authors of the study had to disclose their sponsors. The list is breathtaking. It goes on for a full page of small print.
Alongside the soda giant Coca-Cola was the Kellogg Company… Quaker Oats… Unilever… Procter & Gamble… Bayer… PepsiCo… Soyfoods Association of North America… Canola Council of Canada… Bristol-Myers Squibb… General Mills… and many more.
But let me set the record straight.
There’s no herb, vitamin or other supplemental nutrient used in America today that’s anywhere near as dangerous as the average prescription drug. And there are hundreds of thousands of studies supporting the safe use of vitamins and minerals to prevent and cure chronic disease.
What the ACC study did was cherry-pick a select few that would fall in their favor.
They looked at studies that used low doses — which didn’t offer any benefits. They also only included short-term trials. They excluded long-term studies where you’re more likely to see the real effects of supplements. And basically ignored all the studies showing positive benefits.
In other words, they chose the studies that supported the message they wanted to send: “You don’t need supplements because you can get all your vitamins and minerals from your food.”
That bunch has no interest in your health. They just want you to buy more of their pricey processed foods and drugs.
They’ll slap on a heart healthy sticker in hopes of selling more. But the truth is you CANNOT get the vitamins and minerals you need from the processed food industry products. In fact, the Journal of Nutrition reports most Americans are undernourished:
- 80% don’t get the daily recommended nutrients from their diet alone
- More than 50% of children don’t get enough vitamins D and E
- More than 25% of children don’t get enough calcium, magnesium or vitamin A2
And when this most recent vitamin and mineral study came out, the ACC didn’t mention one very interesting finding. In a sneaky move, they tried to bury it…
The data showed that B vitamins, especially folic acid (vitamin B9) significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). It also showed these vitamins are critical for preventing strokes. In fact, vitamin B9 supplements were found to reduce stroke risk by 22%.
They didn’t want you to know that. Most doctors still think the only way to prevent CVD is to take a statin drug to lower cholesterol.
But I’ve been recommending B9 and other B vitamins to my patients for decades. I recommend taking 800 mcg of folate per day. But avoid synthetic folic acid supplements. Look for products that say “5-MTHF.” That’s the active form of B9.
Keep Your Heart Pumping Strong
with My Heart-Saving Protocol
In addition to renourishing your body with vitamins, I use a 3-pronged natural approach for helping my patients keep strong hearts at any age and avoid America’s biggest killer — heart attacks.
- First, supercharge your heart with CoQ10. People with heart disease are likely to be low in CoQ10. In one study of patients having heart surgery, one group was pre-treated with CoQ10.The CoQ10 group had much stronger heartbeats and pumped blood more powerfully after surgery. And recovery time for the CoQ10 group was short, with no complications. The placebo group took six times as long to recover and had complications.3
I recommend everyone take the ubiquinol form of CoQ10. It’s eight times more powerful than the old form, ubiquinone. Take at least 50 mg every day. If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, high cholesterol or gingivitis, increase your dose to 100 mg per day.
- Then, combine it with PQQ for the best heart combo I’ve ever seen.While CoQ10 provides you with the perfect raw fuel, PQQ gives you more “molecular engines” to turn that fuel into energy.
In a recent study at the University of California, San Francisco, PQQ reduced the severity of a heart attack by 51%.4
It even improved chances of survival if administered AFTER cardiac arrest. Specifically, it reduced the severity of a heart attack by 35%.
Adding more PQQ in foods like kiwi, sweet green peppers, carrots, cabbage and bananas are a good idea. But to get the powerful combo benefits with the ubiquinol form of CoQ10, I recommend adding a supplement of 10 mg of PQQ daily.
- Finally, keep your heart muscles pumping strong with full-spectrum vitamin E. Like the recent ACC study, I’ve seen other wrong-headed “takes” on vitamin E on the 6 o’clock news. But when I see this, I like to dig a little deeper.Like this recent Big Agra and Big Pharma sponsored study, the real story is much more interesting. What it didn’t say is that there are actually eight forms of vitamin E: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. They’re all antioxidants, and each has its own unique health properties.
The problem is, not only is dl-alpha tocopherol not natural when you take it in that form, it’s also the tocopherol with the least heart benefit. And, when you take too much of it, you cause a decreased absorption of gamma-tocopherol. Gamma has been shown to offer big benefits for your heart and blood vessels.
Not only that, but tocotrienols have benefits that tocopherols don’t have. And you can’t get any of them from synthetic vitamin E.
I recommend taking 400 IU of vitamin E with mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols daily.
Plus, there’s one more thing. Combining these tocotrienols with the ubiquinol form of CoQ10 with keeps the natural Es active in your system for a longer period than just taking them alone. So the benefits to your heart are that much greater.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS
References
1. Jenkins DJA, et al. “Supplemental vitamins and minerals for CVD prevention and treatment.” J Am Coll Cardiol. 2018; 71 (22): 2570-2584.
2. “Bush B and Welsh H. “Hidden hunger: America’s growing malnutrition epidemic.” The Guardian. February 10, 2015.
3. Judy WV, et al. “Myocardial preservation by therapy with coenzyme Q10 during heart surgery.” Clin Investig. 1993;71(8 Suppl):S155-S181.
4. Zhu BQ, et al. “Pyrroloquinoline quinone (OQQ) decreases myocardial infarct size and improves cardiac function in rat models of ischemia and ischemia/reperfusion.” Cardiovasc Drugs Ther. 2004;18(6):421-431.