Dear Reader,
Why do you think Tim Russert died of a massive heart attack last month? Maybe it could have been avoided…today I’ll lay out what I know and let you decide.
Russert was only 58. He wasn’t doing anything strenuous at the time—in fact, he’d just gotten back from a family vacation and passed away at NBC’s studios. He was under the care of a good doctor. He was taking all his medications and doing everything his doctor told him to do.
None of it saved him. This sad news made me—and many of my patients and readers—wonder what went wrong.
I have a few ideas:
Here’s one: heart drugs don’t work. I don’t know all the medications he was taking, but I do know one of them was a statin drug, probably Lipitor or Zocor. (Russert’s doctor reported this without naming the specific drug.)
Statins drive down CoQ10 to dangerously low levels. You know that CoQ10 is the vital engine that fuels almost every cell in your body and powers all your major organs—especially your heart.
Starve it of CoQ10, and you’re on the fast track to a heart attack. And it’s not like the potentially fatal effect of statins on CoQ10 levels is a secret. Those of us who’ve followed the research have known about this for almost twenty years. Still, the word hasn’t gotten out.
A sad twist about Russert’s statin prescription: he didn’t even have high cholesterol. He was taking it as a “preventive measure”.
Another possible cause: Russert was diabetic. That means his doctor may have put him on one of the latest medications to treat it—either Actos or Avandia. The problem here is that clinical studies have shown that one of the major risks of taking these drugs is . . . heart failure. Drug regulators knew this . . . and buried it. In fact, the FDA employee who tried to get the warning put on the label was fired.
My suggestion is to skip the drugs and go for natural heart-healthy alternatives. Here are a few of them, many of which will be familiar to my readers:
CoQ10. 100 mg per day.
The B vitamin complex. Keeps homocysteine levels down. Homocysteine’s one of the most important risk factors for heart attack (not LDL levels). Take these every day:
• B2 – 25 mg
• B6 – 25 mg
• B12 – 500 mcg
• Folate – 800 mcg
Omega-3. You know about all its benefits. A daily tablespoon of cod liver oil a day will do the trick.
Lean meats boost HDL levels, which are a far better indicator of heart health than LDL. Get them free-range, organic, and natural sources if you can.They also happen to be a great natural source of CoQ10.
Clinical studies have shown that (raw) garlic can lower blood pressure by as much as 73 percent. Two raw cloves a day are ideal, or you can find its active ingredient, allicin, in most health food stores. Take 3,600 mcg per day.
Avoid carbs altogether. They tell your body to start storing fat and pack on the pounds.
And if you lead a stressful lifestyle, make time to rest and relax. Your heart will thank you for it.
Eat lean meats…and lots of garlic…stay away from starchy carbs…except organic fruits and above-ground vegetables and get plenty of rest.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD