So How Much Curcumin Should You Use For Heart Health?

Ric Hawkins asked:


With the profile of curcumin being so much higher now as we become aware of its incredible qualities, the question of how much curcumin should you use for heart health is an ever present one. The crucial factors here are the quality and delivery method, let me explain.

Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric can play a vital role in protecting the heart, as you must know, due to its powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities. Were you aware it can also help to prevent cancer, lower bad cholesterol and aid with skin irritations?

There is no set dosage in answer to your question of how much curcumin should you use for heart health, but with some companies offering doses of 1000mg a day and higher, is more necessarily better? Absolutely not!

Curcumin is not easily absorbed into the bloodstream as most that is taken is lost to the stomach acid. The best way forward is to use it in a multi health supplement that has other nutrients in it and an enteric coating.

This special coating allows it to pass unscathed through the stomach and into the upper intestine where it has maximum impact. If combined with other synergistic nutrients like piperine for example, from black pepper, its absorption rate can increase by up to 2000%, leaving no need for large or expensive doses.

This way you get the incredible heart benefits from curcumin and the benefits of the other ingredients and their interaction with each other, truly a win-win situation!

As a guide you should look for 98% pure curcumin extract at around 50mg per tablet to reap the full benefits.

We have much more to see from this humble compound, but why wait, now you know the answer to how much curcumin should you use for heart health, as you can have all the benefits now and start to protect your heart and prevent serious diseases further down the line.

Visit my website today if you would like to learn more about the synergistic health supplements which I personally take, including curcumin.  

 



heart health

Choose Dark Chocolate for Heart Health

Martin Applebaum asked:


Have you heard of the saying – ‘A dark chocolate a day keeps the doctor away?’ if not, you need to gain a lot of knowledge about dark chocolate. Take a dark chocolate daily is good for the heart as these chocolates are fully loaded with many flavaniods. All you require to do to keep your heart in a healthy state is to eat a small 1.6-ounce bar of dark chocolate for heart health each day. Mary Engler of the University of California, San Francisco, has done the research.

Remember that not every chocolate is created equal. You must know that any standard manufacturing process for chocolate tends to destroy more than half of the flavaniods. However, fortunately, most companies have now learned the art of preparing dark chocolate that would preserve up to 95 per cent of its flavaniods. This is no scam. It is 100% true that you can benefit a lot by eating chocolate now.

This does not mean that you overload yourself with chocolate. Remember that chocolate tends to possess many calories and you definitely need to cut down on somewhere else if you are having a lot of dark chocolate.

There are several benefits of eating dark chocolate. Here are some of these benefits:

· Lowers blood pressure: One of the main benefits of eating dark chocolate is that it tends to lower your blood pressure if it is too high. This has been proved as confirmed by a report by Dirk Jaubert, MD, phd at the University of Cologne in Germany. The report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. However, make sure this report does not give you a reason to binge on, as these are many calories in chocolate.

· Presence of antioxidants: When dark chocolate is taken in sufficient quantity, it proves to be a strong antioxidant to the body. This is proved by a report produced by Mauro Serafini, Phd and colleagues of Italy’s National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome. The issue of Nature published this report. Antioxidants are powerful enough to eat up many free radials, hazardous molecules implicated in heart disease or other health conditions. Remember that in order to benefit from antioxidants you need to eat dark chocolate without milk. People who have dark chocolate daily have higher levels of epicatechin. It is a real healthy compound found commonly in dark chocolate.

· Good heart: As discussed earlier, dark chocolate is rich in flavaniods. This compound’s healthy for the heart. It has also other healthy compounds that help in keeping the heart of individuals who eat dark chocolate in a healthy state.

With so many benefits of dark chocolate, there is no reason that you should stay away from it. All you require to do is to remember that a healthy diet balance is what keeps the heart fit and fine. Binging in will never help you achieve the desired goals. Choose dark chocolate for heart health.



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Coenzyme Q10, Statins, And Heart Health

Byron J Richards asked:


Coenzyme Q10 is a top cardio-friendly nutrient. Your heart has very high energy requirements and never gets to take any time off. Q10 is required for the proper production of energy at an optimal rate, around your body and specifically for your heart. If you lack it, you will be more tired and you will make free radicals instead of energy. If you lack Q10 within your heart it will speed up the aging process and weaken your heart.

Q10 also operates as a direct antioxidant in cell membranes, meaning that it is highly protective to your overall circulatory system, having a direct benefit to support healthy blood pressure. It also acts as an antioxidant team player, helping vitamins E and C maintain their antioxidant roles which provides additional synergistic cardiovascular protection.

It is very clear from the literature that statins interfere with the natural production of Q10, which is evidenced by lower blood levels of Q10 in patients taking statins. It has been known for over a decade that statin drugs reduce Q10 levels as much as 25% and that 100 mg of Q10 is enough to offset a relatively low dose of statins (20 mg of Zocor.)

Since Q10 is essential for energy production within cells, energy is reduced. This results in fatigue, makes it more difficult to exercise, and is part of the reason for muscle aches and pains in some statin-taking patients. The interference with cell energy production results in an increased production of lactic acid, which contributes to muscle aches. In patients with muscle pain associated with statin use a double blind study showed that 100 mg per day of Q10 reduced pain by 40%.

The medical profession does not endorse the widespread use of Q10 with all statin takers because it cannot be proven that a lack of Q10 is the cause of all statin-related muscle pain. This will never be proven, because statins cause muscle pain in multiple ways. Statins turn on gene signals that damage muscles in a percentage of patients, independent of Q10. It seems to elude the logic of doctors that if a drug causes a depletion of a nutrient then the nutrient should be consumed to make up for the deficiency.

One study showed that the adverse side effects in fifty consecutive patients was so bad (muscle pain, fatigue, difficulty breathing, memory loss, and nerve problems) that they were all taken of statins and put on 240 mg a day of Q10 to recover. After a year the great majority of adverse side effects had been cleared up. It is pretty obvious that the side effects of statins are under-reported.

One of the serious side effects of statins is actual damage to the heart resulting in the condition known as cardiomyopathy. The severe side effects of statins in people over 70 are so bad that their use cannot be justified. Indeed, there are now over 450,000 new cases of heart failure per year in this older group of Americans, and it is likely that statins are a cause of this dramatically expanding health problem.

An animal study helps shed light on why some people may get cardiomyopathy and others don’t. Animals lacking in friendly nitric oxide (eNOS), which manifests as high blood pressure, were more at risk of cardiovascular toxicity from statins. This is interesting because Q10 is also an antioxidant and a lack of eNOS implies that antioxidants in the circulatory system are already low. Also, as fatigue in any individual increases then free radicals within cells increase, something that Q10 helps reduce.

Thus, if Q10 levels are driven down even further it might cause major problems. This means the worse the health a person is in, the greater the need to be sure to take Q10, especially if on a statin. The combination of high blood pressure and type II diabetes would flag an individual already seriously lacking eNOS activity. Indeed, a brand new study shows that 200 mg of Q10 per day improves circulation in type II diabetic patients taking statins.

On the other side of the coin, taking Q10 is helpful in restoring cellular energy production within your heart and around your body. It also helps reduce free radical production in your general circulation, improving the status of friendly nitric oxide to relax your vascular system – thereby supporting healthy blood pressure.

These positive influences of Q10 for cardiovascular health extend far beyond the notion of simply correcting a deficiency. It is more of an anti-aging concept for your cardiovascular system.

The fact that for those taking statins their Q10 is lowered as an adverse side effect is a very serious health issue. This is especially true for older Americans or for anyone who has a more advanced situation of poor health, such as type II diabetes and high blood pressure.

Unfortunately, there are millions of Americans being given statins who are in this high risk health category wherein a lack of Q10 could aggravate already lacking antioxidant and energy systems, thus making their heart health worse. It is shocking that the rate of heart failure in those over the age of 65 has doubled over the past two decades in direct proportion to the increase of statin use – with over 450,000 extra cases of heart failure per year.

This new finding on heart failure was reported for the very first time at last fall’s yearly meeting of the American Heart Association. It received very little press, while the media was instead fed another round of faulty vitamin E data – an ongoing attempt by the AHA to get consumers to stop taking vitamins and just take drugs.

It is not easy to sweep 450,000 cases of serious injury under the rug. I seem to be the only one, even in the alternative health industry, who is pointing out this glaring problem. If you are taking a statin it is prudent to consume a dose of Q10 ranging from 100 mg – 300 mg a day. Higher doses would be warranted for those in poorer health.

And for anyone, keep in mind that Q10 is a top cardio-friendly nutrient that can help keep you energized, your heart happy, and your circulation flowing along in a less stressed condition.

 

Related Entries:

Top Cholesterol and Statin News of the Past Year

For a fully referenced article: Coenzyme Q10, Statins, and Heart Health.

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