2 Of The Best Supplements Known To Improve The Health Of The Heart

The human heart functions like an untiring pump, continuously sending blood throughout your body to keep you alive. This means highlighting its importance is not an exaggeration.

One of the biggest threats to the heart is poor lifestyle choices. Eating an unhealthy diet is one of these. Consuming unsaturated fats is, by far, the biggest and most serious threat. Saturated fats are those found in processed foods, which causes fatty substances called cholesterol to accumulate in arteries that bring blood to the heart.

Too much cholesterol accumulation can clog up your artery. If the arteries are clogged, the heart will be deprived of its oxygen supply, which can trigger a heart attack.

Supplements Can Help

Aside from avoiding known offenders, increasing your daily intake of particular supplements have been shown to improve your heart’s health. The medical director of Healthspan, Dr. Sarah Brewer, said vitamin K and glucosamine are two of the supplements known to help improve heart health.

Vitamin K

Dr. Brewer said vitamin has many forms, and of these, vitamin K2 has shown great promise in reducing the risk of coronary heart disease in the elderly. The doctor said that most of the vitamin K in the diet is in the form of vitamin K1. Rich sources of vitamin K are dark green leaves, cauliflower, and broccoli.

In the case of the heart-friendly K2, it can be sourced from egg yolk, meats, liver, and cheeses. You can also get it from bacterially fermented foods like fermented soybeans or natto, aged hard cheeses, and probiotic yogurt.

Glucosamine

Naturally produced by the body from glucose, it is known to minimize inflammation. This is why many people find it helpful for their joints. Heart disease is also linked to a low-grade inflammation of your arteries. This explains why many studies have suggested that glucosamine provides the heart with many benefits too.

According to Dr. Brewer, the first sign that it benefits the heart came when researchers analyzed supplement usage in more than 77,700 people who are 50 years old and above. The researchers were surprised to find out that those who had glucosamine at least four days weekly for three years were at 17% less likely to die compared to non-users.

The observation period lasted for five years with the University of Washington researchers, along with scientists from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, following up on the participants. The same results were also found for chondroitin, a similar supplement.

Astonished that both chondroitin and glucosamine were linked to a decreased mortality, the researchers continued following up on the 77,510 of the original group of participants for eight years. Once again, researchers discovered that the use of glucosamine, whether taken with chondroitin or not, is linked to a 20% reduction in the risk of death arising from any cause.