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Fight Heart Disease with Vitamins and Antioxidants

Published by Healing Arts Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

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About The Book

The most complete and up-to-date resource on the powerful benefits of micronutrients for heart disease prevention and treatment

• Provides an easy-to-follow program of nutritional supplements to halt the progression of heart disease and prevent its onset despite family history

• Shows how merely changing your diet and activity level cannot fully counteract the chronic inflammation and free radical damage at the source of heart disease

• Debunks flawed conclusions of the medical community that show vitamins and antioxidants to be ineffective for treatment of heart disease and high blood pressure

In this practical scientific guide, leading researcher in cancer, heart disease, and diabetes prevention Kedar N. Prasad, Ph.D., reveals the latest revolutionary discoveries on the use of antioxidants and micronutrients to treat heart disease. He details how the proper combinations of vitamin and antioxidant supplements can greatly increase the effectiveness of standard medical treatments for heart disease as well as help balance cholesterol levels and blood pressure, minimize plaque and clot formation, reduce angina and atherosclerosis, and prevent onset of heart disease despite family history.

Prasad shows how chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, homocysteine levels, and free radical damage are the chief culprits in the progression of heart disease and that merely changing your diet and activity level and regulating cholesterol and blood pressure cannot fully counteract an unhealthy internal state. He provides an easy-to-follow daily supplement regime for multiple age groups to target free radical damage and cell injury and stop the progression of heart disease and its related complications. Sharing the scientific data on familial heart disease and antioxidant use, he debunks the flawed conclusions of the medical community that vitamins and antioxidants are ineffective for heart disease, revealing how their studies focused on specific micronutrients rather than synergistic combinations.

Offering the missing complement to the standard care of medications, diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes promoted by mainstream medicine, this guide provides a powerful approach to heart disease prevention, treatment, and care.

Excerpt

Chapter 8
Heart Disease Prevention and Management
Multi-micronutrients, Diet, and Lifestyle Recommendations


Despite current preventive recommendations for changes in diet and lifestyle to reduce the risk of heart disease, this disease remains the number one cause of death in the USA. Therefore the proposed recommendations are not having expected results. If there are no significant changes in the current preventive recommendations, the projected annual incidence of heart disease may increase from 981,000 in 2010 to 1,234,000 in 2040, an increase of about 25 percent in 30 years. Deaths from this disease are projected to increase from 392,000 in 2010 to 610,000 in 2040, an increase of about 56 percent. In 2010, the total direct medical cost of heart disease was $273 billion. The indirect cost (in lost productivity) was estimated to be about $172 billion. In 2030, the direct cost would increase to $818 billion and indirect cost to $276 billion (an increase of about 61 percent). The projected increase of heart disease and its related costs makes it imperative that we develop an additional strategy for prevention. Here I describe a novel strategy for the prevention of heart disease using multiple micronutrients that would complement the current recommendations.

Recommendations for Secondary Prevention


Generally, individuals age fifty years or older develop one or more risk factors for heart disease. However, in some people, heart disease can develop earlier. The common risk factors include high levels of total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides, low levels of HDL-cholesterol, increased plasma levels of C-reactive protein and homocysteine, and increased levels of markers of oxidative stress and chronic inflammation. Secondary prevention is recommended to those who have not had any major heart disease events--such as heart attack, atrial or ventricular fibrillation, or stroke--but who have developed one or more risk factors for heart disease as described above. Secondary prevention must include changes in diet and lifestyle, standard medications for lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, low-dose aspirin, and a micronutrient preparation containing multiple dietary and endogenous antioxidants.

Low-dose Aspirin
Low-dose aspirin at a dose of 81 mg per day is commonly recommended for reducing the risk and progression of heart disease because it prevents platelet aggregation by reducing the production of prostaglandins. Aspirin has been shown to reduce major cardiac or cerebral events by 25 percent. However, it has been reported that about 5-12 percent of patients with heart disease develop resistance to aspirin. Another study estimated that 8-45 percent of patients taking aspirin develop aspirin resistance. Furthermore, about 24 percent of patients taking aspirin show reduced response with respect to platelet aggregation (semi-responders). This has required physicians to increase aspirin doses in those patients who become semi-responders or develop aspirin resistance, until the toxic limit is reached. High doses of aspirin may cause bleeding. However, aspirin resistance continued to be present in some cases despite increased aspirin doses. It has been reported that the risk of major cardiac events may increase by about threefold in aspirin-resistant patients.

Although the mechanisms of aspirin resistance are not known, we suggest that the addition of multiple antioxidants may enhance the effectiveness of low-dose aspirin in reducing platelet aggregation. This is substantiated by the fact that vitamin E in combination with aspirin is more effective in inhibiting cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) enzyme activity than the individual agent. This enzyme is responsible for the production of prostaglandins that cause platelet aggregation. Thus, supplementation with multiple dietary and endogenous antioxidants may prolong the effectiveness of aspirin among semi-responders as well as in patients who develop total resistance to aspirin.

Micronutrient Supplements
Micronutrients containing dietary and endogenous antioxidants are equally important for secondary prevention, but they are not recommended by state or national agencies. Antioxidants are essential because they reduce both oxidative stress and chronic inflammation, which are important contributors to the development and progression of heart disease. The U.S. Prevention Service Task Force recommends multiple vitamin supplements to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. However, these recommendations do not provide guidelines with respect to the type of micronutrients that should be included. The doses and dose schedule were also not described. Our proposed micronutrient formulation for secondary prevention is shown in table 8.5 and is recommended to those who are fifty-one years or older with one or more risk factors for heart disease but who have not had any major heart disease-related events, such as myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke.

Low-dose aspirin is also important for reducing the aggregation of platelets. Therefore, the addition of proposed multiple micronutrients such as presented in the table 8.5 to the regimen of cholesterol and/or blood pressure-lowering drugs and low-dose aspirin appears to be one of the rational choices for the secondary prevention of heart disease.

Formulation for Adults Who Have One or More Risk Factors but Had No Major Heart Disease Events

Vitamin A (palmitate) -- 3,000 IU
Vitamin E (two forms) -- 400 IU / d-Alpha-tocopheryl succinate - 300 IU / d-Alpha-tocopheryl acetate - 100 IU
Vitamin C (calcium ascorbate) -- 1,500 mg
Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) -- 800 IU
Vitamin B1 (thiamine mononitrate) -- 4 mg
Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) -- 5 mg
Vitamin B3 (niacinamide ascorbate) -- 30 mg
Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine hydrochloride) -- 5 mg
Folic acid -- 800 mcg
Vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamln) -- 10 mcg
Biotin -- 200 mcg
Pantothenic acid (D-calcium pantothenate) -- 10 mg
Calcium citrate -- 250 mg
Magnesium citrate -- 125 mg
Zinc glycinate -- 15 mg
Selenium (seleno-L-methionine) -- 100 mcg
Chromium (as chromium picolinate) -- 50 mcg
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) -- proprietary dose
Coenzyme Q10 -- proprietary dose
Alpha lipoic acid -- proprietary dose
L-Carnitine -- proprietary dose
Omega-3 fatty acids -- proprietary dose
Natural mixed carotenoids -- proprietary dose

Total amount of proprietary dose antioxidants and herbal products is 1,440 mg.

About The Author

Kedar N. Prasad, Ph.D., is the chief scientific officer of the Premier Micronutrient Corporation, the former director of the Center for Vitamins and Cancer Research at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and the former president of the International Society of Nutrition and Cancer. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Healing Arts Press (November 20, 2014)
  • Length: 240 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781620552964

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Raves and Reviews

“Kedar Prasad has put forward an original and logical approach for prevention and improved management of heart disease. His suggested strategy is simple and easy to follow and involves no potentially harmful drugs. I strongly recommend this book.”

– Stephen C. Bondy, Ph.D., professor, Department of Medicine, University of California

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