By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben
The human heart beats over 100,000 times a day, 40 million times a year 3.5 billion times in a typical lifetime, pumping blood over 60,000 miles of circulatory highway. It generates an electrical field 50 times stronger than the brain, that can be measured several feet outside the body. It’s got brain cells in it, it produces hormones and most of us never even give this incredible biological system a thought. That is, unless it gets sick. And, unfortunately, the odds of that happening are higher than you may think. Heart disease, is now the leading cause of death in America and as of 2006, 81 million people had some form of it, whether it be hypertension, angina, stroke, MI or heart failure. That’s almost one out of 4 Americans. Over 1/3 of deaths are caused by heart disease, so clearly this is something we want to be looking at. The good news is overall mortality has been declining as we begin to understand the impact of our lifestyle choices on our circulatory systems and our heart. 
The good news is that as our understandings around improve, so can our overall mortality. In a study of almost 43,000 men that was published in the journal “Circulation” it was found that men who adopted all of the low-risk behaviors were 87 percent less likely to develop coronary heart disease during the study period compared to men who adopted none of the behaviors. Furthermore researchers estimated that 62 percent of all “coronary events” that occurred during the study period may have been prevented if all members of the study population adopted the lifestyle factors. Now folks we don’t need research and we don’t need studies to prove to us that the health of the heart as with the health of the body can be enhanced by lifestyle choices. That means exercise, watching what we eat, no smoking, relaxation and of course nutritional supplementation. With an emphasis on nutritional supplementation! Indeed, there’s no organ system in the body that has evidenced the powers of nutritional supplementation more than the cardiovascular system. You want some tips for your ticker? OK well, here ya’ go! There’s probably no more important group of nutrients for your heart than the B-complex. Now probably most of you have heard about the B-complex, but here’s a couple of things you probably didn’t know. You never want to take individual B vitamins without taking the group. The B-complex is, as the name implies a complex. They work together. While sometimes it’s instructive to talk about each of the B-vitamins and their roles individually, it important to never lose track of the fact that they appear in nature together, and they work together. They each support each other. So if , for example you want to work with blood fats, triglycerides and cholesterol and your taking Vitamin B3, niacin which has been shown to have some dramatic effects on lowering cholesterol and triglycerides, that doesn’t mean that you don’t need Vitamins B1 Thiamine, Folic acid and Vitamin B12 and Vitamin B5 among others of the of the B complex. They all work together as a team. Same idea if you’re taking Vitamin B12 for energy or as anti depressant or Vitamin B5 for treating acne. Each component of the complex acts to support each of the other components. And here’ another point to keep in mind. When your body attempts to excrete a particular B-vitamin it tends to do it in a complex. So if, for example, you’re taking Vitamin B3 for your triglycerides, when your body excretes the B#, it will do it with any B1, B2, B5, B12 etc that’s in the system. If you’re not taking additional amounts of these vitamins, you can actually cause deficiencies. So make sure you’re taking the entire B-complex. And taking it in generous amounts. It’s water soluble so you’re gonna be urinating out what’s not used right away, so you’re levels may not be where you need them to be if you’re only taking a B-vitamin pill once or twice a day. That’s why I like my patients to be using B-complex powders and liquids that can be sipped on throughout the day. We want to be careful about using nutrients like we use pharmaceuticals. Oh you have arthritis, take niacin. Menstrual cramps take B6, you’re depressed take B12. That’s called allopathic nutrition and it’s just another way we try to monetize good nutrition. Sure Thiamin, Vitamin B1 helps with insulin and blood sugar. Riboflavin, Vitamin B2 deficiency is associated with migraine headaches. B6, pantothenic acid is great for stabilizing excess skin oils, B6 is well known for helping woman who are experiencing female problems, be they estrogenic cancers, premenstrual breakout or morning sickness. And of course the well documented link between mood and energy levels and Vitamin B12. But remember friends, they’re all working together as a complex and they are excreted together as a complex. And they are found in nature as a complex. So, you want to make sure, even if you’re taking high doses of one B-vitamin for a specific reason, that you’re taking generous amount of the entire complex.
Then there’s that good old standby Vitamin C. Vitamin C is like that spouse or relationship that you have that you just don’t appreciate, cause it’s there very day. You see most of us get enough Vitamin C to prevent full blown deficiency disease. This makes us take our relationship to Vitamin C for granted. What I mean to say is that while we may have an OK relationship with Vitamin C, a relationship that keeps us out of dramatic trouble, hardly anyone gets the amount of Vitamin C that’s required for optimal functioning of multiple systems in the body. Vitamin C is so critical for the functioning of a cell, that it actually has a doorway on the membrane of a cell so that it can access the inside of cells. That is an amazing fact that underscores the vital nature of this powerful nutrient that most of us don’t appreciate or get nearly enough of. Dr. Mathias Rath has written extensively about this in several books including one with the very catchy title: “Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks, But People Do”. Dr. Rath, who is a highly renowned physician and a colleague of the famous Vitamin C pioneer Dr. Linus Pauling says that animals don’t get heart attacks because they produce large amounts of Vitamin C. That’s right, for some unknown reason only humans, gorillas and certain types of guinea pigs don’t make Vitamin C. All the other creatures in the animal kingdom make large amounts of this vital nutrient. Under normal circumstances the daily amount produced by animals , adjusted for comparison to a 150lb human, is somewhere between 3,000 mg and 15,000 mg, with an average of 5,400 mg. And yet the RDA for adults in this country is 60mg. Are you kidding me??!! 60mg??!! A mouse produces the adjusted equivalent of 2300mg a day and when it’s under stress it produces the equivalent of 20,000 grams a day!!! So now, let me ask you something do you think it’s possible that maybe the typical American who’s not supplementing and getting his Vitamin C from arrange juice (a glass of orange juice, by the way, has around 80 or 90 mg of Vitamin C) may be deficient. And given all the roles Vitamin C plays in the body, especially in cardiovascular health, you can begin to C why we may have a hidden nutritional deficiency going on here. And by way, so much for getting all your nutrients from food! Vitamin C is absolutely critical for the production of collagen. Without it you simply can’t make collagen. And without enough you simply can’t make enough collagen. Collagen is required for vascular health, because blood vessels maintain their strength and elasticity largely on the strength of this vital protein. In fact, when collagen in arteries and veins becomes old or weakened that’s when we’re at highest risk of stroke aneurysms and other cardiovascular issues. Oh, by the way, on of the bodies mechanisms for patching up weak vessels is to use cholesterol as a glue. That’s why elevated cholesterol levels sometimes, not always, but sometimes precede heart attacks. And please pay no attention to the silliness around cholesterol lowering drugs and reduction of heart disease. The facts according to the Framingham study, which is a 50 year study that’s produced over 1000 scientific papers are: now listen up here: for each “1% mg/dL drop in cholesterol there was an 11% increase in coronary and total mortality”. So, don’t be talking to me about lowering cholesterol to protect the heart. I’ve said it many times on this program: to poison the body to stop it from producing chemistry is just plain BAD MEDICINE and BAD SCIENCE!! If you cholesterol levels are high there are simple and natural ways to lowering them that do not involve drugs. Permit me to repeat: You don’t need cholesterol lowering drugs! We’ll address that whole can of worms in a posting to come…
