Heart Healthy Diet - Nutritional Supplements: Can They Help With Heart Disease?

Author:

Sam Benjamin, MD

SUNY Stonybrook, NY

Douglas Kalman, MS, RD, CDN

Nutrition Division for Miami Research Associates (MRA)

Nate Lebowitz, MD

New York Presbyterian Hospital

Heidi Skolnik

MS, CDN, FACSM; Sports Nutrition Consultant to the New York Giants and Mets

Medically Reviewed On: August 06, 2001

The sister compound is called pycnogenol and is made from the bark of the pine tree. It has been used as a home remedy for varicose veins in Europe for decades, and we're finding now that in basic science studies it really protects the arteries.

How can you get your resveratrol, or grape skin?
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: I would encourage people to consider either red wine in moderation, or grape juice. And certainly considering resveratrol as a supplement is definitely something that might be useful if you don't have the time to get it in your diet.

Which is more beneficial to good health: getting these substances from food or supplements?
SAM BENJAMIN, MD: You want to encourage people to consider taking supplements. On the other hand, getting vitamins and minerals in your diet naturally is always the best way. One of the problems with supplements is that some of the more important but barely detectable active ingredients can be lost in the production and standardization process.

What is L-carnitine? What is it supposed to do?
NATE LEBOWITZ, MD: L-carnitine is an amino acid. Within the last five years, in good scientific research and journals, L-carnitine has proven to be very useful in a number of areas. It's proven effective in the treatment of congestive heart failure, in the treatment of patients who are first presenting with a heart attack, or with symptoms suggestive of a heart attack, or in people who have had a heart attack in whom you want to protect the heart from a dangerous remodeling of the left ventricle, the pumping chamber of the heart.

There has also been much in the news about the benefits of Coenzyme-Q, or Co-Q. What are its benefits?
SAM BENJAMIN, MD: Coenzyme-Q, or ubiquinone, is a naturally occurring molecule, which assists the body's enzymes in their activities. In larger doses, somewhere between 100 to 300 mg a day, there's no question that Co-Q 10 has some very positive effects in people with congestive heart failure, for example. That's the area that has been most clinically proven. It's used in Europe, not only orally, but intravenously, and its results have been very, very impressive.

Green tea extracts. Are they beneficial for heart disease?
SAM BENJAMIN, MD: Green tea contains polyphenols, which lower serum cholesterol very substantially. And they are safe. I have not yet learned of any drug interactions or herb/herb interactions with polyphenols. The dosage has yet to be clearly ascertained, but the salutary effects of polyphenols are significant enough that people should consider green tea in the prevention of heart disease.