Natural Ways to Lower Blood Pressure

About six months before my scheduled hip surgery, I started to “train” for it, much as I trained for wrestling matches during my athletic heyday. Here’s the 5-step plan I followed:

Step 1: Think Positive. Recovery from surgery starts in the mind. Rather than getting down, I reframed everything for myself, the same way I encourage my patients to do. I visualized a scenario of total success. I thought about coming out of surgery and walking the very first day. And that’s just what happened.

Step 2: Get Fit. Surgery recovery will go much more smoothly if you’re in good physical condition. I exercised every day, incorporating Pilates, stretching, and strength training so I would be well conditioned going into surgery and have the greatest possible chance for a successful outcome.

Step 3: Eat Right. My pre-surgery diet looked very much like my normal healthy diet of lean protein, whole grains, and lots of vegetables and fruit.

Step 4: Supplement Smart. My regular supplement routine consists of my daily multivitamin and mineral formula; the Awesome Foursome of CoQ10 (200 mg), broad-spectrum carnitine (1 g), magnesium (200 mg), and ribose (5 g); and my anti-inflammatory supplement program that includes fish oil (2 g), bromelain (100 mg twice a day), 3 tablets of Wobenzym digestive enzymes, and nattokinase (100 mg). A couple of months before the surgery, I doubled my vitamin D intake to 10,000 IU daily to strengthen my immune system and bones.

A week before my surgery, I stopped taking my fish oil, multivitamin/mineral complex, and nutritional anti-inflammatories due to the possibility of thinning my blood too much during recovery from surgery. But, my surgeon, anesthesiologist, and I agreed that I should continue with my CoQ10 right up until the surgery. I also continued to sleep grounded, as I do every night.

Step 5: Balance Mind, Body, and Spirit. Before my surgery, I also listened to The Surgery Companion, a CD program by Dr. Olga Stevko and her husband Mitchell Stevko, which employs mind-body techniques used by the Mayo Clinic and other top hospitals to promote successful surgery by making patients feel more positive about surgery, reduce pain, and speed healing.

To learn more about my five-step plan for successful surgery recovery, visit my Web site. If you would like to the whole story of my journey through hip replacement surgery, check out the September 2010 issue of my newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition.

And to see pictures of my recovery from hip replacement surgery and to share what worked for you, join me on Facebook.

Dr. Sinatra has long believed in the famous words of Hippocrates, the Greek physician of centuries past who is now recognized as the “Father of Medicine.” Hippocrates employed food to assist his patients in healing their physical ailments. With all our high tech medical approaches and complex pharmaceutical agents, it is amazing how much we have forgotten that simple approach!

After years of applying nutritional solutions to the myriad faces of heart disease—high blood pressure levels; chronic hypertension; high triglycerides; elevated L(p)a; angina; and heart attack and stroke—Dr. Sinatra has finally answered his patients’ many requests for a book that they can have as a reference at home. His research and personal experiences with his family, friends, and cardiac patients has continually impressed my husband that Hippocrates was so right on—and provided the foundation for this effort.     

Dr. Sinatra has collaborated with former pro athlete and health editor Jim Healthy, as well as recipe queen Rebecca Bent to write Bottom Line’s The Healing Kitchen. The Healing Kitchen is a strategic resource for making healthy grocery selections and healing meal planning guidelines, as well as specific recipes to assist you in selecting the right healthy foods to meet your specific health and fitness needs.

Subscribers to Heart, Health, and Nutrition have been reading Dr. Sinatra’s take on which foods, herbs, and supplements can help with their cardiovascular problems (not to mention cancer and other diseases caused by inflammation) for many years. Now all that information and more is the basis for this one reference to help guide you to foods that can heal your body.

For instance, the omega 3 essential fatty acids—especially those found in squid and fish oils—assuage cardiac arrhythmia, lower blood pressure levels, reduce LDL cholesterol levels, and even prevent plaque rupture.

Garlic is a potent blood thinner and, like onions which are rich in quercetin, helps you prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol. Garlic and onions are both superb foods for lowering blood pressure levels. And, speaking of hypertension, Dr. Sinatra also recommends sardines and wakame seaweed as natural blood pressure lowering foods.

And that’s just the beginning! Did you know that the right diet can help alleviate your migraines headaches, or that non-inflammatory foods can heal your arthritis?

Foods can also protect women from menopausal symptoms, as well as heal and protect us from cancer. The lutein in tomatoes along with pumpkin seeds and other fine herbs and spices can help men with their prostate concerns. From heart disease and diabetes to sleep and sex, The Healing Kitchen will educate you about natural, tasty remedies for many of the illnesses that afflict the 20th century. 

If you are looking to use simple, healthy foods, herbs and spices to get your body back on track, and keep it there, you will love this book!

For more information on healthy heart nutrition or some of Dr. Sinatra’s famous recipes, visit his Web site at www.drsinatra.com.

I worry about the fact that so many women still think that cardiovascular problems, like heart disease and stroke, is primarily a problem for men. The truth is that heart disease is a major health risk for women, but many physicians did not realize this until recently, so they’ve done little to encourage their female patients to take steps to protect their heart health.

I also worry because much of our knowledge about heart disease describes how the condition affects men. This leads many physicians, including some holistic practitioners, to diagnose and treat women as if heart disease affected them the same way. Nothing could be further from the truth. Heart disease affects men and women very differently and I’ve written about that here in this in newsletter articles, books, and here in this blog.

For example, if a 45-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man both come into the emergency room with chest pain, most physicians will probably admit the man and tell the woman her symptoms are due to stress and anxiety. Not many physicians realize that the incidence of coronary events among women quadruples as they reach middle age.

What You Can Do About It

I want you to understand that much of this, in both women and men, is related to lifestyle and the choices you make.

• Choose to seek natural ways to lower blood pressure if that’s a problem for you.
• Choose to adhere to good cardiovascular nutrition, which may include increasing the amount of fresh vegetables you consume and lowering the amount of breads and other starches you eat each day.
• Choose to do what you need to do to maintain good cholesterol levels, improve blood circulation, and healthy triglycerides.
• Choose to exercise so that you can more easily prevent blood clots and maintain a healthy weight.

In short, while it may be difficult at the start, choose to live a healthy lifestyle.  Choose life.

For more information on women and cardiovascular problems or tips for good cardiovascular nutrition, visit Dr. Sinatra's Web site.

Though you wouldn’t know it based on today’s obsession with cholesterol levels, cardiology has been slowly veering away from the narrow view of cholesterol as a primary cause of coronary artery disease (CAD).

The field is finally realizing that although good cholesterol levels can help deter the biochemical process that creates damage in arterial walls—which in turn leads to plaque, occlusions, and clots—it’s a relatively minor one. In other words, they’ve realized that even though they may find cholesterol at the scene of the crime, it’s not necessarily the perpetrator.

An excellent example of this is shared in a population study that showed how the French have the highest total cholesterol levels in Europe—about 250—but the lowest incidence of cardiovascular problems, including heart disease.

This being said, I continue to encourage you to find natural ways to maintain healthy cholesterol, including adhering to a smart, cholesterol lowering diet.  I just want you to also realize that cholesterol is just one of many heart risk factors, and is not necessarily the most deadly.

For more information on reducing cholesterol and other cardiovascular problems, visit Dr. Sinatra's Web site.

The leading causes of high blood pressure levels include stress, genetics, being overweight, a high-sugar diet, heavy metal toxicity, and lack of exercise. 

This blog is loaded with posts that can help you manage all of these.  And once you have them under control, you’ll be well on your way to avoiding a host of cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke.

Obviously, it’s better to prevent high blood pressure levels than to treat them.  That’s why I work so hard to educate my readers.  I want you all to know that there are natural ways to lower blood pressure, including:

• reducing stress,
• losing weight  (you can get great tips for doing this here),
• controlling your sugar intake, and
• exercising more.

You also want to adhere to good cardiovascular nutrition and following my PAMM diet makes that easy.  You’ll never go hungry, but will enjoy delicious foods filled with the nutrients you need to maintain good health.

For more information on blood pressure levels and healthy blood pressure, visit Dr. Sinatra's Web site.

One of the common conditions cardiologists treat has nothing directly to do with the heart itself, but rather with blockages of blood vessels going to and from the kidneys, stomach, arms, legs, and feet. We call this condition peripheral vascular or arterial disease. You may know it as “poor blood circulation,” a phrase often used in the ads you see on television.

An estimated 12 million Americans are affected by the disease, and its incidence increases with age—about one-fifth of people age 70 and older have it. The condition is sometimes called a smoker’s disease because it’s particularly prominent among people who have smoked at some point in their lives.

Doctors agree that peripheral blood circulation problems are typically due to the buildup of plaque in the affected blood vessels—similar to the kind of buildup we see in the coronary arteries that feed the heart or the carotid arteries leading to the brain. The result is restricted blood flow, discomfort, tiredness, heaviness, and, often, cramping. In the early stages of the disease, patients commonly complain of cramping and fatigue in the legs and buttocks during activities like walking. Because the symptoms tend to subside when the person sits down, we refer to the problem as intermittent claudication.

To improve blood circulation, doctors often use the drugs advertised in the ads I mentioned earlier. Angioplasty or surgery is also sometimes necessary. My approach takes a different tack. I focus on the muscle cells and how to get rid of their metabolic by-products, which become increasingly toxic because of the poor blood circulation.

As the muscles are used, they burn energy and release waste. This waste causes the cells in the muscles to swell and press against adjacent blood vessels. In a person whose arteries are already compromised by plaque buildup, the swelling causes further vasoconstriction, or narrowing of the vessels. Worse yet, the toxins themselves have a vasoconstricting effect of their own—so you’re hit with a triple whammy of sorts. And as you would imagine, the more toxins that accumulate, the worse the condition gets and the more difficult it becomes to walk.

The solution is to help remove the toxins. To do this, I suggest taking 1 gram daily of glycine propionyl-L-carnitine (GPLC), a form of L-carnitine that’s proven to help improve blood circulation and blood pressure levels, as well as offsetting the destructive nature of inflammatory compounds, cellular waste products, and toxins.

For more information on natural ways to avoid circulatory problems or other cardiovascular problems, visit www.drsinatra.com.

There are four key heart risk factors that affect women more than men. They include:

Diabetes. Diabetic women have a higher risk for heart disease than diabetic men. This is because the incidence of diabetes and its complications (including heart disease) is much higher in women. If you are a diabetic woman, your risk for heart disease is five to seven times normal, compared with a risk of only two to three times normal for a diabetic man. For you, proper heart sense means you should increase your physical activity and adhere to good cardiovascular nutrition to maintain a healthy body weight.

Overweight. Women have a higher heart disease risk from being overweight than men do. Studies indicate that being only 20 pounds overweight doubles a woman’s risk of heart disease. If you are overweight, I don’t want you to go on a diet. Instead, get physically active—it’s your most powerful weapon against fat—and eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, and lean poultry.   That’s the “Dr. Sinatra” way to safe weight loss.

Cholesterol. Women have a higher risk for heart disease than men if they have low levels of HDL (“good”) cholesterol. For men, high levels of LDL present a greater risk, but for women, research indicates that a low HDL, not a high LDL, is the more significant risk factor for developing heart disease. The good news is that HDL is sensitive to factors such as smoking, obesity, and lack of exercise. So you can easily increase your HDL cholesterol by quitting smoking and dropping excess weight through a combination of healthy heart nutrition and physical activity.

High Triglycerides. When you get your cholesterol checked, also have your doctor check your level of triglycerides, which are another type of blood fat. A high triglyceride level (above 200 mg/dL) is more dangerous for women than for men, especially if you are a diabetic. Diabetic women with high triglycerides are up to 200 times more liekly to develop heart disease. A healthy triglycerides level can be obtained through exercise and weight control.

Though you should take the above risk factors very seriously, I want you to keep in mind that you can substantially reduce all of them. There are no secrets to doing this. Healthy eating, weight control, and regular physical activity are your weapons for keeping heart disease at bay.

For more information on heart risk factors or other cardiovascular problems for women, visit www.drsinatra.com.

Contrary to popular belief, cholesterol is not a villain. Your body needs cholesterol to synthesize certain nutrients and hormones, construct the semi-permeable membranes around each of the 100 trillion cells that make up your body, and facilitate cell communication and memory in the brain.

Cholesterol moves through the body with the help of two proteins: LDL, or low-density lipoprotein, and HDL, or high-density lipoprotein. LDL carries ready-to-use cholesterol molecules that can be absorbed by cells that need it, and HDL picks up excess cholesterol and carries it back to the liver for recycling and excretion.

LDL, often referred to as the “bad cholesterol” only becomes unsafe when it interacts with molecular fragments called free radicals. The effect of such interaction is that the LDL becomes oxidized. Unlike normal LDL, oxidized LDL has toxic effects on the cells it attaches to. This is especially troublesome when oxidized LDL penetrates the endothelial cells lining the arteries because it contributes to—and accelerates—the inflammatory process.

When you get down to it, though, the real problem is not cholesterol—it’s whether your body’s antioxidant system can effectively neutralize the free radicals that damage LDL molecules.

In order to enjoy healthy cholesterol, it’s important to adhere to a cholesterol lowering diet, like my PAMM diet.  You’ll also want to exercise on a regular basis, which will also help to keep other cardiovascular problems away.

For more information on good cholesterol levels or reducing cholesterol, visit www.drsinatra.com.

As you may know, there’s an email that periodically floats around the Internet regarding what is supposedly an easy test for whether someone is having a stroke. And I often have concerned patients come into my office and ask, “Dr. Sinatra, is there any truth to it?”

Well, I checked it out, and I’m happy to report the information there is correct. Hopefully you never need to apply it, but in case you do, the simplicity of it can perhaps make a difference in saving someone’s life or minimizing their symptoms.

Note the key words in each of these first three steps. Smile. Talk. Raise. The words start with the first three letters of the word stroke: s, t, r.

• Step No. 1: Ask the individual to smile.
• Step No. 2: Ask the person to talk. Try a simple sentence, like “it’s rainy (or cloudy or sunny) outside.” Look for coherence in how the person speaks.
• Step No. 3: Ask the person to raise both arms.
• Step No. 4: Ask the person to stick out his or her tongue. A “crooked” tongue that curves outward to one side or the other is another easy-to-recognize indication of a stroke.

If the person has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, then seek immediate medical attention.

Again, my hope is that you’ll never need to apply this.  I hope you’re adhering to good cardiovascular nutrition, exercising daily, and trying to maintain healthy blood pressure levels.  Doing this will go a long way toward helping you to avoid a stroke, as well as other cardiovascular problems.

For more information on strokes or other cardiovascular problems, visit www.drsinatra.com.

I love summertime dining, farm stand meals, and harvesting my own crops from my container garden. (This week, I even cut and zip locked our own fresh basil, oregano, mint, and chives to take on vacation with us!)

But, I was recently perusing a friends gardening eLetter when I came across an important tip. If you reside in an older home that was ever painted with lead paint—even if those painted wood, shingles, trim, stucco, brick, or what-have-you was covered over with some kind of siding—never plant any edibles in beds next to the house. That means never plant fruit, veggies, herbs, or fruit-bearing trees in the soil near the house known—or suspected—to have been painted with lead-based paint.

Lead can leach out of weathered paint and remain in the soil for a long time. The lead is then absorbed by the plants, which is very dangerous.  We should be especially aware of this exposure for pregnant women and children.  Of course, all of us must avoid lead contamination!

When I shared this info with Dr. Sinatra, he was reminded of a famous French vineyard that was planted close to a highway. Leaded gas fumes penetrated the soils, and the wine was contaminated with lead when it was tested.

In the cardiology world, higher levels of lead in the body are associated with high blood pressure levels and an increased risk for heart attack in men. Excess lead in the body can cause also renal failure, and for our children, behavioral problems and more.

So, if you have an older home that may have been painted with a lead-based product, just don’t take any chances. Plant colorful flowers and shrubs for display close to the house, but nothing that could end up on your plate and/or in your body.

For more great information on cardiovascular nutrition or ways to lower blood pressure levels, visit Dr. Sinatra's Web site.

Often when patients come to my office, I will find their blood pressure levels to be high. However, when they go home and measure it themselves, their blood pressure levels are normal. Occasionally they’ll ask if the instruments in my office are off, or if my staff misread the result.

The actual problem, however, is a common condition called white coat hypertension. It’s used to describe people who become anxious over a visit to a physician, holistic health practitioner, dentist, or other medical facility. Such visits evoke a fight-or-flight response, and their blood pressure levels go up. But research has shown that abnormally high blood pressure readings in a medical setting could be more than just a benign byproduct of anxiety. Although the condition is poorly understood, WCH could be a precursor to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems.

A Danish study published in the Journal of Human Hypertension found a heightened cardiovascular event risk for patients with WCH over a 10-year period. A Japanese study reported in the journal Hypertension Research suggests that white coat hypertension contributes to carotid arteriosclerosis. And in another Japanese medical report, based on eight years of observation, researchers suggest that white coat hypertension is a “transitional condition to hypertension” and may carry a “poor cardiovascular prognosis.”

If you experience white coat hypertension, I suggest you introduce a regular stress-reduction program into your life. That could include activities such as exercise, T'ai chi, meditation, or yoga.

You may also want to start taking blood pressure-friendly supplements on a daily basis—such as fish oil (2–3 grams), magnesium (400–800 mg), hydrosoluble CoQ10 (100–200 mg), and a garlic supplement high in allicin (500–1,000 mg).

Finally, consider my book, Lower Your Blood Pressure in Eight Weeks (Ballantine Books, 2003). It has lots of great, practical tips for lowering blood pressure levels.

For more information on natural ways to lower blood pressure, visit www.drsinatra.com. While there, sign up for FREE e-letters or subscribe to Dr. Sinatra’s monthly newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition.

I am a self-proclaimed "Farm Stand Queen." I love to get local fruits and vegetables to add color, texture, nutrition, and healing perks to our summer meals at home. Plus, you get all of the perks of fresh fruits and vegetable—phytonutrients, antioxidants, carotenoids, fiber, enzymes, and so on. My personal favorite is asparagus on the grill—a family favorite and mainstay that can help lower blood pressure levels.  

Since dining on raw vegetables can offset the possible carcinogen exposure you may get by grilling meats and fish, I like to serve up colorful, raw vegetables on our patio dinner table. In addition to being refreshingly cooler, they are brimming with live enzymes that aid digestion and offset concerns we may have about high heat exposure to the main dishes. 

Two important vegetables that work in synergy to prevent cancer are broccoli (rich in sulphoraphane) and tomatoes (high in lycopene). They make great stand-alone side dishes. Serve them raw with hummus or add them to a fresh salad.

When it comes to safe and heart smart summer outdoor cooking, we are ON IT at www.drsinatra.com, which has just been updated and revamped, so we hope you will visit often.

Follow our blogs this summer for more recipes and info on summertime cooking.

I’ll never forget a patient I treated a few years ago who was living with chronic hypertension.  One Easter Sunday, he ate his fill of canned ham (packed with salt) and found himself in the hospital emergency room the next day.  He was in a hypertensive crisis and suffering with acute heart failure. His heart just couldn’t handle the large amount of salt he had consumed.

His was an extraordinary situation, but it underscores the need to be careful with salt intake. So please let his story be a lesson to you.   And please share it with family and friends who may be dealing with cardiovascular problems.

Here are some things you need to know about salt consumption:

• Your body requires sodium (a component of salt) to regulate fluid balance and distribution, as well as nerve and muscle cell function. Although you need some sodium, the standard diet includes way too much.
• “Salt sensitivity” is a key factor in determining the response to dietary salt intake. Cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke, are more common in “salt sensitive” patients than in “salt resistant” ones.
• The current recommendation for salt consumption is less than 2,400 mg of sodium a day, which amounts to about one teaspoon of salt. Recent research suggests that people ingesting less than 1,500 mg of sodium a day are better able to control high blood pressure. If you have high blood pressure, you should definitely aim for that kind of level. Don’t use salt from the shaker, and read labels to add up the amount you’re taking in.
• Many items at fast food restaurants are high in salt, so you can easily exceed the recommended level with one serving.
• You can easily make up for the reduced salt in your diet by cooking with fresh herbs and spices such as basil, garlic, oregano, rosemary, chives, parsley, and onion. What’s more, all of these flavorings contain natural substances that are good for your health. Garlic, in particular, has been shown to have a positive effect on blood pressure when consumed on a daily basis.
• Beware of cutting your salt consumption too much. You need a minimum amount of sodium in your system to maintain proper electrolyte balance, regardless of your blood pressure status. For that reason, don’t let your daily salt intake fall below about 500 mg.

Managing your salt intake is just one of the natural ways to lower blood pressure that are highlighted here. For even more information on reducing hypertension visit www.drsinatra.com. While there, sign up for FREE e-letters or subscribe to Dr. Sinatra’s monthly newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition.

Uncontrolled blood pressure levels (or hypertension) are a leading risk factor for heart attack and stroke. Often, there are no symptoms, which is why hypertension is called the “silent killer.” You may not know you have it unless you have your blood pressure checked regularly.

Your blood pressure reflects how hard your heart has to work to pump adequate blood through your arteries. Each contraction of your heart pumps out a wave of oxygen-rich blood that causes the flexible arterial walls to expand. After the wave passes, the walls deflate. The intensity of this sequence is your blood pressure. The first number is your systolic reading (the pressure of the blood against arterial walls at the wave’s peak), and the second number is the diastolic reading (the pressure when the wave passes).

Years ago, we thought a reading of 140/88 was the upper limit of normal. These days, a reading that high is unacceptable. Research shows that you want your systolic pressure to be in the 120s and your diastolic pressure to be in the high 70s or low 80s.

Unfortunately, our arteries become more rigid and calcified as we age, making it harder to attain these optimum blood pressure levels. Think of your arteries as rivers full of twists and turns. Just as the force of rushing high water can eat away at the bank of a river, high blood pressure has a potentially damaging effect on the inner layer of the arterial wall. The arteries are especially vulnerable where they bend or form branches.

The leading causes of high blood pressure include stress, genetics, being overweight, a high-sugar diet, heavy metal toxicity, and lack of exercise. Stress-related hormones, for instance, cause the peripheral vessels to constrict. This forces the heart to pump harder in order to move blood through the narrowed channels, and leads to more pressure at the bends.

Obviously, it’s better to prevent hypertension than to have to treat it. For more information on natural ways to lower blood pressure, visit www.drsinatra.com. While there, sign up for FREE e-letters or subscribe to Dr. Sinatra’s monthly newsletter, Heart, Health & Nutrition.

Many of you have probably been hearing and reading about the ongoing Avandia controversy. Anyone with diabetes—especially those who taking this drug that’s been designed to keep blood sugar at bay—have reason to be concerned. Those of you who subscribe to my newsletter have gotten my take on Avandia, as well as alternative solutions to treat diabetes, over the years.

But the drug is back in the news this week, so let’s update you all on the subject. After years of discussion regarding the safety of the drug, our FDA is poised to decide the fate of Avandia, and it looks like there are three possible outcomes: they will demand even more warnings on the Avandia label; only specific MDs will be allowed to prescribe it; or it will be taken off the market.

When folks ask me what I think, my answer is that as long as there is any whiff of danger—and there is question about an increased risk for both heart attack and heart failure in those taking Avandia—then the potential risks out-trump the benefits. It’s just a no-brainer. Why put yourself in harm’s way if there is even a slight doubt?

My Recommendation

If you have mild diabetes, are 20 to 30 pounds overweight, and your MD wants to put you on an oral hypoglycemic, you should know about intriguing research I mentioned in my Heart, Health & Nutrition newsletter.

In a stellar study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, researchers compared people taking Metformin—a oral hypoglycemic mainstay preferred by many MDs—with a group of folks who made serious shows lifestyle changes.  The lifestylers exercised, follow a sound low glycemic diet, and lost weight. AND they lifestylers had a more significant reduction in their blood sugar levels than the people taking Metformin!

For those of you who do need to rely on medication to control your diabetes, talk with your physician about using a pharmaceutical with a tried and true track record like Metformin, and start making the lifestyle changes (i.e. low glycemic diet, increased exercise, etc.), so that you can eventually lose weight and possibly take a lower dose, or even wean off the drug. 

Several months ago, I posted a blog defining ejection fraction. I am thrilled that it has been helpful!

I recently had a blog reader asks a great question about ejection fraction and wanted to post the answer:

"I had a heart attack five years ago and a stent placed. All of my blood work is normal with good cholesterol measurements and C-RP of 1.13. I take Lipitor (20mg), Metropolis, Ramipril, and Plavix, and also [Dr. Sinatra’s] Omega Q Plus. The problem is my EF is 30-35%, with few symptoms. I exercise daily on my elliptical. What supplements of other steps can I take to improve my EF? Thanks for your support."

Dr. Sinatra’s Solution

Before looking at the supplements you asked about, I'd just like to mention that Dr. Sinatra recommends that his patients with an ejection fraction of 30 to 35 percent use walking as their primary exercise program. As a former cardiac rehab nurse, I also encourage folks—even my own dear uncle who is just recovering from a bout of congestive heart—to consider joining a Phase III Cardiac Rehab program if there is one in their area. There they can learn how to exercise safely with whatever cardiac limitations they may have. (Phase II is for those just recovering from recent heart attacks and heart surgery, whereas Phase II is for people who are more stable).

On the supplement front, Dr. Sinatra encourages people with low ejection fractions (with or without heart failure) to take what he calls his Awesome Foursome to build up ATP reserves. They include:

• CoEnzyme Q10: 100mg 3 times daily with meals
• D-Ribose: one scoop 2-3 times daily in fluids like water, tea, juice or sprinkled over your cereal or fruit
• L-Carnitine: 1 Gram 2-3 times daily on an empty stomach
• Broad spectrum magnesium: 100 mg 2-3 times a day

For more detailed discussion on Dr. Sinatra’s metabolic cardiology approaches that have worked for his patients with varying cardiac concerns—including low ejection fractions—I highly recommend that you read his book The Sinatra Solution: Metabolic Cardiology. 

For even more information on treating cardiovascular problems, visit www.drsinatra.com.