Best Vitamins & Minerals for Your Heart
Eating a healthy, balanced diet is one of the most important things you can do for your heart. Whether you get them through diet or supplements, certain vitamins and minerals play a special role in supporting a healthy, happy heart.
As you grow older, your body may produce less of certain nutrients, or your body may absorb them less efficiently than when you were younger. This makes supplementation increasingly helpful with age. These nutrients will help keep your heart healthy throughout life and well into your golden years.
Vitamin D
Studies have linked low levels of vitamin D to heart health risk factors. Getting more will make your heart happy. Did you know that the sunshine vitamin plays a big role in how nerves carry messages to your heart?
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble hormone produced by your liver and kidneys, although exposure to the sun can boost its production. That’s why people call it the sunshine vitamin! With age, your body makes less vitamin D as well.
Vitamin D helps regulate levels of calcium in the blood, which plays a role in how nerves carry messages to your heart and other parts of your body. This vitamin may promote normal blood sugar levels.
The daily requirement for adult men and women is 15 mcg (micrograms) or 600 IU. The Institute of Medicine Food and Nutrition Board recommends that adults over 70 get 20 mcg (800 IU) per day.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a robust antioxidant that boosts collagen and repairs damaged tissues! Found in oranges and other heart-healthy citrus fruits, vitamin C helps the body repair damaged tissue. Extra vitamin C also boosts your body’s production of collagen, a protein that supports healthy blood vessels. A powerful antioxidant, this nutrient counteracts free radicals that damage cells. Vitamin C also plays a key role in the body’s production of L-carnitine, a compound critical to metabolism and heart health.
Adult women need 75 mg (milligrams) while adult men need 90 mg of vitamin C each day, but if you eat a standard American diet, you might not get enough. Your best bet? Boost your citrus fruit intake! Eating vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables — at least five servings a day — has been linked to a more than 15 percent reduction in heart disease risk.
Vitamin C normalizes levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and promotes normal blood pressure. It does this by boosting production of a compound called nitric oxide that helps relax and open blood vessels, helping your blood flow smoothly and efficiently.
Vitamin K
Vitamin K plays a role in how your blood clots. It also interacts with your body’s processing of calcium, which transmits electrical impulses in the heart. Low vitamin K is linked to “vascular calcifications” or deposits on arterial walls, which leads to atherosclerosis — a leading risk factor for heart disease.
With normal levels of vitamin K, people generally have fewer calcium deposits. Higher vitamin K intake improves cardiovascular health by optimizing calcium levels in tissues. The right amount of vitamin K promotes proper blood flow.
The daily requirement for vitamin K is 90 mcg for adult women and 120 mcg for adult men; pregnant or breastfeeding women and children require different amounts.
Magnesium
Magnesium is the fourth most plentiful mineral in your body — but many people do not get enough. This mineral regulates muscle and nerve function, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure.
Magnesium helps the body absorb calcium, which, as mentioned, transmits the electrical impulse of your heartbeat. Magnesium helps muscles relax, while calcium helps them contract; together they help the heart muscle work properly.
Maintaining adequate magnesium levels is critical for heart health. The daily recommendation is 320 mg for adult women and 420 mg for adult men. While you can get magnesium from nuts, seeds, and legumes, you may need a supplement to ensure you get enough.
Different forms of magnesium are sold as supplements with different absorption rates; make sure you do your research on the best types for your needs.
Potassium
A deficiency in potassium can lead to blood pressure issues in adults. Potassium is an electrolyte, a mineral that acts as an electrical charge to help your body. These electrolytes help your heart, muscles, and nerves function normally and maintain a proper blood volume. Like vitamin K, potassium also promotes normal calcium levels in blood vessels.
Many people don’t get enough potassium. Too little of this mineral, along with too much sodium, can lead to blood pressure issues. The good news? Adequate potassium promotes normal blood pressure in adults.
Adults need quite a bit daily — 4,700 mg — which you can get from apricots, bananas, lentils, and brown rice, along with supplements. Avoid processed foods like white rice and refined-flour bread, because processing grains removes much of their natural potassium.
Heart Health Supplements
Besides vitamins and minerals, other types of nutrients help you maintain a healthy heart. Below are the best supplements for heart health.
CoQ10
CoQ10, or coenzyme Q10, plays a critical role in every single cell in your body. Also called ubiquinone, CoQ10 sparks chemical reactions that help mitochondria, your cells’ “power plants,” convert food into energy. That’s important because your heart consumes so much energy!
CoQ10 also helps keep veins open so blood can flow freely and without obstruction. It may also promote normal blood pressure. CoQ10 promotes heart health and protects against toxins.
CoQ10 is a strong antioxidant that helps counteract oxidative stress — the damage caused to cells from toxins, illness, UV rays, or the body’s natural aging processes. Although your body produces CoQ10, it makes less as you age, making supplementation helpful.
You can also find CoQ10 naturally in olive oil, pistachios, sesame seeds, and cruciferous veggies like Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Omega-3s are called the “essential” fatty acids because your body needs them, but it can’t make them on its own; thus, you have to get them from supplements or food. Omega-3 fatty acids — including ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) — improve your chances of living a long life with a healthy heart.
Omega-3 fatty acids keep chronic redness and swelling in check, and they also lower the body’s production of triglycerides — fats that circulate in the blood. Studies have also found that omega-3s balance levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or “good” cholesterol.
The daily requirement for ALA is 1.1 g (grams) in adult women and 1.6 g in adult men. Breastfeeding and pregnant women need more, and children need a bit less. Experts haven’t set recommended amounts for the other main types, EPA and DHA, although they are still important nutrients to obtain regularly. Natural plant-based sources include algae oil, flax seeds, olives, and olive oil.
Trans-Resveratrol
You may have heard of the heart health benefits of red wine. Scientists think resveratrol, a polyphenol antioxidant, provides red wine’s heart-healthy benefits. Scientists isolated this compound from the skin of grapes and have since found it also in other fruits, like mulberries, cranberries, and blueberries.
Resveratrol may protect blood vessel walls and promote healthy levels of both HDL (good) and LDL (bad) cholesterol. It also promotes normal blood pressure. Further, resveratrol mimics the positive health effects of calorie restriction and fasting. Both fasting and resveratrol spur production of adiponectin, a compound that promotes fat metabolism and blood sugar balance.
While you can get small amounts from food or red wine, you won’t get enough to make a significant difference in your heart health. Supplements concentrate the nutrient in servings that can effectively support heart health.
Make sure to look for trans-resveratrol, which studies find much more effective than its isomer cis-resveratrol. Some supplements contain both, but higher-quality ones contain up to 99 percent trans-resveratrol.
Folate/Folic Acid
Folate is the natural form of vitamin B-9; folic acid is the manufactured form of B-9 that’s used in most supplements or in fortified foods (which we do not recommend because your body processes vitamins and minerals most efficiently from their natural form).
Whichever form, vitamin B-9 helps your body make red blood cells and DNA. It also helps balance your body’s levels of homocysteine. Without enough folate, your homocysteine levels can get too high, which can cause swelling of the arteries and other blood vessels. Lower levels of homocysteine are linked with a healthier heart.
