-
Mayo Clinic Minute: Do heart supplements work?
Share this:
Which dietary supplements should you take to improve heart health? The answer may be none. Research published in Annals of Internal Medicine shows that many supplements do not reduce your risk of heart disease. Dr. M. Hassan Murad, a Mayo Clinic preventive medicine specialist, is a co-author of the study.
Journalists: Broadcast-quality video pkg (0:59) is in the downloads at the end of the post. Please "Courtesy: Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.
"There's really no supplement that can prevent heart disease at the present time," says Dr. Murad.
He and the research team analyzed 277 studies and found that supplements such as multivitamins, as well as vitamins E, D and B don't improve heart health.
"Several of the interventions that we used to do in terms of diet and nutritional supplements actually do not have evidence to support them," says Dr. Murad.
They did find that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in some fish and walnuts may reduce the risk of heart attack, but healthy lifestyle choices are the main preventive strategies.
"Out of all the things that we studied, salt reduction was the one that found to be most effective in reducing the risk of heart disease among these dietary interventions. It reduced the risk in people who had normal blood pressure and people who had high blood pressure."
Dr. Murad says regular exercise; not smoking; limiting alcohol; and eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, healthy oils and lean meats can reduce your risk of heart disease.
Share this:
Related articles
For much of his life, Mark Kocak kept in great shape, lifting weights, doing aerobics and yoga, all while being an avid runner. But as ...
As a pulmonologist and genomic scientist, Victor Ortega, M.D., Ph.D., is leading a charge to breathe new life into precision medicine advancements. His mission is rooted ...
If you have asthma, does it always seem worse in September? You're not alone. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, the third ...