Love is in the Air: Heart-Healthy Nutrients

Your heart is about the size of your fist, sitting behind your ribcage and in between your lungs. Its job is to pump blood throughout your entire body, carrying oxygen, fuel, hormones, and other important nutrients to your organs. It whisks away the waste products of metabolism and then cycles all over again. This extraordinary organ will beat about 2.5 billion times in an average lifetime. Sounds pretty important right? Take care of your heart with a few important nutrients!

Omega-3-fatty acids EPA, DHA, and ALA are “essential” fatty acids, which means that they can’t be manufactured by your body and have to be acquired from your diet. They are an integral part of cell membranes throughout the body and provide the starting point for making hormones that regulate blood clotting, contraction, and relaxation of artery walls.

Omega-3-fatty acids found in fish oil promote cardiovascular health by:

• stabilizing blood flow in and around the heart

• reducing triglyceride levels

• lowering blood pressure

• preventing blood clots

• reducing inflammation

Another essential nutrient for heart health is CoQ10. CoQ10 helps generate energy in almost every cell of your body, and its natural production tends to decrease with age. It is a powerful antioxidant and it protects against damage from toxic free radicals. Statin medications deplete your CoQ10 levels and supplementation may be necessary.

CoQ10 promotes cardiovascular health by:

• reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease

• reducing inflammation

• lowering blood pressure

At Martin’s Wellness Pharmacies, i.e. Dripping Springs Pharmacy and Lamar Plaza Drug Store, we recommend taking Mega EPA/DHA by Life Extension as your omega-3 supplement and Premier Research Lab’s CoQ10 for boosting your heart health and resilience.