One of the easiest and least expensive ways to look after your heart is to take a multivitamin every day, a top cardiologist says.
“Studies come and go, but we’ve known for a long time that taking a multivitamin once a day has the potential to improve heart health,” Chauncey Crandall, M.D., tells Newsmax Health.
One-third of Americans take multivitamin or mineral products. A new study found that women who take a multivitamin were less likely to die of heart disease.
According to Dr. Crandall, author of the
Heart Health Report newsletter, all adults — especially those over 50 — should take a daily multivitamin.
“Our foods are not as nutritious as they once were when we lived on farms and ate the food produced there. Nowadays nearly all the food we eat is processed in a way in which the vitamins are depleted, “says Dr. Crandall, author of the No. 1 Amazon bestseller “The Simple Heart Cure.”
“Ideally if we ate properly and correctly, and if we did everything we were supposed to do, like exercise every day and get enough sleep, we wouldn’t need to take extra vitamins, but none of us do this consistently,” Dr. Crandall adds.
Also, although getting enough vitamins is important for anyone, the need grows as we age.
“As we grow older, our ability to metabolize certain essential vitamins diminish, yet this is the time when we need these nutrients the most,” he says.
In recent years, many manufacturers have taken to fortifying their products with iron, which is now raising the concern about “iron overload” in regard to supplements, notes Dr. Crandall, chief of the cardiac transplant program at the Palm Beach Cardiovascular Clinic.
“Iron is always a concern because it can contribute to inflammation, which is a driver in the development of coronary heart disease. But the amount that multivitamins generally contain is around the government’s recommended daily allowance and shouldn’t cause any worry,” he says.
Still, picking the right vitamin has become confusing.
“When I was growing up, there were a few major brands, like One-a-Day, that put out a single multivitamin. But now companies compete to put out all sorts of daily vitamins, slicing-and-dicing them for every specialty group they can think of,” he notes.
Instead of stressing about the exact amount of each nutrient in the vitamin you take, focus on buying your supplements from source you trust, he advises.
“Be sure to buy your daily multivitamin from a reputable source and don’t get caught up in vitamin confusion,’” Dr. Crandall says.
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