Millions of people take vitamins and dietary supplements with the aim of boosting their health.
Taking supplements has become more popular in recent years, with the UK market booming on the back of products claiming to help you achieve certain results.
Popular supplements include vitamins for overall health, skin, hair and nail supplements, and weight loss pills.
So what about supplements for improving the health of your heart?
If you’re looking to take supplements as a means of boosting heart health, cardiologist Dr Stephen Sinatra has the following advice.
The cardiologist advises against using supplements which claim to contain all the vitamins and minerals you need in one capsule.
Instead, you should take multiple supplements which each contain different properties.
“I don’t believe you can get all of the nutritional support you need by taking a supplement that promises everything in just one tablet or capsule a day,” said Dr Sinatra.
“I would avoid those types of products.”
According to Dr Sinatra, the best supplements for heart health should include mixed carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin, and alpha-carotene.
Carotenoids are organic pigments produced by plants, algae, bacteria and fungi.
Carotenoids give the characteristic colour to carrots, corn and daffodils, as well as egg yolks, buttercups, and bananas.
Supplements for heart health should also include vitamins A, B1, B2, B5, B6, B12, C, D and E.
In addition, they should contain calcium, magnesium, potassium, selenium, folic acid, zinc, chromium picolinate, quercetin, vanadium, manganese, copper, iodine, molybdenum, inositol and biotin.
Dr Sinatra recommends comparing the nutrition labels of different supplements to see which ones contain those ingredients.
The cardiologist also advises taking a supplement with at least one to two grammes of omega 3 fatty acids, daily.
The NHS, however, warns on doing your research before taking certain supplements, as some actually lack evidence to support their claims.
“Take a browse through the stocks of the UK’s leading supplement suppliers and you will find hundreds of products ranging from acai capsules to zinc, with everything from devil’s claw to royal jelly between,” said the NHS.
“Even individual supplements can come in a range of doses and a number of different formulations, making it hard to know what is worth taking and what isn’t.”
“It has become clear the widely perceived benefits of certain supplements simply do not have enough robust evidence to support them.”
