There have been a some peer reviewed papers recently published which provide clear evidence that certain dietary supplements can help in repairing and supporting cardiovascular and vascular health. Based on these data, it is reasonable to hypothesize that supplements shown to support heart and vascular health in this manner will provide benefit to those with damage done to the heart and arteries/veins by COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines and most likely will have benefit.
This topic comes out of a conversation that I had with Dr. Ryan Cole and Dr. Richard Urso around the kitchen table one night a few months ago in Tennessee, when we were providing testimony to the Tennessee legislature on natural immunity. We were discussing damage done to the heart and vessels by COVID-19 as well as the vaccines, and what types of interventions or treatments can be done to help alleviate this damage. Jill mentioned supplements and all involved shared some very pragmatic ideas on the subject, a discussion that lasted well into the night.
In this Substack, I am writing to the many people with COVID-19 and vaccine damage – as well as older people and all the people that support them who have asked me the following question again and again.
“What can we do to alleviate damage from the jab and long COVID?”
So, if this isn’t you and you aren’t interested – feel free to stop reading now.
For those that don’t want to get into the peer reviewed literature, below is a brief overview on three supplements that one should consider taking for heart and vascular health. This section is followed by a brief discussion on dosing. Finally, I present the evidence in the form of selected peer reviewed literature.
First I provide a brief lay summary for each topic area, and then below I provide links to the papers.
Vitamin K2-MK7 is pretty much a miracle supplement, according a new peer reviewed meta analysis. Clinical studies have unequivocally demonstrated the utility of vitamin K2-7 supplementation as having a role in ameliorating peripheral neuropathy, reducing bone fracture risk and improving cardiovascular health, as well has health-beneficial effects in osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, inflammation, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and peripheral neuropathy.
Lower vitamin K2-MK7 levels have also been linked to low testosterone levels. In a mouse model, increasing vitamin K2 caused a rapid increase in testosterone. When taking K2, be sure to get enough calcium – as K2 is a calcium regulator and helps distribute calcium correctly throughout the body.
Magnesium:
Oral Mg supplementation improves endothelial function – after supplementing for at least for 6 months and in unhealthy, overweight or older individuals.
Orally supplementing with magnesium causes a decrease in blood pressure.
Note: Taking vitamin D in high levels, or being deficient in vitamin K2, can lower magnesium stores in the body and contribute to a deficiency. So, magnesium is an important supplement if you are taking vitamin D.
Taurine improves vascular tone and blood pressure modulation based on experimental and human studies. It is well established that supplementation of taurine prevents development of hypertension in several animal models and oral taurine administration reduces blood pressure in hypertensive patients.
“When our tissues need additional blood supply, like during exercise, or when we’re stressed, our blood vessels need to dilate efficiently. If blood vessels are not as elastic as they should be, then our health can suffer. The production of nitric oxide is very important to blood vessel health. When an adequate amount of nitric oxide is produced in our blood vessels, the vessels are more elastic, normal blood pressure can be maintained, sexual arousal occurs normally, and cardiovascular health is promoted”
Heart: Essential for healthy heart muscle function
Heart Rhythm: Helps maintain healthy heart rhythm
Taurine supplementation is also beneficial in reducing glycemic indices, such as HbA1c, Fasting Blood Sugar, HOMA-IR in diabetic patients. Taurine has also been shown to improve cognition in the elderly.
Dosing: Of course, our government has no interest in conducting randomized, clinical with dose escalation studies for improving cardiovascular health. So, there is some trial and error in all of this. The USDA/FDA came up with minimum and maximum values for vitamins and supplements back in the 1940s, and has occasionally reassessed some of these recommendations (but not others). These recommendations were based mostly on animal studies and consensus committee decisions (often driven more by opinion than data). All of these products will clearly say that the FDA has not evaluated these supplements for the uses recommended by the seller. The amounts recommended by the FDA are minimum dosing for general health – nothing more.
These days the FDA steers clear on the issue of dosing vitamins for specific benefits. This policy is due to a long history of trying to over-regulate the industry and the push back which the FDA received from Congress over this issue. NIH seems to have little interest in funding large clinical trials on supplements and dose escalation studies.
NIH Heart, Blood and Lung institute is conducting some studies on assessing COVID-19 and myocarditis but their webpage indicates that they are not putting resources into assessing vaccine injury and how to support people with damage from COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine damage.
Therefore, the dosing that Jill and I take for these supplements is determined by assessing what is recommended – based on peer reviewed literature, recommendations, discussions with the other doctors, the labelling and common sense. These are the doses we are taking, and recommend that you consult with your physician or licensed health care provider to help guide your own personal dosing decisions.
Vitamin K2-MK7: 100 mcg per day
Magnesium Glycinate: 400 mg per day.
Taurine: 1000-1500 mg per day – split into 2 or 3 doses.
Footnote: I started taking taurine back in spring, 2021 – after I was vaccine injured and started on a much lower dose. I never reassessed that dosing strategy. Having done more research for this article (see below), I am increasing my dose to 1500 mcg daily.
Figuring out the correct dosing is difficult. Again – There is little solid research on dosing and no dose escalation studies conducted in humans for specific benefit of these supplements. There are many studies that seem “designed to fail” on vitamins and supplements – that is, clinical studies that under dose. These then get wrapped up in meta-analysis papers, which drag down the P-values of the meta-analysis. For this reason, specific papers are often a better indicator of results.
There is a certain amount of reliance on bottle labelling, peer reviewed studies that skirt around the issue and trial and error. This answer regarding dosing really isn’t satisfactory, but it is what we have.
In the comments, I would love to hear your thoughts on dosing of these supplements and why or why not you find these dosing amounts correct. Feel free to also discuss other methods of increasing heart health.
Below are a few selected papers showing the research behind using these supplement for heart and vascular health.
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