The Awesome Foursome

The awesome foursome is not a group of ninja turtles who save the day. They are four nutritional supplements that are essential to increasing the survival rate of heart patients. These are magnesium, coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), L-carnitine, and D-ribose.

If you ever heard Dr. Stephen Sinatra speak, cardiologist, speaker and author, you would know that you can help supply more energy to your heart with these four basic nutritionals than with most drugs. This is metabolic cardiology.

In most patients with metabolic cardiac problems, these nutritional supplements will breathe energy into the heart. This is accomplished by building adenosine triphosphate (ATP) substrates inside the mitochondria of the heart cells. When this happens, the heart thrives. This is comparable to how a lawn blooms when provided with water and non-toxic, organic fertilizers.

The use of nutrition and nutraceutical therapies in the field of cardiology isn't new. Magnesium, CoQ10, and L-carnitine have long been used to promote and maintain cardiac health; D-ribose, an ATP derivative, is a more recent addition to the protocol, and it has proven to be essential. In fact, D-ribose was the missing link in the protocol; its use is invaluable to at-risk cardiac patients.

Science supports the use of the awesome foursome in cardiac patients. CoQ10 is a powerful antioxidant, and according to an article in the November 2008 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology, patients with heart failure tend to live longer if their CoQ10 levels are higher than normal. Additionally, it was discovered in 2009 that the stem cells regenerate the heart cells approximately every 25 years. The implications of this discovery are huge.

Patients with serious cardiac problems such as dead hearts, massive heart attacks, and cardiomyopathy were put on either the awesome foursome or just L-carnitine and CoQ10 in the 1990s. With this regimen, they survived in spite of very low ejection fractions. Simply put, ejection fraction refers to the amount of blood the heart pumps out with each beat. This is an enormous breakthrough with the potential to help so many people who would not otherwise have a chance to live a normal life. Imagine using this knowledge to buy time for cardiac patients with dilated cardiomyopathy, heart attacks, or diabetic hearts, to name just a few.

Giving cardiac patients a metabolic approach to their heart disease in turn gives their mitochondria fuel to survive. If they survive long enough, the stem cells take over and cause cardio site renewal. With cardio regeneration, the heart patients improve.

Strides in metabolic cardiology and ATP support buy time for at risk-cardiac patients until their hearts can regenerate. Use of the awesome foursome--magnesium, CoQ10, L-carnitine, and D-ribose--is essential to giving the heart time to regenerate.