Health Benefits of Cardium

Heart disease is epidemic in America. This isn't too terribly surprising, given the fact adult Americans to favor foods rich in blood pressure raising sodium, saturated fat that can promote clogged arteries and thick, viscous blood that tends to damage arterial linings, and a sedentary lifestyle that can erode arterial elasticity.

Preventing and even reversing arterial damage and hardening can be pulled off by a combination of structured diet, targeted supplementation and proper exercise. Even such devastating heart ailments as congestive heart failure can be ameliorated by daily use of such natural, nontoxic compounds as coenzyme Q10 (Ubiquinone or ubiquinol).

One very powerful dietary program for promoting optimal cardiovascular health can be found in Health Benefits of Vitamin K2

Cardium will provide targeted supplementation geared to support the integrity and healthy function of heart muscle and blood vessels (NOTE: The MK-7 in Cardium can also help with osteoporosis according to various published studies. The CoQ10 in Cardium with diabetes, arrhythmias, angina, male infertility, and some forms of cancer. And the grape seed extract in Cardium with diabetic retinopathy, allergic rhinitis, night glare impairment, gastric ulcers, and excessive platelet aggregation)

Specifically, there are 3 active ingredients in Cardium that have been shown in various studies to impact many of the major players in the development of cardiovascular disease: Calcification of major blood vessels (arteries), damage to blood vessels, hypertension and compromised heart muscle function.

The calcification of arteries is a process referred to in medical parlance as "arteriosclerosis". It involves the deposition of calcium in certain tissues in blood vessels. Once blood vessels have become hardened, it is difficult to remove all this calcium from blood vessel wall tissues; difficult, but not impossible.

According to Dr. Leon Schugers at the University of Maastrich in the Netherlands, vitamin K2 can help induce regression of calcification in major blood vessels in animal models. Dr. Shugers and his team induced calcification in rats then divided them into 2 groups. One received vitamins K1 and K2 (some rats a normal dose for their weight/size, some a higher dose), while the other received a placebo. The rats who received the normal dose of vitamin K continued to experience arterial calcification on a par with the placebo group. Those rats that received high doses of K experienced not only a halt in calcification, but a 37% reduction in already existing calcium precipitates. Perhaps as compelling is the fact as the calcification regressed, the animals arterial elasticity returned!

This line of animal work gels with pioneering human studies carried out by Dr. Cees Vermeer (U. of Maastricht) in which he showed that the vitamin K levels of 4800 people (Rotterdam Study) over time correlated with calcification in their aortas. In short, those who had the lowest levels of vitamin K2 on average had much greater calcification in their aortas than folks with much higher levels of vitamin K2.

Vitamin K2 has thirteen forms or isomers known as menaquinones. Published research has shown that one of these menaquinones, in particular, menaquinone-7 (MK-7), does the best job of helping shuttle calcium out of the blood stream and also arteries (and depositing it into bone. MK-7 is the form of vitamin K2 utilized in Cardium.

Not surprisingly, when blood vessels harden or otherwise stiffen, they can leak or even break. Cardium addresses this by providing users an ample dose of grape seed extract.

Grape seed extract is rich in a class of naturally occurring compounds called oligomeric proanthocyanidin complexes (OPCs), also known as pycogenols. These compounds interact with proteins and inhibit enzymes involved in vascular tissue breakdown and loss of integrity.

In France, OPCs are employed to treat people who are suffering from a wide variety of peripheral blood vessel challenges, most characterized by capillary fragility and impaired or poor drainage in veins. French doctors base their use of these compounds on at least eight (8) double-blind, placebo controlled clinical studies that showed significant responses in people with "chronic venous insufficiency" who received OPCs.

For example, in one randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled study involving 92 patients with chronic venous insufficiency or poor vein function, those who received OPCs had significantly less edema. In a similar study involving 63 post-operative breast cancer patients, those who were given OPCs in concentrated form for six months experienced far less tissue swelling due to fluid (edema), pain and loss of sensation (paresthesias) than those who wound up taking a placebo.

These findings are underscored by various population (epidemiological) studies that link diets high in OPCs with a lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

When blood vessels become blocked with plague or otherwise impaired in function, blood pressure may rise and also the blood flow (and hence oxygen) to the heart may be compromised. When this happens, the heart can weaken, enlarge and even fail.

As the oxygen supply to heart muscle cells declines or is otherwise compromised, cell damaging free radicals are generated in a way that outstrips the heart's own antioxidant defense system. The CoQ10 generating system is likely disrupted or overtaxed or both, and with this the heart cannot meets its energy demands efficiently. Think of your car: Partially plug up the fuel line and what do you have? A sputtering engine that likely will fail.

In addition, as arteries clog or stiffen and blood pressure rises, doctors often prescribe drugs that effectively reduce hypertension, but which also interfere with CoQ10 production! Reducing high blood pressure is essential, of course, but over the long haul the CoQ10 deficiency already in motion is exacerbated. End result? Possibly something much more dire down the line.

Given this scenario, one would expect that supplementing CoQ10 would confer health benefits to people whose circulatory system function is compromised by low blood & oxygen flow. And this is exactly what many published studies show.

In one study concerning the serious heart muscle disorder, dilated cardiomyopathy, 126 patients were given 100 mgs daily for up to 66 months. Within the first 6 months most had substantial heart output (mean ejection fraction) increases that averaged 18%. Eight-four percent of these patients were still alive & kicking 5.5 years after the study began. This survival rate is much better than what patients experience on conventional care for dilated cardiomyopathy.

And in a large multicenter clinical trial to gauge CoQ10's impact on congestive heart failure, 1113 patients were given varying dose of CoQ10 (Most 100 mgs. daily) for 3 months. Nearly 83% had improvements in sweating, more than 81% with jugular reflux, 81% with cyanosis, more than 75% with palpitations, almost 77% with edema, 62% with arrhythmia, 60.2% with insomnia, 54.5% with shortness of breath (dyspnea), and more.

Other studies have confirmed what straightforward logic would suggest: CoQ10 improves heart muscle energetics which is helps curb or ameliorate many cardiovascular challenges such as angina, arrhythmias, post-cardiac surgery complications, heart toxicity in cancer patients given adriamycin, and hypertension.

The wealth of published scientific proof with respect to CoQ10s effectiveness in improving cardiovascular function in people with various kinds of heart disorders quite naturally led to its inclusion in Cardium. Of course, since CoQ10 production in our bodies decreases as we age, taking Cardium in order to bolster CoQ10 levels makes great sense.