List of Recommended Items to Help Prevent and Fight Heart Disease
Last Updated on May 20, 2025 by Primary Researcher
Executive Summary
- The medical establishment ignores many things that can be done to prevent and fight heart disease.
- This article provides a list and links to supporting articles.
Introduction
These are the list of items that can be used to prevent and fight heart disease. They are all inexpensive and also suitable for general health.
Anti-Heart Disease List or Just Overall Health List?
The answer is yes to both.
This list is the “anti-heart disease” list — because there are studies supporting all of these items demonstrating they are effective against cancer. However, these items are also just good for overall health. There is nothing on this list that a person who wants to be as healthy as possible should not do.
Background
The first thing to understand about heart disease is that the majority of information provided to the public by the medical establishment is false. For example, cholesterol is not related to heart disease and never was. And secondly, the things that people can do to prevent heart disease are absent from the websites of the medical establishment.
Category #1: Food
Item #1: Saturated Fats
Anti-Heart Disease Effect: Countering a False Leverage Point of the Medical Establishment
Since the 1977 dietary guidelines were updated, saturated fat has been a significant focus of the medical establishment. Part of this made people consume more fat from highly processed vegetable oils.
Researching this topic shows that moving people away from saturated fats was negative for heart disease and increased incidence.
The result is that the medical establishment significantly pushed to change the fats the population eats with adverse outcomes.
I cover this in the article The Problem With Highly Processed Vegetable Oils.
After this research, I began cooking with beef fat, using butter, and stopped eating all meat substitutes, which are worse than saturated fat.
Item #2: Red Wine
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
As covered in the article The Mechanisms by Which Red Wine Works Against Heart Disease, red wine contains polyphenols, providing the body with essential weapons against heart disease. Tannat and Sagrantino wines are the best for this purpose as they are the highest in polyphenols. However, cabernet sauvignon is much more widely available.
The effect of polyphenols is also positive against heart disease. I cover this in more detail in the article Understanding How Polyphenols Multi Disease Prevention Benefits.
Item #3: Cholesterol
Anti-Heart Disease Effect: Countering a False Leverage Point of the Medical Establishment
This is the same issue that applies to saturated fat. There is no relationship between cholesterol and adverse heart events. I cover this in the article Why Reducing Cholesterol Should Not Be a Health Focus.
Item #4: Green Tea
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
Green tea contains polyphenols (like red wine), which help the body defend against heart disease. Green tea is also an anti-inflammatory. Also, in Western societies, green tea is far less consumed than other types of tea, but other teas do not provide the same anti-cancer benefits.
Chronic inflammation needs to be a primary focus of cardiovascular health, as I cover in the article Considering Atherosclerosis as an Autoimmune Disorder.
Item #5: Berries
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Strengthens the Immune System
Berries contain polyphenols (like red wine), which help the body defend against heart disease. Berries are also an anti-inflammatory.
Item #6: Vitamin C
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Collagen Formation
As covered in the article The Impact of Vitamin C on Cardiovascular Health, Vitamin C is of prime importance for cardiovascular health; however, it should come from foods, not supplements, which is why it is listed here under food.
Vitamin C heavy goods should be consumed with collagen supplements and salt, as I cover in the article ” How Collagen, Vitamin C, and Salt Work Together.
Vitamin C also improves blood pressure, as I cover in the article The Impact of Vitamin C on Hypertension and Blood Pressure.
See more at The Brightwork Vitamin C Dosage Guide.
Item #7: Eat Substantial Amounts of Salt
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Collagen Formation
Salt works with Vitamin C to support collagen production, a vital component of the cardiovascular system. The medical establishment has undermined this natural process by vilifying salt without any evidence to support these claims.
Furthermore, the kidneys are highly efficient at removing excess salt from the body, and the body knows what those optimal levels are far better than any financially conflicted health authority like the FDA, which knows very little about nutrition and places little focus on nutrition versus its main focus which is approving new drugs.
I cover the topic of low-salt diets in the articles under the Salt Article Index.
Item #8: Keep Dietary Sugars Low
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Strengthens the Immune System
The article ” What is the Relationship Between Sugar and Cancer ” states simple dietary sugars increase inflammation. The same thing applies to heart disease.
Category #2: Supplements
Item #1: Turmeric
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
As covered in the article The Mechanisms by Which Turmeric Works Against Heart Disease, turmeric is a potent anti-inflammatory. Chronic inflammation is a precursor to heart disease, so turmeric is essential to any diet. Furthermore, turmeric is rarely consumed in the Western diet.
See more at The Brightwork Vitamin Turmeric Dosage Guide.
Item #2: Vitamin D
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Strengthens the Immune System
As covered in the article The Role of Ivermectin and Vitamin D in Reducing General Chronic Inflammation, Vitamin D is one of the most essential items to reduce inflammation, a precursor to heart disease.
I cover the overall impact of Vitamin D on cardiovascular health in the article Vitamin D on Cardiovascular Health.
See more at The Brightwork Vitamin D Dosage Guide.
Item #3: Vitamin K
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Reduces Arterial Calcification
I cover how Vitamin K has a major influence on arterial calcification in the article How Vitamin K2 Works to Improve Cardiovascular Health.
Item #4: Magnesium
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Supports Cellular Metabolism of the Heart
The article ” How Magnesium Helps Optimize Cardiovascular Function ” covers magnesium as critical to cardiovascular health. This has substantial research but has not worked its way into medical cardiovascular recommendations.
Magnesium and Metabolic Health
Insufficient magnesium can reduce metabolic health and overall metabolism.
Metabolic health is one of the strongest predictors of disease prevention and is instrumental to maintaining overall health.
The following quote is from the article Steroid Dangers and Safe Autoimmune Treatments.
Magnesium (e.g., magnesium L-threonate) is often needed by mitochondria, and since many autoimmune conditions are tied to mitochondrial dysfunction, hence is important for autoimmunity (along with general health).
Additionally, iodine and selenium are often quite important for autoimmune disorders, particularly of the thyroid (which often also needs vitamin D).
Item #5: Acetyl L Carnitine & CoQ10
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Supports Cellular Metabolism of the Heart
As covered in the article The Importance of Understanding Cellular Metabolism to Prevent And Treat Cancer, L Carnitine and CoQ10 work together to improve cellular metabolism — and they are both items ordinarily deficient in the diet. Once you read what they do, you will most likely consider taking them as supplements.
The heart is firmly based upon fatty acid metabolism — and Acetyl L Carnitine & CoQ10 both support fatty acid metabolism.
Item #6: Zinc
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Strengthens the Immune System
Important for many biological processes. Lowers blood pressure. See more at The Brightwork Zinc Dosage Guide.
Category #3: Body and Mind
Item #1: Maintain a Healthy Body Size
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
Obesity causes inflammation and places a higher stress on the cardiovascular system.
Item #2: Limit Psychological Stress
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Anti-Inflammation
Excessive psychological stress, as covered in the article ” How Stress Promotes Cancer, ” is a significant precursor to cancer and other diseases.
The reason for this is that psychological stress causes inflammation. The article The Relationship Between The Hormones Insulin and Cortisol and Stress and Inflammation explains this relationship in more detail.
The Reality of Life and Stress
It is impossible to avoid all psychological stress; some stress is adaptive and necessary for living. The issue is overstressed, which causes chronic inflammation. In my view, the stress that is very underrated is the people we are around and where we live.
The Reality of Aging and Stress
Furthermore, as we age, we must be mindful to reduce stress levels. For one, the immune system declines with age, and we are less able to tolerate stress with age.
Category #4: Cardiovascular Training
Anti Heart Disease Effect: Supports Cellular Metabolism
Exercise strengthens the cardiovascular system.
Exercise has a wide variety of health benefits. However, it also has a specific Anti Heart Disease benefit in tuning the mitochondria, which improves cellular metabolism, which is core to preventing cancer.
- Roughly 300 minutes of moderate exercise per week is a good target to shoot for - an average of 50 minutes per day with one day off per week. Beyond this, there is little evidence of further benefit beyond this point. The CDC's recommended number of 150 minutes per week should be considered the minimum (an average of 25 minutes per day with one day off). Anywhere between 150 and 300 minutes is effective for health maintenance.
- Exercise should include weight training.
- Exercise sessions should be kept less than 60 minutes per session, as far beyond this, cortisol levels increase, as does oxidative damage. A significant objective of exercise is to clear excess ATP from cells and to reduce oxidative damage caused by cellular metabolism. Excessive exercise increases oxidative damage, undermining this considerable benefit.
More details come from a study on the relationship between exercise and longevity. These quotes are from the article Nailing the Sweet Spots for Exercise Volume.
The Results of Meta-analysis
I interview Dr. James O'Keefe, a cardiologist with the Mid-America Heart Institute at St. Louis Hospital in Kansas City, about exercise dosing.
He and three other coauthors published a meta-analysis in the March-April 2023 issue of Missouri Medicine,1 the journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, which has profound implications. I view this study as a landmark that radically changed my views on exercise.
In the case of moderate exercise, however — loosely defined as exercising to the point where you're slightly winded but can still carry on a conversation — it’s very clear that more IS better and cannot be overdone.
The Benefit of Moderate Exercise
Perhaps even more surprising, moderate exercise also improves all-cause survival better than vigorous exercise — about two times better. "If you look at the people who are doing the most vigorous exercise compared to the people doing the most moderate exercise, the moderate exercisers have twice as good a reduction in long-term mortality as the high volume vigorous exerciser," he says. What this means in practical terms is that:
a) There’s no need to engage in high-intensity strenuous exercise beyond 75 minutes per week. Doing so can be highly counterproductive. If you’re an overachiever, stick to moderate exercise instead and your benefits will continue to accrue and your efforts won’t eventually backfire.
The Problems With High-Intensity Exercise Over Long Durations
People who are doing the highest volume of vigorous exercise start losing longevity benefits. If you’re doing full distance triathlons when you're in your 40s and 50s, your risk of atrial fibrillation increases by 500% to 800%
Meta Study on Weight Training Duration Per Week
The graph above, from the meta-analysis, shows the J-shaped dose-response for strength training activates and all-cause mortality. As you can see, the benefit maxes out right round 40 to 60 minutes a week. Beyond that, you’re losing benefit.
Once you get to 130 to 140 minutes of strength training per week, your longevity benefit becomes the same as if you weren't doing anything, which is nothing short of shocking. If you train for three to four hours a week, you actually end up with WORSE long-term survival than people who don't strength train!
So, the take-home message here is that 20 minutes twice a week on non-consecutive days, or 40 minutes once a week is the sweet spot. You also don’t want your exercise regimen to center around strength training. It should be an add-on, as you get far greater benefits simply from walking, or any other moderate exercise.
Now, there may be a caveat to this. Conventional strength training involves lifting weights that are anywhere from 70% to 90% of your one-rep max, and that’s the style of weight training most studies are based on.
Category #5: Drugs
Item #1:(No) Statins
Cholesterol is not an issue for heart events. This is very well demonstrated in the research. However, statins are now such a large segment that it is most likely that the medical establishment will never change this recommendation to take statins.
- As is covered in the article Cholesterol Reduction: How Statins Interfere With Proper Cellular Metabolism, these drugs degrade cellular metabolism and make anyone more prone to developing cancer.
- Statins reduce CoQ10 levels by as much as 40%, which can lead to fatigue and other problems associated with reduced energy production.
Don’t Get Vaccinated
One of the easiest ways to improve one's health is not to get vaccinated. Vaccines degrade the immune system, leading to a decreased ability to fight all diseases. They also do the following.
- Vaccines introduce large numbers of animal viruses into the body due to how the viruses in the vaccines are cultured.
- Vaccines often include the virus SV40 (well known to be in the polio vaccines decades back, but recently found in the mRNA covid vaccines). SV40 interferes with the body's normal cancer-fighting processes.
- Vaccines cause generalized inflammation, which is a precursor to not only all diseases but to specific diseases like autism, auto-immune disease, heart inflammation, etc.
- Vaccines are a great future business generator for the medical system.
- Once you actually investigate the history of vaccines, the entire presentation of vaccines to the public by MDs and the medical establishment is entirely credibility-eliminating. The vast majority of MDs have never investigated the history of vaccines and accept what they were told in medical school.
We cover the reasons not to get vaccinated in more detail in the article Why We Are Anti-Vaxxers.
Entresto, Spironolactone and Furosemide Replacement Plan
Many people are on the drug Entresto, Spironolactone, and Furosemide after a heart event. The following are things to replace these items specifically.
Entresto Side Effects
This medication may also cause a decrease in liver function. If you experience symptoms of liver problems such as fatigue, feeling unwell, loss of appetite, nausea, yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes, dark urine, pale stools, abdominal pain or swelling, and itchy skin, contact your doctor immediately.
Additionally, these two medications can decrease the amount of sodium and fluid in the body. Increased amounts of sodium and fluid in those with heart failure often lead to symptoms of swelling, weight gain, and shortness of breath.
The problem is that MDs recommend that patients keep their potassium levels low. However, potassium, particularly substantial potassium doses in the range of 600 MG per day (spread out through the day) will do some of the things that Entresto is doing — without side effects.
Entresto, Carvedilols, Spironolactone, and Furosemide Replacement Areas
These areas are addressed below.
Entresto Replacement Area #1: Improving Fatty Acid Metabolism in the Heart
CoQ10 and Acetyl L Carnitine both improve heart function by improving the cellular metabolism of the heart (in addition to other cells in the body)
General Cardiovascular Improvement #2: Improving the Lining of the Cardiovascular System
The best natural way of replicating this effect is with turmeric.
Carvedilol Replacement Area #3: Replicating Carvedilols Effect as a Vasodiolater
The best natural way of replicating this effect is with beets.
General Cardiovascular Improvement #4: For Building the Cardiovascular System Structure
Spironolactone and Furosemide Replacement Area #5: Proper Fluid Balance
Items and Dosage
All of the dosages are assuming the use of powders.
#1: For Fatty Acid Metabolism
CoQ10
- 1/8th of a teaspoon 1x per day
Acetyl L Carnitine
- 1/5th of a teaspoon 1x per day
#2: For The Lining of the Cardiovascular System
Turmeric helps improve the lining of the cardiovascular system — improving the efficiency of blood flow.
Turmeric
- 1/2 of a teaspoon 2x per day.
#3: For Vasodilation
See this description of vasodilation from Wikipedia.
Vasodilation, also known as vasorelaxation, is the widening of blood vessels. It results from relaxation of smooth muscle cells within the vessel walls, in particular in the large veins, large arteries, and smaller arterioles. The process is the opposite of vasoconstriction, which is the narrowing of blood vessels. The primary function of vasodilation is to increase blood flow in the body to tissues that need it most. This is often in response to a localized need for oxygen but can occur when the tissue in question is not receiving enough glucose, lipids, or other nutrients. Localized tissues have multiple ways to increase blood flow, including releasing vasodilators, primarily adenosine, into the local interstitial fluid, which diffuses to capillary beds, provoking local vasodilation.
Beet Powder
- 1/2 of a tablespoon 2x per day.
#4: For Building the Cardiovascular System Structure
Glycine or Collagen Peptides
- 1/3 of a tablespoon 2x per day.
Must be taken with Vitamin C or ascorbic acid and salt. Vitamin C and salt work together along with collagen inputs like glycine to manufacture collagen.
#5: Fluid Balance
Spironolactone and Furosemide are two diuretics commonly prescribed after heart events. They can both be replaced with potassium which is a diuretic. Even the way Spironolactone works is to reduce potassium excretion. This is done instead of giving patients more potassium. The very description of how Spironolactone functions is very odd. This quote is from Drug.com.
Spironolactone is a potassium-sparing diuretic (water pill) that prevents your body from absorbing too much salt and keeps your potassium levels from getting too low.
Why would anyone do this rather than just increase potassium intake?
To make sure spironolactone is safe for you, tell your doctor if you have:
an electrolyte imbalance (such as low levels of calcium, magnesium, or sodium in your blood);
kidney disease;
liver disease; or
heart disease.
Why are these things an issue? Does Spironolactone place a load on the kidneys, liver, or heart? This is a deceptive way that medicine writes where they don’t come out and say what the negative interaction is — but instead, they simply ask you to tell your MD if you have these issues. They also place the guilt on the patient rather than the drug. The problem is not that the drug damages important organs, but that the patient has a low tolerance for having their organs damaged as they already have a compromised organ. It is a very deceptive way of reversing the responsibility for organ damage.
Spironolactone has caused tumors in animals but it is not known whether this could occur in people.
Why would anyone accept a drug that causes tumors — when the drug is simply replacing potassium supplementation?
Potassium
- 1/2 of a teaspoon (roughly 200 MG) 2x per day.
Note on Potassium Supplements
I have tested both potassium pills and potassium powder at the same dosage, comparing the Nature’s Way brand with the Bulk Supplements brand. I had much more success with the Bulk Supplements potassium powder. Powder supplements are also considerably less expensive than pills and can be purchased in higher volumes, further reducing the price.
Frequency and Absorption
These items need to be taken every single day and the potassium needs to be taken multiple times per day. Three times per day is a good amount. The logic for taking these items multiple times per day is to increase absorption rather than taking a large amount one time per day.
A Synopsis of the Effect of Entresto, Entresto, Spironolactone, and Furosemide Replacement Items as Well as General Improvement
With these items, we are doing the following.
- Increasing cardiovascular function through increasing cellular metabolism.
- Removing excess water from the body.
- Increasing blood vessel size.
- Improving fatty acid metabolism (the preferred metabolic pathway of the heart).
- Improving the endothelium or lining of the cardiovascular system.
- Building a better cardiovascular system
First-Hand Experience With This List of Supplements
I am currently taking all of these items and have been for roughly a year, except for potassium which I have been taking for a few weeks.
I have not had any problems taking these items; each is considered safe. It is proposed that potassium supplementation should be lower than this, as it could interfere with heart function. However, I have had no problems with taking much higher levels of potassium than the medical establishment proposes. And with my deliberately high sodium intake, without significantly higher potassium than is recommended, I began to retain water in my left ankle and foot. At around 600 MG of potassium per day, using the right type of potassium, my fluid balance normalized.
High potassium intake allows for high salt intake, which I have been doing for roughly six months. This is because sodium and potassium work in opposition to one another regarding the body’s fluid balance (with salt causing fluid retention and potassium causing fluid removal). This contradicts the medical establishment’s claims that one must reduce salt intake. Salt has very little impact on blood pressure (again contradicting the medical establishment’s claim) but has a powerful effect on fluid retention.
- I first attempted to get the right amount of potassium from foods (again, the recommended approach) but found this approach ineffective.
- The potassium I have had the most success with is potassium chloride. See this link at Amazon.
Conclusion
This list is not complete.
We will add to this list as we continue to find new items.
One of the nice things about this list is its dual purpose. Everything on it is anti-heart disease and good for overall health. Of course, this is not coincidental. The better one’s health, the less likely one is to develop cancer.
The medical establishment prefers that people not focus on these items because they want to focus on expensive heart disease treatments.
Recommended Suppliers
We don't have a testing program for supplements. However, we use a combination of Life Extension brand supplements and Bulk Supplements (this is a brand in addition to a description of the supplement). Supplements purchased in larger bags usually have much better value than pill supplements. Both of these are available at Amazon. We buy nearly all of our supplements from Amazon.