Best Heart Herbs

Heart health is the top-selling pharmaceutical drug category. It’s also in the top-five supplement categories. Is there room for more growth in the supplements category pertaining to heart health?

“Supplements have tremendous room for growth in heart health,” says Dan Murray, vice president of business development at Xsto Solutions.

Niacin is perhaps the oldest cardio ingredient, and while Murray says it “doesn’t have the ‘newness factor’,” compared with other Johnny-come-latelys, companies are still interested in the old standby because it uniquely works on the entire blood-lipid profile and not just singular factors such as LDL cholesterol.

Speaking of cholesterol, lowering cholesterol is probably the most common symptom to address. Soy protein, sterols, fish oil, policosanol, vitamin E, garlic and others all address this element of heart health. Soy and sterols enjoy a bona-fide FDA health claim to this effect, while fish oils rate a qualified health claim. And while fish-oil aficionados may feel snubbed on this account, the ingredient has larger benefits than cardio alone.

“Consumer awareness on the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids are at an all-time high, whether it’s for cardiovascular health or neurological development,” says Patrick Luchsinger, North American marketing manager for Lipid Nutrition.

If a manufacturer comes to think of an ingredient as good for one thing, such as heart health, that ingredient can become stuck in that health-condition box. But there are cases of ingredients migrating. Co-Q10 is an elegant example — it powers the mitochondria, the cells’ power plants, which are abundant in the heart muscle, but it is now used extensively in cosmetics.

Co-Q10 actually has an interesting fate in that, at least for suppliers, the most compelling story may not be its specific targeted health condition but the issue of bioavailability. “Although we do focus on heart health, our main claim for our co-Q10 products is superior absorption, which is always a focus for co-Q10 products,” says Soft Gel Technology’s president Ron Udell.

The need for heart-health solutions compounds daily. Nearly 2400 Americans die of cardiovascular disease (CVD) each day, an average of one death every 36 seconds. CVD claims more lives each year than cancer, chronic lower-respiratory diseases, accidents and diabetes mellitus combined. An estimated 79.4 million American adults (one in three) have one or more types of CVD. Of these, 37.5 million are estimated to be 65 or older, according to NCHS NHANES 1999—2004. Though these numbers don’t exactly add up to the 79.4 million because of extrapolation, the data breakouts are significant, particularly when one considers that many of these conditions could be preventable through diet, supplements, exercise, stress management and refraining from smoking.

High blood pressure — 72 million

Coronary heart disease — 15.8 million

Stroke — 5.6 million

Congenital cardiovascular defects — 650 000 to 1.3 million