Whilst there’s no substitute for a healthy diet and regular exercise for maintaining cardiovascular health, there are a number of vitamins, antioxidants and fatty acids which have been shown in studies to support heart health. 

When shopping around for a ‘heart health supplement’, it’s important to look for a product that contains an efficacious mix of the correct ingredients. Below, the Supplement Needs team takes you on a tour through some of the most common substances that are associated with healthy heart function. 

What are the best supplements for your heart? 

Leaf through the newspaper, and you’re bound to see the occasional story about various ingredients and their purported benefits for heart health. 

However, some ingredients/substances have a stronger evidence base and correlation with cardiovascular health than others. Below, you’ll find examples of those ingredients/substances that have been linked to the maintenance of normal heart function. 

Omega fatty acids

Perhaps the substances that are most commonly linked in the public consciousness with heart health are Omega fatty acids. 

Of the Omega fatty acids that are most closely linked with heart support Omega-3 is perhaps the fatty acid that has the strongest evidence base. 

As a study in Pharmacological Research (Casula M, Olmastroni E, Gazzotti M et al., 2020) indicates, ‘A meta-analysis found that use of Omega-3 supplements of <1 capsule/day was not associated with all cause mortality, but among participants with a risk of cardiovascular disease, taking a higher dose was associated with a reduction in cardiac death and sudden death’. 

Why Omega-3 should have this effect remains up for debate, however, the study authors did speculate that ‘Omega-3 fatty acids have anti-inflammatory and anti-hypertriglyceridemia effects’. 

Instead of being a single acid, Omega-3 actually refers to a group of polyunsaturated fats. These fats (of which a total of 11 have been identified by scientists) are considered ‘essential’ - meaning they are required for the healthy functioning of the body, but cannot be synthesised endogenously. Instead, you must source these fats from external sources (e.g. foodstuffs).

The Omega-3 fatty acids that are most commonly found in foodstuffs (and supplements) are Alpha-Linolenic-Acid (ALA), Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA), and Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA). 

Supplements containing Omega-3: if you’re keen to supplement your diet with Omega-3, then why not try Supplement Needs Omega-3 or Supplement Needs Omega PRO+?

Thiamine

Thiamine (which is better known by many people as Vitamin B1) is one of the B vitamins that is primarily responsible for converting carbohydrates into usable energy. It does this as it takes the form of thiamin pyrophosphate (TPP) - the coenzyme for the transfer of active aldehyde in carbohydrate metabolism. 

But, did you know that Thiamine can potentially support normal heart function, too? 

Thiamine can affect heart health in two ways. Firstly, a severe deficiency of Thiamine can result in the development of hypotension (a.k.a. very low blood pressure). Thiamine deficiency can also result in beriberi (tingling and numbness in the feet and hands).

Secondly, some studies have suggested that Thiamine supplementation can potentially support heart health. As a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology (Yamada Y, Kusakari Y, Akaoka M et al. 2021) found, ‘Thiamine treatment preserves cardiac function against ischemia injury via maintaining mitochondrial size and ATP levels'. 

Further, given that Thiamine helps to create ATP - the body’s energy substrate - a lack of Thiamine in the diet can result in how well the heart works. In layman’s terms; without sufficient levels of Thiamine, your heart won’t get the energy it needs to pump and function effectively. 

Supplements containing Thiamine - want to add Thiamine to your diet? Then consider Supplement Needs Heart Stack, which contains 25mg of Thiamine HCL per 6 capsule serving.

Garlic

Yes, believe it or not, but Garlic (or, if you prefer its binomial name, Allium Sativum), has been linked with supporting normal heart health. 

Garlic is packed with vitamins and minerals - including Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Manganese, and Selenium - however, there is one stand-out ingredient that is purported to be the most beneficial - an antioxidant called Allicin. 

A number of scientists believe that Allicin can act as an anti-inflammatory, helping to lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure. 

This isn’t mere supposition, either. Although the evidence base remains small, there are some compelling studies - take, Cellular Mechanisms Underlying the Cardioprotective Role of Allicin on Cardiovascular Diseases, for example. This study reports that ‘Allicin exerts beneficial effects on various CVD risk factors, through the regulation of intracellular signalling pathways and mechanisms that improve cardiovascular structure and function’. 

Supplements containing Allicin - you can add Allicin to your diet with the following supplements; Supplement Needs Heart Stack.

Vitamin E

Another organic compound that can support heart health is Vitamin E - and is something you should be looking for in any supplement that claims to support cardiovascular function. 

Despite its name, Vitamin E doesn’t refer to a single compound, but rather a group of eight antioxidants. These can be further split into two discrete groups; tocopherols, and tocotrienols. 

The tocopherols are:

  • Alpha-Tocopherol.
  • Beta-Tocopherol.
  • Gamma-Tocopherol.
  • Delta-Tocopherol.

The Tocotrienols are:

  • Alpha-Tocotrienol.
  • Beta-Tocotrienol.
  • Gamma-Tocotrienol.
  • Delta-Tocotrienol.

Together, these antioxidants play several important roles within the body, most notably protecting against oxidative stress and protecting the fatty acids in your cell membranes. 

Epidemiological data also suggests that Vitamin E can have a protective effect upon cardio health. One large study of 39,910 men - the Health Professions Follow-up Study - reached the conclusion that Vitamin E supplementation can potentially result in a reduced ‘relative risk’ of cardiovascular disease. As the study summarised, ‘The decrease in cardiovascular mortality was primarily evident in men who consumed supplemental sources of Vitamin E’. 

When selecting a supplement, make sure that you check exactly what type of Vitamin E it contains. As we mentioned above, Vitamin E is actually a group of antioxidants. 

For a premium example, consider Supplement Needs Heart Stack. This contains EvNolMax - which is a full spectrum Tocotrienol and Tocopherol blend that contains all eight forms of Vitamin E combined with Red Palm Extract. 

​​Supplements containing Vitamin E - try Supplement Needs Heart Stack which contains all eight forms Vitamin E.

CoQ10

The rather unusual sounding ‘CoQ10’ is another biochemical cofactor that is commonly found in supplements for ‘heart health’. 

As a cofactor, it's the job of CoQ10 (also known as Ubiquinone) to help your body convert food into usable energy (ATP) for your body’s metabolic processes. As we saw earlier, your heart requires sufficient energy to function properly. 

However, as an antioxidant, CoQ10 also protects the body from oxidative stress. It’s this characteristic that has led scientists to link CoQ10 with healthy heart function. As one scientific review found, ‘There is growing evidence that CoQ10 is tightly linked to cardio metabolic disorders. Its supplementation can be useful in a variety of chronic and acute disorders’. 

A further study in the British Journal of Cardiology (Coenzyme Q10 and cardiovascular disease: an overview, 2015), concluded that, ‘CoQ10 has at least three functions of relevance to the cardiovascular system, namely its role in cellular energy production, its role as an an