Do Any Supplements Reverse Heart Disease? A Cardiologist’s Review

Introduction to Evidence-Based Supplements 0:00

Well. Hello everybody. Welcome back to Reversing Heart Disease Summit 4.0. This is your host Joel Kahn be mean to you here in 2026. Trying to bring you some helpful information in your journey to avoid heart disease. Identify air disease and reverse heart disease. And I put together a brand new talk on supplements. There may be an adjunct to everything else you're doing to keep your heart healthy, and that is called lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle. We've talked about that in many other places in this informative summit 4.0.

Evidence base reversal of atherosclerosis supplements in 2026. And I am talking specifically about evidence base where there's good data that a clinician could evaluate and say we're going to use that or a baseline good evaluate and say we're going to use that. And we've got this up to date and to complement some of the other talks that I have prepared for this summit. 4.0 so without dilly dallying and without making this real long, let's get right to it. So the point of the picture I'm showing you here, some of you might recognize, I wish every clinician in the world recognize that.

And most hard patients are those that don't want to be our patients. Is this is the results published in 1998, in the journal called Jama Journal American Medical Association, presented by doctor Dean Ornish and other very prominent researchers put in the out of the University of California, San Francisco, where, as you know, Doctor Ornish designed a study that initiated in the 1980s, first published in 1990, and then this five year follow up in 1998, where he demonstrated that the lifestyle hard trial focusing on a whole food plant based diet, walking, stress reduction, yoga, meditation, group support would actually halt or reverse heart disease.

Dean Ornish Lifestyle Trial as the Foundation 1:58

And just to remind you, if you look at the black circles, these are people they volunteered in this study and followed with their cardiologist care without being actually part of an experimental group. And over five years, the amount of narrowing in their heart arteries got worse and worse, started at 40.7%, narrowed on average in their heart, arteries rose of 51.9%, narrowed on average in their heart errors. But Doctor Ornish demonstrated that our disease is reversible to an extent over five years using just lifestyle.

And then the white squares. The amount of narrowing at baseline was 41.3% narrowed across the heart arteries, and that dropped it dropped to 37.3 with the lifestyle treatment. So this is always going to be our touchstone. I'm not offering to you that supplements will do it and you can ignore the lifestyle. Oh no. And this talk is not about prescription medication. We'll get into that at other points. Oh no. This is about supplements and and on to optimal scientifically proven lifestyle okay. So supplements a may reverse cancer's grosses can be quite a mouthful, particularly the first two.

But we're going to go through them and show you a little tidbits of data. Pick marginal and send Tilikum. They actually are two separate, herbal supplements that end up in one preparation. And they have data. How much data? How impressive data? Well, probably about a dozen studies. But first of all, let me let you see the words. This is from the National Library of Medicine. Pick National and Centella Asiatic. I'm really going to confuse you because Centella Asiatic is a bush largely growing in India that's also known as Zen Telecom.

That's a registered trademark name, and it's also known by name. You might know if you're into supplements, go to cola. Got you. Cola. Nothing to do with Coca Cola. And er for example, is a very important paper from a university in Italy, in Pescara, Italy, if you know the region, the Abruzzo region, pig nodule in Central Asiatic and to prevent asymptomatic after cirrhosis progression and clinical events published in 2017. But first, just a little bit about pig nodule. There's more known about pig nodule than about CIN Telekom, but there's a lot known about both pig nodule is a registered trademark name by a company in Europe for French maritime pine bark.

What do we know about pig? Dogs are very powerful antioxidant in the tissues, in the blood, preventing oxidation of cholesterol, DNA and other factors. It's anti-inflammatory and some of the pathways are known. It actually prevents platelets from sticking and aggregating improves endothelial function. Sounds like a dream supplement.

Pine Bark and Centella for Atherosclerosis 5:00

I actually think it is. And then it has impact on the cellular matrix and the extracellular matrix that's involved in atherosclerosis and other disease processes, like scarring throughout the body. We do know that there is data that pig nodule through these multiple, pathways of activity, can, improve skin insurance studies, support healthy eyes, healthy joints, suborn. Now art and circulation, we're going to talk about some role and women's health, cognitive health, respiratory health, including some data that developed during the pandemic for the use of Pig National to support healthy lungs and even in sports.

But those are all the topics we are going to stick to. Agents and Tilikum in the heart. Just one more quick overview of published science. The energy is powerful. It reduces many markers of inflammation. I'll just point out TNF alpha, the blue one called NF kappa, B cox two and five logs. And these are potentially good impacts on pig marginal. Because so much of cardiovascular disease is inflammation. So going back to the 2017 study, what exactly did they show with this combination that, as far as I know, is available from one a supplement company in a single capsule or two capsules a day if you choose.

But you can also buy Pig Natural. You can bison Tilikum and take them separately. So why am I impressed with this study? Because there were nearly 400 individuals. That's a big study for a supplement company. A study that started and actually completed a four year study. That's also impressive. This is not a four week, eight week, 12 week study. They had carotid ultrasounds that were measured similar. What we do in my clinic with intimate medial thickness and digital assessments. And they found at the end of four years, the progression of plaque in the carotid arteries was significantly lower in the two supplement groups.

The two supplement groups were picked Nadra was and telegram, based on different dosing. There was a control group. So this is a study that had a control arm, which is very important when you're assessing the quality of the study. There also was no funding conflict. There was a reduction in plaque progression in the supplement group with the best effects obtained by the combination of these two herbal agents considering measurements of plaque thickness, length and exogenous city plaques became more dense.

That means probably more calcified and less risky. Now, what's really interesting was that in this fairly large group of people studied over four years, some of them had symptomatic heart disease, not just asymptomatic carotid black. And the amount of angina that was identified was less in the supplement group than in the control group. And actually the number of myocardial infarction that's called to heart attacks was less in the treated group than in the placebo group. Minor transient ischemic attacks I don't know what's minor about a stroke like syndrome, but minor ones were less frequent with the supplements than in controls.

Look at hospitalizations in the controls 16.4% in the treated group with just pick Nashville 8.9%, and with those that were treated with the combination 3.3% rate of hospitalization over four years. The conclusion phenomenal. And the combination, which I think is the optimal approach I'll pick Najib Plus and Tilikum Asiatic up our go to call. If you like that name, reduce the progression of arterial plaques and then progression to clinical stages. The reduction in plaques and clinical progression was associated with a reduction in oxidative stress.

The results justify a larger study I agree, but in the meantime this is the big one. You will have a very hard time finding supplement studies bigger than this with aid control group without other conflicts. Finding both imaging advantages and clinical advantages. This is a supplement combination I'd be using on my practice for over a dozen years. I take it myself every day, even though I have pretty close to plaque free arteries. It's a good one, in my opinion. All right, let's turn to number two age garlic, of all things, a cardiologist in California.

I came back from a trip to Japan about 15 years ago and said those cardiologists in Japan are using age garlic pills and heart patients. So we know that garlic and aged garlic, which is stronger, more potent than regular garlic in your food, can lower blood pressure, homocysteine levels, cholesterol levels and inflammation. So there have been a number of studies, about a dozen of them looking at age garlic tablets and in this case, coronary arteries. How unusual. This is a randomized, double blind, placebo controlled study.

And the authors begin by saying several previous studies have shown that age garlic extract age inhibits the progression of coronary artery calcification and non calcified plaque in the general population. Its effect on black progression in patients with diabetes has not yet been investigated, at least to the best of our knowledge. This study investigated whether Aggy reduces corner plaque volume measured by cardiac computed tomography angiography. That's a wonderful test in patients with diabetes.

80 participants with diabetes mellitus median age of 57 years to 2400mg of age, garlic extract or placebo. Remember, it's a placebo arm. Both groups had a baseline and a one year follow up, with 66 participants completing both parts of the study baseline and follow up. What did they find this right? The top compared with the placebo group, the age garlic extract group exhibited a statistically significant regression

Aged Garlic Extract for Coronary Plaque 11:30

in low attenuation plaque. Low attenuation. Because dangerous plaque, there were no differences measured in other kinds of black like hard, calcified, lower risk plaque. On the whole, this study indicated that the percentage low attenuation plaque change in the age garlic extract group was significantly greater with shrinking of the low attenuation plaque than those in the placebo. Very provocative for a very inexpensive, safe supplement. My patients had been using for over, 12 years. And, really no complaints.

So, age garlic extract gets a fairly high regard. Well, let's turn on this topic. We're talking about supplements and may augment lifestyle and other measures to a seaweed extract called Romulan sulfate. And the seaweed is actually known as mana strong magnetism. It's green seaweed not brown seaweed. Brown seaweed has other properties. And this was a wonderful a series of cases published in 2023 by a physician. I believe she's in the state of Washington. Christine Burke, six patients. She was caring for that had a significant and resistant plaque in the carotid arteries.

They did the advanced, crowded ultrasound called a CMT. And these were plaques that were not going away. Despite other measures that were being done in this clinic. There was no placebo, there was no control arm. Each patient serves as your own control in the fact that they previously had not regress or plaque. They took their seaweed supplement, a commercially available vitamin, daily. I think they took two pills a day and their plaque burden was measured after six months. In every case 6 or 6, the total plaque burden was reduced, with an average reduction in the six patients of 5.55mm, which is statistically significant.

That's a big drop in the CMT. Significant reductions in the maximum carotid plaque thickness were also observed at the end of six months. This study suggests a remnant sulfate from management and the tedium. Green seaweed may provide a safe and effective intervention for reducing atherosclerotic plaque. So interesting report. Commercially available vitamin used in my clinic after we discussed pig nodule and synthetic gum. After we consider age, garlic extract. Not a large study, not a double blind randomized study.

The lead author is a consultant to the company. That's just something that's known, very high integrity physician and all. So it's a consideration to look for this particular supplement. All right. Here's a hot topic. If you spend some time on Instagram or TikTok and other social media sites, you will see post after post about natto kinase as a substitute for aspirin as a blood thinner that has advantages over aspirin is what is being claimed. And you would think that there was a brand new, large, double blind, randomized study.

Well, everybody goes to this paper about four years old, and it is not a double blind randomized study is a large study. 1062 people with atherosclerosis, who they found

Seaweed Extract Case Series 15:00

in a retrospective study in a database, who is taking that, a kinase. Now, the kinase is a natural blood thinner that comes from the natto being it's an enzyme, but it's also known to have the potential to lower blood pressure, cholesterol and plaque. And who wasn't taking that again? And if they weren't taken out of context, what dose were they taking? So this says that a kinase known as a potent fibrin analytic and antithrombotic agent, that means a blood thinner has been shown to have anti atherosclerotic and lipid lowering effects.

All the data on human clinical studies are limited in this clinical study involving 1062 participants, our objective was to examine the efficacy of Neda kinase in atherosclerosis and hyperlipidemia and safety at the dose of 10,800 F.U. That stands for Fiber Analytic Units per day. After 12 months, all and various factors that influence its action were investigated. We found then that a kind of at a dose of 10,800 vibrant clinical units per day effectively manage the progression of atherosclerosis and hyperlipidemia, with a significant improvement in the lipid panel, a significant reduction that the thickness of the carotid artery, a median the size of the carotid plaque, was observed.

Their improvement rates ranged from 66 to 95% better. They did fine. It was ineffective if you took a lower dose because people could take whatever dose they were. So if you took one third of the dose, 3600 fiber analytic units per day, it didn't work. And a lot of the Neda kind of supplements out there are in the lower range. Very few are in this 10,800. Fibrin, a lot of care today. So if you look at table four from this paper, change in the thickness of the intermedia of the common carotid artery, you'll see that there were 683 people in the sample.

The CMT measurement was 1.33mm before and 1.04mm thickness after. Those are thick, right.

Nattokinase Evidence and Limitations 17:10

And those were quite abnormal. So there was a 22% change improvement shrinking under the plaque, or at least the measurement of the intermediate thickness as what was reported. There are some limitations associated with this study. Although the sample size is large, it represents a retrospective study, not a randomized control study. The availability and reliability of information is therefore limited. For example, self claiming information lifestyle cannot be validated. They weren't absolutely certain how healthy these people were living.

The study did not include follow up interviews, things that change in the patient's life. No current information on the long term benefits of the participants, and the study is based on a record review there. There are no further data available to allow us to investigate the mechanism. Oh yeah, the kindness. I do have to point out that 12345 the authors were employed by the company that made Neda kinase for the study. So it is something that one has to be aware of. In summary, the studies suggest that medications may have activity.

Now, when you look at what's been, blasted all over social media, you'd think that this was a perfectly done, prospective, double blind, randomized study with long term follow up. And in fact, it wasn't. It's intriguing. I do use Natta kinase, and some of my patients, a lot of them use it when they first come to the clinic. They're already on it. Most of them are not at this dose 10,800. And I would be very cautious if somebody was on warfarin coming in. Our fanatics are Eliquis Xarelto serious orally active blood thinners because the potential for bleeding in the combination.

All right. Let's switch to another supplement. Pomegranate juice consumption for three years by patients with carotid artery stenosis reduces common carotid into media thickness, blood pressure, and LDL oxidation. A paper that's 22 years old. There are other papers on pomegranates and what they found was that oxidized LDL. These people drank eight ounces of unsweetened bomb juice, pomegranate juice. This was not the whole kernel. This was not a tablet. This was the juice. Oxidize LDL, dropped systolic blood pressure, dropped about 12%, up to three years.

Serum lipid oxidation drop suggests a pomegranate juice consumption by patients with carotid artery stenosis decreases carotid interval, medial thickness measurements, and systolic blood pressure. So an interesting study that can be read. And the others, that can be searched. But there isn't a brand new overwhelming one that's convinced me I have to have all my patients eating and drinking pomegranates. If you like them, do it. Good food. All right. What about the controversy all over the map on omega three fatty acids?

Could be foods like chia seed, flax seed, hemp parts, walnuts, leafy greens. Could be a vegan algae oil or ahi flour supplement could be, of course, eating fish. The cold water fatty fish like, salmon, mackerel,

Pomegranate Juice and Carotid Health 20:30

anchovy, herring and sardines could be fish oil capsules. So this paper in 2021 is one of the few that looked at in 53 people that were taking fish oil and 53 people that were not. But it was not a randomized study. They found 53 on fish oil and found 53, not a fish. While they did match them as much as possible for similar age, gender, risk profile and lifestyle habits. And they did a study, Andrew Graham on them. But it was not the kind of study that we've seen previously where they did want a baseline. I want to follow up.

Why did they conclude those that were on omega three fish oil, fatty acid supplementation had less of a high risk plaque called lipid rich or low attenuation plaque and lower total non calcified plaque burden. Our study suggests there may be a direct anti after genic effect of omega three polyunsaturated fatty acids. I think you'd agree this is intriguing. Many people need to supplement omega three through food and supplements, because blood tests show such low levels and there may be a benefit, but we can't get as excited as a 12,000 patient study that we get with pharmaceutical agents.

All right. And I just wanted to give a shout out for a supplement I've been using for a long time. My clinic, bergamot Bergamot had some people called bergamot. And there are a number of different brands, including a brand called Burger Veet used in this study.

Omega-3s and Plaque Reduction 22:05

It looks like a lemon grows in southern Italy, in a region called Calabria, almost exclusively in that region. 50 years ago, it was an observation that people that ate this bergamot citrus in their diet in southern Italy had exceptionally good health. So they created supplements and there are many dozens of papers. But in this paper, bergamot reduces plasma lipids, antigenic, small, dense LDL and subclinical atherosclerosis in subjects with moderate hyper cholesterol. Amy has a six month prospective study.

Doctor Peter Toth, the first author, is a very well known American cholesterol expert. As you can see by the names of many of the other authors are Italian, which is where they produce and research. Bergamo. This is the first study investigating the effects of bergamot flavonoid supplementation on cardio metabolic risk and dyslipidemia. Subjects. People with abnormal cholesterol panels. Verkhovna a bergamot juice extract as a capsule supplementation significantly reduced plasma lipids at a class called venom and improve the lipoprotein profile.

CMT crossed into bone meal thickness was also reduced significantly over a relatively short timeframe of six months. So I wanted to include that. And we're going to end with the discussion that comes up all the time. My clinic, vitamin K2, in this case vitamin K2 with vitamin D.

Bergamot for Lipids and Atherosclerosis 23:35

After years, really decades of conversation, the vitamin K2 may help prevent calcification of vascular structures. We finally got 1.5 studies, basically because the study was really looking at calcification of the aortic valve. You can read the title here. Published four years ago. The first randomized double blind control study. I could find a vitamin K2 and vitamin D versus placebo. Looking at did it halt calcification, the Arctic valve. Now it turns out hidden in the paper was data on the corner artery calcium score.

This was not a coronary CT angiogram study. We can't talk about soft plaque, a low attenuation plaque and what they found. I'm going to read you the conclusion and the results of progression in aortic and corner artery calcification score was not significantly different between the patients treated with NCS and vitamin K2, plus vitamin D and patients receiving placebo. There was no defense of red to heart valve surgery or cardiovascular events compared with patients in the placebo arm, there was a significant reduction in a marker of oxidation in those taking the vitamin.

Conclusion. And elderly men were they aortic valve calcification score greater than 300 in the Arctic. Now, two years of an K seven plus vitamin D did not influence air valve calcification progression. So number one, the dose used in this study was high 720 micrograms of vitamin K two Mk7. If you're taking vitamin K2, you're probably taking 100 microgram or 150 microgram. This was 720 microgram. Number two, it wasn't a very large study, you know, in the range of 300 patients. It wasn't a very long study in the range of two and a half years.

Vitamin K2 and Vitamin D for Calcification 25:35

It's hard to do this research. In fact, just two years of follow up. Number three, if you read the paper detail, the key word is statistical significance. You know, a typical evaluation. Can we claim that it wasn't chance? And more likely than not, the vitamin K2, vitamin D combination, reduced valve calcification. And also the date is in the paper and Coronado calcification. So it turns out there was a trend of less calcification progression in both the Eric valve and the heart arteries, but it wasn't statistically significant if they had 3000 patients, or if they did this for six years, would they have found and come to a different conclusion?

I suspect that's the case, but I don't know. So to conclude, supplements may reverse atherosclerosis. And remember, on top of lifestyle, as doctor Dean Ornish and others have shown, along with prescription medication if needed, the combination of Pic knowledge and the French maritime bind back with Centella gum. Asiatic, which is available in a combination in a capsule, is well supported. Aged garlic reasonably well supported arteries sell the green seaweed product reasonably well supported in case studies.

Now the kinase we talked about some limitations pomegranate omega three high dose vitamin K two and bergamot. So thank you for paying attention to this presentation and I hope you enjoy the rest of this. 2026 summit. 4.0. Thank you.