You may have a heavy heart as you think about growing older, and there’s a perfectly good reason why. Heart health becomes a major concern with each passing year. Your doctor may start to bring up heart disease and heart attack risk at your annual checkups, reminding you that cardiovascular disease is the number one global cause of death.

According to the latest WHO statistics, more people die from heart disease than from any other cause. ^l The common prescription for heart disease is medication. Thanks to decades of research that now directly links heart disease to unhealthy lifestyle habits, like smoking, lack of exercise, and eating processed foods, many doctors also recommend lifestyle changes to reduce heart disease risk.

Some doctors have even started using a ‘Heart Age’ score to encourage patients to make healthy changes by assessing how their lifestyle has aged their hearts. ²

Make no mistake: these heart-healthy lifestyle changes are critically important, but almost every doctor is missing the final step. Your heart needs two vital nutrients, working in harmony together, to continue beating strong and free from disease.

WHAT MAKES YOU TICK

In cases of heart disease, arterial blockage is caused by unchecked levels of inflammation in the body and can be made worse when the body tries to fix this without the proper nutritional support. Cholesterol and calcium rush to the scene to lay down plaque in an attempt to protect the arterial walls, This plaque build-up becomes even more dangerous as heart disease progresses. If it doesn’t cause premature death in the form of a heart attack, a doctor may order an invasive medical treatment, like a stent, in another attempt to fix the problem. Inserting a stent, or wire mesh, into a clogged artery after a blockage may offer some relief, but it does not address the underlying cause.

We now know, and most doctors agree, that lifestyle changes are critical to calm the inflammation that leads to heart disease, But, contrary to what mainstream medicine tells you, eating a heart-healthy diet does not include whole grains. You can lower dangerous levels of inflammation by cutting out unnatural foods, including the starchy carbohydrates found in whole grains, cereals and processed foods, and by supplementing the missing nutrients your heart needs to grow strong again.

DON’T LOSE HEART

With vitamin D deficiency on the rise, taking a vitamin D3 supplement has become a popular choice. International Journal of Health Sciences researchers now consider vitamin D deficiency to be a global health problem of epidemic proportions? While it’s important to get some vitamin D3 from at least 20 minutes of moderate sun exposure without sunscreen each day, a daily supplement is still vital. Long-term vitamin D3 deficiency, or insufficiency, affecting an estimated one billion people around the world, endangers the health of the heart.

In doing its job to strengthen and protect the heart, vitamin D3 can’t work alone. Like vitamin D3, vitamin K2 is essential to life and health, and it also plays an important role in enhancing the power of vitamin D3 to more effectively guard the heart. In a study conducted on 150 postmenopausal women, taking vitamins D and together was most beneficial in maintaining healthy arterial elasticity, compared to taking a vitamin D mineral supplement or a placebo.’

Vitamins D3 and K2 are a winning combination. especially when it comes to improving heart health. Working together, these two vitamins can help to clear dangerous calcium build-up in the arteries, correct hormonal imbalances, strengthen immunity, support joint health, ward off dementia, and even reverse osteoporosis. ⁵ Far before heart disease becomes a reality, vitamins D3 and 1<2 can build a strong and healthy foundation to protect against more serious damage to the heart.