Adjunctive Treatments for Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart failure occurs when heart muscle is damaged. This damage can occur from a number of causes. Those causes can include; a heart attack, chronic hypertension, coronary artery disease, an infection, drugs or toxins. The heart can be weakened to the point that it is unable to pump enough oxygen-rich blood to meet the body’s requirements.

Approximately 5 million Americans suffer from congestive heart failure. Congestive heart failure is a contributing factor in approximately 300,000 deaths a year.

Congestive heart failure may go unnoticed in its early stages. The weakened heart compensates by enlarging and thickening, so it can beat stronger and faster, but like any overworked muscle, it can’t keep up indefinitely. Eventually fatigue, shortness of breath, edema (fluid retention) and other symptoms occur.

Conventional treatment includes prescription drugs to reduce the heart’s workload, but this doesn’t address the real problem, which is that the heart muscle is simply running out of steam.

This is a congestive heart failure protocol from Dr. Julian Whitaker:

1. Supplements that increase ATP production. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the energy that fuels our cells and myocardial (heart muscle) cells are voracious consumers of ATP. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), L-carnitine, magnesium and ribose have been independently shown to improve cardiac reserves, exercise tolerance and ejection fraction (a measure of the heart’s pumping efficiency) in patients with heart failure. But when used in combination, they’re particularly effective. Dr. Whitaker recommends 200–600 mg of CoQ10, 1,000 mg of L-carnitine, 500–1,000 mg of magnesium and 10–15 g ribose, taken daily in divided doses.

2. A high-potency multinutrient, extra vitamin D and fish oil. People with congestive heart failure are often low in a wide range of water-soluble nutrients. One reason is because fluid overload is a characteristic of congestive heart failure and diuretic drugs are often necessary. Dr. Whitaker states that while tese drugs may be helpful, vitamins and minerals are lost along with excess fluids. In one study of congestive heart failure patients, researchers linked low levels of vitamin C with elevated C-reactive protein (a marker of inflammation), worsening heart failure and higher death rates.

Vitamin D deficiency was also shown in a 2012 study to be highly prevalent in congestive heart failure—and supplemental vitamin D reduced the death rate in these patients.

Other beneficial supplements that should be included in treatment for congestive heart failure are selenium, vitamin E and other antioxidants; folic acid, thiamine and additional B-complex vitamins and fish oil. Dr Whitaker recommends a high-potency multinutrient, extra Vitamin D and at least 2,000 mg of fish oil daily.

3. Stem cell therapy - Perhaps the most exciting new treatment for congestive heart failure is stem cell therapy because it has the potential of replacing damaged cardiac muscle with new tissue.

The Lancet reported results of a small study involving patients with congestive heart failure who were treated with cardiac stem cells, collected from each patient during surgery, purified and later infused into their damaged hearts. Following treatment for congestive heart failure, ejection fraction increased by 8 percentage points, and MRIs revealed a 30% decrease in dead heart muscle tissue after a year. Study participants also had notable improvements in activity level and quality of life.

4. Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) - EECP is a noninvasive treatment for congestive heart failure that dramatically increases blood flow to the heart and throughout the body. Used primarily for angina and coronary artery disease, it is also a proven treatment for congestive heart failure.

One study showed that EECP significantly raises levels of circulating endothelial progenitor cells (stem cells from the bone marrow that repair the endothelium, the all-important lining of the arteries) and that this likely helps explain EECPs enduring benefits.

Dr. Whitaker does not suggest that EECP is a replacement for stem cell therapy, but given the scarcity of effective conventional treatments for congestive heart failure and the seriousness of congestive heart failure, appropriate use of EECP, in his opinion, would be very beneficial.

If you have congestive heart failure, you should consult your doctor to get their input prior to implementing any of Dr. Whitaker’s protocols.

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