Quercetin - Improves Heart Health

When I decided to write my blog I had one fundamental reason, and it was a very personally selfish reason. I wanted to learn how to stay healthy. I was really tired of being sick. I have had a heart attack and laid on that blacktop in a parking lot for a very long time before I was able to do anything but cough and force myself to breath. When I finally crawled to my car and pulled myself inside I could not believe how much my back and chest hurt. It felt like I had been shot several times. About five or six weeks later my doctor agreed to see me and told me I had a bad heart. I lost my temper and decided I had to find a way to take care of myself. It has now been several years since the attack, and in my last physical I was told my heart is really strong & healthy. I accomplished this by refusing to take any drugs. It has been a constant search for alternative methods that have given me the good health I have today. I hope you can see why quercetin is so important to me. This is a quick examination of how it helps the heart and eliminates the use of drugs, whose side effects are many times more dangerous than if you take no medication. It is also a lot more affordable.

Heart disease is a major killer in America. Research has found that quercetin and resveratrol can have a direct link to the solving of this horrible problem. Researchers have found that if an individual increases the dietary intake of quercetin-rich foods he should experience a reduction in the risk of heart disease being the cause of death. Spanish researchers found in 2000, red wine carrying quercetin and related antioxidants, restricted activity of inflammation-promoting NF-kappa in human volunteers, furnishing a large part of the explanation of how red wine lowers heart disease mortality.

British researchers demonstrated in 2004, that when human’s ingested quercetin supplements there was substantial lessening of platelet aggregation, indicating another of quercetin’s cardiovascular health benefits is related to lowering the risk of clotting. Later, this same group of researchers demonstrated that dietary intake of quercetin from onion soup also helped stop platelet aggregation. In another study of 30 men with heart disease, Greek cardiologists demonstrated that a red grape polyphenol extract rich in quercetin produced an increasing flow-mediated dilation of the major arteries, this was a potent indicator of improved endothelial health.

What happens if a person uses quercetin supplements alone and how would they affect their blood pressure? The University of Utah created a study in 2007 to answer this question. Nineteen students in the study had pre-hypertension and then there were twenty two more students with stage 1 hypertension. Each student was supplemented with either a placebo or 730 mg quercetin per day for a total of 28 days. Pre-hypertensive patients were not affected by the supplements. However, the hypertensive group experienced a reduction in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure; averaging 7mmHg and 5mmHg reductions, these changes were meaningful changes that lowered the vascular disease risk.

A second study, in 2008, a randomized, placebo-controlled cross over trial in 12 healthy men showed biochemical evidence of improved endothelial function with as little as 200 mg/day quercetin.

When you put these studies together, the study results point to how quercetin can carry out an important role in protecting cardiovascular health.

I just found another point I would like to make you aware of. I found this information when I checked with Vitamin Research Products and found this information prepared by their Staff.

In short they have found research that shows quercetin is involved in regulating a gene that protects against LDL cholesterol oxidation. Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) protects low – density lipoprotein (LD) cholesterol from the oxidation process. PON 1 is a major anti-atherosclerotic protein component of the “good” cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.

In one study the researchers investigated the role quercetin played in regulating PON1 expression in rats. In short, the researchers found that quercetin increased the rats receiving quercetin had an increased expression of PON1 by 35%, and serum PON1 increase of 29 percent.
The study authors concluded, “Our data suggest that quercetin has antiatherogenic effect by up regulating PON1 gene expression and its protective capacity against LDL oxidation”

Let me add one other thought. Quercetin is an anti-inflammatory supplement. Inflammation has a direct affect on the total coronary and will kill you if it is not controlled. But the inflammation does not limit it self to just the coronary system. If you have sore joints it is because of inflammation. So quercetin has a very broad impact on the body.

Yes this is another reason why I am using quercetin. I have a sore back and really bad knee. So I had a lot of inflammation and the quercetin has really helped cut the pain.