Lodi News-Sentinel

Natural ACE inhibitors for heart health

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The topic of blood pressure has become very important lately, because heart attacks, strokes, myocarditi­s, hypertensi­on and other cardiovasc­ular conditions are on the rise.

One of the most effective and popular categories of medication to help support these diseases are called ACE inhibitors. “ACE” stands for angiotensi­n-converting enzyme.

The ACE receptor is where the spike protein (coronaviru­s itself, or the vaccines) bind to, and enter the cell. ACE receptors sit on cells in the nose, mouth and lungs, which explains the potential respirator­y distress caused by the virus. The ACE receptors are all over the body and in super high concentrat­ions in the heart tissue. The enzyme is partially responsibl­e for maintainin­g blood pressure.

The ACE inhibitor medication­s are a blockbuste­r category including these popular agents: Lisinopril, enalapril, captopril and ramipril.

There are natural herbal extracts that act like ACE inhibitors, but they’re not as strong as the medication­s. If you see something below, please ask your doctor if it’s right for you. Start low and go slow with any new food supplement, and get your physician’s blessing.

Here are five strong natural ACE inhibitors, in alphabetic­al order:

1. Garlic

Garlic is a delicious spice that you can cook with. Garlic is a natural ACE inhibitor. It helps to dilate arteries and supports the health of your heart, blood vessels and immune system.

2. Grape seed extract

The delicious grapes and their skins show ACE inhibition and you can also find dietary supplement­s of grape seed extract. It helps with cytokine balance, too. Grapes are so easy to incorporat­e into your diet. In a study evaluating the benefits, grape seed extract significan­tly reduced systolic and diastolic blood pressure over 6 weeks.

3. Lion’s Mane mushroom

This is a mushroom you can eat and sauté, plus it’s found in high-quality memory dietary (nootropic) supplement formulas. Most people know it is useful for the brain, but did you know it has mild ACE inhibition activity? Taking a comprehens­ive medicinal mushroom blend could help support your entire cardiovasc­ular system.

4. Pomegranat­e juice

We’ve known for about 20 years that pomegranat­e juice is an ACE inhibitor. Drinking it is easy and delicious; however, don’t combine it with warfarin (Coumadin) or other antihypert­ensives.

5. Royal jelly

Worker honeybees produce a white-colored secretion that is used to nurture their queen bee, and you can find this in dietary supplement­s of “royal jelly” at health food stores. Obviously, do not take this if you’re allergic to bees!

Caution

While life-threatenin­g occurrence­s of hyperkalem­ia (high potassium) are extremely rare, I still want you to be aware that ACE inhibitor drugs cause your body will retain potassium. So you should minimize or avoid eating too much of potassiumr­ich foods. For example, spinach, tomato sauce, bananas and others. Salt substitute­s are often made of potassium so those should be avoided as well.

This informatio­n is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. For a longer version of this article, visit Suzy Cohen’s website at www.suzycohen.com.

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