Transcription
One of the supplements that you're taking could actually be damaging your heart. In fact, a lot of the most common supplements that seniors take, the ones marketed for bone strength, energy, especially weight loss, and even heart health, are actually doing more harm than good.
Sometimes the way you take it, I see it every week. People doing their best, but actually just flying blind. They watch a few videos, then they buy 10 different supplements, and they end up with supplement routines that just don't really work. They actually work against them, not for them.
So, that's why in this video, you're going to learn about five of the most common supplements that are thought to be really healthy, but can actually be dangerous, especially after age 60. But here's the part most people miss: there are better options. So, we're not just going to talk about what to avoid. We're going to show you what to do instead.
There's something else that I want to share, and it's at the end. It's the number one mistake I see seniors making when it comes to supplements. It's so common, most people don't even realize that they're doing it. Fixing that one thing can change everything.
So, let's get into that first supplement. Supplement number one, calcium. For decades, this was considered to be one of the most important supplements you could take, especially after age 60, and especially for women after menopause. It was practically standard for bone health, for aging well, for preventing fractures. Doctors recommended it. Grocery stores kept it front and center, and most people didn't even think twice.
But in recent years, the science has started to shift. There are some people that need to take calcium, but not so many anymore. In fact, most don't. Because when this nutrient comes in the form of a daily pill, especially in large doses, it may be quietly raising your risk for something far more serious than brittle bones.
Let me tell you about Joan. She's 68, healthy, active, eats well, walks every day. Her doctor put her on a supplement to help protect her bones. A thousand milligrams or a gram of calcium per day. She's been taking it for months. No red flags. But when we checked her cardiovascular labs, we ran a scan similar to a carotid ultrasound. We found something that we really didn't expect. Her plaque had progressed. It was not the way it should have been, and her inflammation markers were up, and nothing else had changed except for one new daily habit.
And that's what made us dig deeper because the truth is, this nutrient behaves very differently when it comes from food. In food, it's absorbed slowly in synergy with other vitamins and minerals. But when taken as a supplement, especially by older adults, it can spike in the bloodstream fast, leading to vascular calcification, impaired blood vessel function, and even higher clotting risk. We've now seen this in multiple large studies. More plaque, more inflammation, more non-fatal heart attacks, especially when this supplement is taken without its natural co-factors.
And again, what's that supplement? Calcium. When you take it in a pill, especially in large doses, it floods your bloodstream quickly. We've seen this now in several large studies. One of the biggest was in 2022. It was a nationwide study out of South Korea. Researchers followed over 11,000 patients with osteoporosis. Those who took the calcium supplements without vitamin D had a 54% higher risk of cardiovascular events, including nearly twice the rate of non-fatal heart attacks. 54% higher for all cardiovascular events and almost twice the rate for non-fatal heart attacks. That's compared to people who didn't supplement at all.
An earlier meta-analysis, that's a study of all the studies in this area. This one was done in the British Medical Journal back in 2010, it came to a similar conclusion. 15 randomized clinical trials, over 12,000 participants, those taking calcium had a 27% higher risk of heart attack, even when their baseline heart risk was low. And it's not just one group saying this, one or two or three. There are other ones, too.
Another review from Nutrients in 2021 showed a 15% increase in overall cardiovascular disease and a 16% increase in coronary heart disease in postmenopausal women taking calcium supplements, especially at doses over 1,000 mg or a gram per day.
Now, what's important here is the pattern. Calcium from food sources doesn't seem to carry the same risks as calcium from supplements. In fact, dietary calcium from leafy greens, dairy, sardines actually appears to be protective. So why does the pill cause problems? Well, there are a few reasons. First, calcium spikes in the bloodstream. These can lead to vascular calcification where calcium deposits in the artery walls instead of in the bones. Second, it can impair the function of the endothelium, the lining of your blood vessels, making it harder for them to dilate and regulate blood flow. And third, it appears to increase the clotting risk, which raises the chance of stroke and heart attack.
These are issues most people never hear about. But for seniors who may already have some vascular stiffness or early plaque or clotting problems, these things matter a lot. Now, this doesn't mean calcium itself is the problem. Your bones still need calcium. How you get it, what you take it with makes a difference. That's where vitamin D, vitamin K2 come in.
In the same 2022 study from South Korea, people who took calcium with vitamin D didn't show the same increase in cardiovascular risk. That's a critical distinction. Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium through the intestines, but more importantly, it helps regulate how much calcium stays in the bloodstream. It acts like a volume knob, helping the body fine-tune levels rather than letting them spike.
But vitamin D3 on its own has benefits, too. It's been associated with lower all-cause mortality, death rates, better immune function, fewer fractures, and decreased vascular risk, cardiovascular risk. But D3 is only half the story. To direct calcium to the right places, you may need to consider K2, specifically MK7. MK form can work in certain situations. We're not going to get that detailed in this video, but K2, vitamin K2, activates proteins that shuttle calcium out of the arteries and into the bones. One of the main proteins that does that is an enzyme called matrix GLA protein. It prevents calcification in vessel walls. The other one is osteocalcin, another enzyme, another protein which helps bind calcium into your bones, into your skeleton.
So when I have a patient like Joan who's thinking about their bones, this is where we start. We focus on getting calcium from food. Dark leafy greens, almonds, tofu, sardines, all of these things that provide calcium the body can regulate and use naturally. We supplement with vitamin D3, usually 5,000 international units per day, and then titrate depending on blood levels. We pair that with K2 around 400 micrograms daily. That combination gives the body what it needs to protect both the skeleton and the vascular system.
So many of my patients were just never told any of this. They were handed a calcium pill and told, "Here, take this every day." They didn't know to ask about heart attack risk, D3, taking calcium in the appropriate forms, K2. None of that was on the agenda. But when we step back and look at the full picture, it becomes a lot clearer. Strong bones don't require risky shortcuts.
I used to think that supplements were just expensive urine. I was classically trained in med school. We talked about pharmacology, medications, prescriptive drugs. I followed everything that the medical schools taught me. And I still ended up building arterial plaque, though. And that caused me to say, "Hmm, I need to take a second look." When I dug into the research, into the evidence, it was clear. There's a key concept that most doctors miss. Supplements can work. They can be very helpful, but only if they're the right supplements combined with the right lifestyle.
Supplement number two, fat burners. I had a patient a few years ago, George. He was 66, retired software engineer, very sharp guy. He came in for some help losing weight. He was eating pretty clean. He was walking daily. There were some things that he could have done in terms of HIIT training, re-hit training. His energy was low. The scale just hadn't moved in months, and he was frustrated.
So, he had done what a lot of other people do. He went online and he bought a natural fat burner. Be careful when you see that. Very careful. In fact, be afraid when you see that because the label had said things like "boost metabolism," "melt fat." It was filled with things like green tea extract, bitter orange, caffeine. He took it for 4 days. On day five, his resting heart rate had jumped from the 60s to the high 90s. He was waking up with palpitations, and one night he ended up in the ER. He was dizzy, had shortness of breath, and the cardiologist ruled out a heart attack, but his blood pressure was just all over the place. It was really high, then it would drop for a little bit and then go way back up. He left with a new diagnosis: paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.
Now, this was a guy who had no history of heart rhythm problems, and the only thing he had changed was that one pill. Now, George isn't some extreme case. I see this pattern more often than people realize, especially in older adults trying to lose weight, and they all want to do it the easy way.
Now, these fat burners are marketed as natural. People think because they're a supplement, they're more natural than prescriptive medications in this category. Be careful. And they also think that, you know what, again, I don't want to do the hard work associated with this. All of this makes them feel safe with a supplement. But the truth is, the supplements are usually full of stimulants, and the way they affect the 30-year-old body is totally different from how they affect somebody at 60 or 70 years old.
Most of them include compounds like synephrine, a chemical cousin of ephedra, or high doses of caffeine. Quite often, combinations of these medications. Synephrine comes from bitter orange, bitter orange extract. And while it's technically legal, it acts on the same adrenergic or fight-or-flight receptors that ephedra does. And so you're getting multiple methods ganging up on your fight-or-flight receptors, your fight-or-flight principle, your fight-or-flight mechanism, and it's just getting overtaken. These are the ones that raise blood pressure, raise heart attack risk. And guess what? Ephedra was banned in 2004 for causing hundreds of heart attacks and strokes. Many manufacturers, however, quietly replaced it with synephrine. It was a switch that kept the marketing alive. You could still market these things, but it didn't solve much of the underlying risk.
We've seen the consequences. In 2023, a review in Cardiovascular Toxicology looked at 30 cases, 30 case reports of people who developed serious heart complications after using synephrine-containing supplements. Serious heart complications. They weren't abusing them. They were taking the recommended dose. And yet they ended up with chest pain, arrhythmias, even strokes. Caffeine only makes it worse.
Now, when you combine caffeine with synephrine, which many of these products do, the stimulant effect is amplified. It means more pressure on the heart, more pressure on the vessels of the heart and your brain, more irregular rhythms, and in aging arteries, this can be the difference between feeling a little off and ending up in the hospital.
Even products that don't list synephrine can be problematic. Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. That's a big mouthful. Let me go back. Takotsubo is basically it's where your heart just gives out. It's a sudden heart dysfunction. Your heart just gets really weak really, really fast. It's a sudden heart dysfunction often triggered by physical or emotional stress. I did a video on one of those one time. We told the story of the elderly wife of an elderly man who had a heart attack. He went into ICU. The doctor saw the patient and the wife and said, "He's going to be dying within a few hours." The wife was totally surprised. She passed out, fell on the floor, and died from Takotsubo. The husband died a few hours later. It's often called "broken heart syndrome" because the heart's main pumping chamber sometimes permanently balloons out and just stops working properly.
Other reports link Hydroxycut to ventricular tachycardia, a dangerously fast heart rhythm that starts in the lower chambers, and atrial fib, which is in the upper chambers. They quiver instead of beating normally. I've got a whole series on atrial fibrillation. Both conditions raise the risk of blood clots, strokes, sudden cardiac arrest. In many of these cases, symptoms reversed when the supplements were stopped. Again, what more do you need to know? Be aware, be afraid, stay away from these supplements.
Imagine how these same compounds behave in someone with a little stiffness in their arteries, some silent plaque, some unstable plaque, or some borderline high blood pressure that hasn't been caught yet. That's where things begin to unravel. Not because people are doing something wrong, but because they were never told what these pills actually do. They're actually trying to do the right thing. They're told, "This is how you get back to health." These things don't gently support metabolism, which you'll see over and over again. They push the heart. They speed things up that are already under stress. If you're over 60, that kind of push can be too much.
The good news is this. There is good news. There's a much smarter way to support fat loss. We do a ton of that in our practice. Instead of relying on stimulants, we look at ways to build up the body's natural fat-burning engine. That starts with muscle. You got to get good muscle. Skeletal muscle isn't just about strength. It's one of the biggest drivers of metabolic health. In many ways, skeletal muscle is an endocrine tissue. Now, I might get banned for saying that, but that's the truth. It's our biggest safety valve for protecting against insulin resistance. It burns glucose. It supports insulin sensitivity. It improves energy. And yes, it helps you lose fat.
So, one of the best tools for supporting that muscle, especially in older adults, is creatine. Creatine monohydrate. I know creatine gets lumped in with bodybuilders and all that. I do work with bodybuilders in my practice, but not a lot. I work mostly with people that are aging. I use it with patients like George, people in their 60s and 70s who are doing strength training or resistance work and want better results. Once you get into your 60s, you begin to suffer with a thing called anabolic resistance. All that means is your muscles just don't grow and repair the way they did back in your 20s. Creatine helps your muscles restore ATP, their energy currency. It helps them start recovering. It helps them grow. So, more reps, more output. This leads to better gains.
Now, I'll say this, too. I work with adult seniors all the time with this issue. They hear this from different content creators, "Oh, you got to have a lot more protein. Older people need more protein." The original requirements were built on young men who could make muscle out of cardboard. I get all of that. Bottom line though is it's resistance training exercise snacks. You got to do the work. I see more deficiency in the exercise snacks in the lifestyle components than anything else, than creatine, than protein, any of those things.
Anyway, unlike fat burners, creatine does not raise your heart rate. It doesn't affect your blood pressure. It's been studied for decades. It's got a very consistent safety profile, even in older populations. So if you're thinking about something like a Hydroxycut, step back. Let's think about something a little bit different, something safer and clearly more effective. Some studies suggest creatine has neuroprotective benefits, preventing Alzheimer's.
So when somebody asks me, "What's the best fat burner for seniors?" My answer isn't a pill. It's muscle supported by smart nutrition, strength training, tools like creatine that actually help the system work better, not harder. And yes, we use some of the new weight loss medications like semaglutide or Mounjaro. Those are a big deal as well for people that need them and choose to use them. If you're in your 60s and trying to lose weight, here's where I would start first: with creatine monohydrate, about 3 to 5 grams per day, and get that resistance work in at least two or three times per week. And if you're my age, 67, 68, I do something every day. It's not huge. It can be anywhere from two to five minutes on my off days and on my long days. You see, I have two or three long days per week and I'm working out for one to two hours then. But you got to do that part.
Basic movements like squats, push-ups, lunges, we really want to focus on lower body work because that's where your big muscle mass is. Even using resistance bands or body weight, those things actually work. Protein each meal supports lean tissue. Walking, not just for fat loss, but for circulation, glucose control, and heart health. Fat burners promise fast results, but in the long run, they carry too much risk for too little benefit. So, I tell my patients, go slow, build strength, trust your physiology, your metabolism, not a capsule. Do the work. That's what keeps you healthy and that's what keeps you independent because that's what actually works and it lasts.
If this video is making you think, "I could really use some help with my supplements," you might be right. You're really not the only one. A lot of folks need help. Most people are guessing, and that can lead to problems. That's one of the things we've talked about. I built a team of coaches and have personally trained them to help in this space. They can help you figure out what's working, what's not, and what to do next. We have a few different programs so you can choose what fits your needs. If you'd like some help, you could call us at 859-721-1414. That's 859-721-1414, and we'll help you take that next step.
I want to walk you through a case I saw not long ago. Her name was Linda. She was 71, recently widowed, and trying to get her health back on track after a really hard year. Her appetite had taken a hit. Cooking felt like a chore. Eating alone just wasn't worth the effort. So, she did what a lot of folks in her situation do. She looked for something easy, something that felt like it could check all the boxes: energy, protein, weight control, a healthy meal in a glass. She landed on a well-known brand twice a day, every day for months.
But when we ran her labs, her liver enzymes were through the roof. ALT, AST both in the thousands. Her cholesterol was worse than before. Her C-reactive protein had climbed. Her resting heart rate, which had been stable for years, went up and was holding. We pulled the shakes, and over the next several weeks, her numbers came back down. Linda didn't have a rare condition. She wasn't taking 10 other supplements or living off of fast foods. She was doing what she thought was right, what the label promised, what the marketers sold her. And that's what made me take a closer look.
Because these shakes aren't rare. They're actually everywhere. Lined up in nutrition clubs, handed out by neighbors, or sold online as part of a wellness plan. They've got colorful labels, bold claims, ingredient lists that sound like they come from a health textbook: fiber, soy protein, botanical extracts, a full spectrum of vitamins. But that's not what's actually in the scoop. What's in the scoop is a highly processed formula made from isolated proteins, synthetic additives, proprietary blends of herbs that don't always disclose their full composition. Most of the time, even distributors don't really know what's in them.
When you replace real food with that, day after day, the body notices. Your metabolism changes. We've now got dozens of case reports linking these kinds of products to liver injury. Some mild, some severe. In one case, ALT and AST were both over 2,000. Viral and autoimmune causes were ruled out. The only change was the shake. When they stopped the shake, the liver calmed down. And it wasn't a coincidence.
Here's the bigger picture. It's not just a liver issue. The liver and the heart are tied together. When the liver is inflamed and overloaded, the downstream effects are real and they're not good. Systemic inflammation goes up, lipid metabolism breaks down, triglycerides rise, HDL falls, and insulin resistance quietly creeps in. All of it driving the very cardiometabolic risks that these shakes are supposed to help with.
So, what was Linda drinking every day and thinking it was helping? It's a popular shake called Herbalife. She wasn't the first patient I saw with that exact pattern, and unfortunately, she won't be the last. Now, let's talk about what we know. A published case report in 2019 of a woman who developed acute liver injury after using Herbalife products. Her liver enzymes, ALT, AST, were both over 2,000, a level that often signifies liver damage. She needed hospitalization. After ruling out other potential causes, the diagnosis was pretty definitive: it was the shake causing the damage. Once the products were stopped, her enzymes normalized. And that's what you usually see in these cases.
That was not an isolated case. The US LiverTox database, there's a database specific to this kind of issue. Over 50 case reports worldwide have been linked to Herbalife shakes. Patterns of liver injury from mild inflammation to full-blown liver failure. What's the exact ingredient responsible? We don't know. And that's just a big part of the problem. We don't know. These products often contain a rotating list of herbs, extracts, and additives like green tea extract, aloe vera, unknown contaminants, and the batches aren't always the same either. So, when a patient comes in with signs of liver stress, you're left trying to figure out, okay, which one was it this time, and what's the invisible culprit?
It's not just a liver story. This is also for the heart. The liver and the heart are metabolically linked. They're intertwined. When the liver gets inflamed or overloaded with synthetic compounds, here's what starts happening in the background: systemic inflammation goes up that accelerates arterial plaque. Lipid metabolism gets disrupted that elevates arterial plaque. It leads to higher triglycerides, lower HDL, more arterial plaque. Insulin resistance worsens, feeding directly into metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes. But in advanced cases, liver scarring or fibrosis raises the risk of heart failure. So even if someone doesn't feel pain in their liver, their cardiovascular system may still be quietly taking the hit.
And this isn't just about Herbalife. The same thing can happen with any low-quality supplement, especially the ones that cut corners on purity and safety. So if you think you're getting a good cheap source, think about that. Cheap may have its costs.
So, what's the alternative? Real food, smarter supplements. Here's where I guide my patients. Number one, prioritize real nutrient-dense foods: leafy greens, legumes, fatty fish, eggs, nuts, quality meat, fermented foods. They offer the right nutrients in their natural and bioavailable forms. Remember what we talked about with calcium? It should not be in a pill. It needs to be in a natural, bioavailable form and bio-natural, bioavailable foods, not the rotating, "what's in it today," highly powdered, processed thing that you see in a shake. Natural foods come with nutrients, some with fiber, co-factors, antioxidants. No powder is going to be able to replicate that.
If this video has you rethinking your approach to heart health, maybe that's a good thing. I've put together something that'll help you. It's my seven-step heart attack prevention protocol. It's simple. It's a practical guide. It's what we use with our own patients. It covers the tests that actually matter, which supplements to focus on, and the lifestyle shifts, mostly lifestyle shifts, that move the needle. So, click the link below and get your copy. It's free.
Number two, support your gut health. As we age, digestion and absorption matter more than we think. Add prebiotic fiber. Use fermented foods like kimchi or kefir, or keffir, depending on how you pronounce it. Make sure that you're getting enough protein. I usually recommend 1.2 to 1.5 grams per kilogram of body weight per day for seniors. That can be pretty hard to get. And I can tell you, I was having a conversation with a patient today. She and I both were going up and down. We're both low carb. But then the question is, how much of the rest do you make up with protein versus fat? And that becomes a big question. We're not going to go down that bunny hole. I'm going to go to number three.
When do you supplement? When you do supplement, choose wisely. And here's where we come back to the heart and liver because one of the best-studied supplements for supporting both heart and liver is omega-3 fatty acids, specifically EPA and some would argue with DHA. So, let's look at what the data says. A meta-analysis of omega-3 supplementation showed triglyceride reductions of 25 to 30% at therapeutic doses. So, that's one of the key areas that we're talking about: triglycerides. Triglycerides are a big deal for both your heart and your liver. They improve endothelial function. That's the flexibility and health of your arteries. They reduce inflammation like we see in markers like C-reactive protein, hsCRP, and IL-6, interleukin-6. They help stabilize cardiac rhythm, which lowers the risk of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac deaths.
One of the most important studies here is the REDUCE-IT trial. We talked about that years ago. It was on omega-3s. It showed that 4 grams per day of pure EPA (icosapent ethyl), that drug, it reduced major cardiovascular events by 25% in patients with elevated triglycerides who were already on statins.
Omega-3s have shown significant benefit on liver health as well. So, you may be used to the arterial and cardiovascular health. They reduce liver fat content. They improve ALT and AST. Again, if you're not familiar with that, those are just signs of liver inflammation. We call them liver function tests or liver enzymes. You see increased ALT and AST when you have fatty liver, for example. With omega-3s, you see improved insulin sensitivity, slow progression of fibrosis in patients. It slows it down. Patients that have NAFLD. What is that? Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and NASH, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. Anyhows, these are fatty liver. That's what NAFLD and NASH are.
A 2016 meta-analysis in Gastroenterology, the academic magazine, confirmed that omega-3s improve liver enzymes and fat content without significant adverse effects. Here's how I guide my patients over 60. EPA and DHA dose depends on your goal. For example, general heart health, around 1 to 2 grams per day. Try to get a gram of EPA. For triglycerides or fatty liver, two to four grams per day. Do that one under medical supervision. Use third-party tested products. And guess what? Third-party tested products aren't that common in the supplement space. You have to look for them. Avoid those bargain bin fish oils. They have low EPA, low DHA content, and a high rancidity risk instead. And stick with it. Omega-3s don't work in a week. This is about consistency over time, building resistance, resilience from the inside.
Bottom line, a shake might look like health, especially when it's marketed as clean and natural and complete. But when you dig into the data, the evidence, what you often find is liver stress, heart strain, and a lot of broken promises. Real health comes from real food. If you're looking for something that truly supports both your heart and your liver, omega-3s are one of the few supplements that consistently deliver. If you want lasting health, don't buy nutrition from a pyramid. Don't replace real food with fake food.
Supplement number four. A few months back, a patient came in. We'll call him Ron. 74 years old, retired engineer, the kind of man who reads every label, brings his own spreadsheet to the appointments with me, and takes his health seriously. He told me he'd been feeling off for a while. Tired most of the time. His legs felt heavy when he climbed the stairs. He'd get winded more easily. He was bruising in places that he that just didn't make sense. He figured it was something simple, something fixable. But he went to the pharmacy and he picked up what seemed like a logical solution. Actually, he picked up three bottles of it. He figured he'd hit it hard for a few weeks just to be safe.
When we ran his labs later on, the story shifted. His ferritin was over 300. Ferritin is an iron-related indicator. His iron saturation was too high. His C-reactive protein was elevated. Other inflammation markers like Lp-PLA2, markers of vascular inflammation, were elevated. His numbers didn't look like somebody who was run down. They looked like somebody with a system that was stressed. When we traced it back, the culprit really wasn't anything that dramatic. It was not a new disease. It wasn't a major life change. It was the bottles he brought home from the pharmacy. It was iron. I-R-O-N.
Many folks go through a similar situation. Iron is essential. I'm not saying never take it. There's no question about that. But you need iron to carry oxygen. You need it for your mitochondria to make energy. Every cell in your body depends on iron. But when you have too much, it can start creating problems. Iron in excess doesn't just sit there. It acts like a pro-oxidant. You know, it pulls oxygen. That's what iron does when it rusts. That's why we have iron in our hemoglobin. It creates reactive oxygen species, free radicals that damage the lining of your arteries, oxidize your cholesterol, and quietly feed that plaque.
The BRUNING study, it followed over 800 people for 5 years, and those people with higher ferritin levels had significantly more plaque buildup in their carotid arteries. And that's not an isolated finding. A study from Iran compared men with cardiovascular disease to healthy controls. The disease group, the guys with cardiovascular disease, had higher serum iron, higher ferritin, higher inflammation, all those things that our patient had, lower HDL. And another study from Argentina, all over the world these studies come in, and they found that people with iron overload had more insulin resistance, more oxidized cholesterol, more activities of enzymes that promote atherosclerosis like C-reactive protein, Lp-PLA2.
So no, this isn't just about fatigue. It's about what excess iron does to your heart. There's another side to this. In people with heart failure and true iron deficiency, not just low normal but a true deficiency, carefully supervised iron supplementation can help. There are IV iron supplementations that are a big deal these days, helping people, especially people that are much older that have hemolytic anemias. These are not self-prescribed pills. IV iron given in a clinic in people who've been tested and confirmed to have low ferritin, low transferrin saturation, even then it still helps with energy and symptoms, but it doesn't lower mortality.
So, the answer isn't that iron is always bad. Iron can be helpful in many situations. Iron without testing is dangerous, especially in seniors because older adults, especially men and post-menopausal women, rarely lose iron. When their levels drop, it's usually a signal that something deeper is going on, like bleeding in the GI tract, bleeding in the gut, kidney disease, poor absorption. That's not something you fix with a vitamin pill, going down the vitamin aisle and making a guess. That's something that you investigate.
And here's what happens. A lot of people feel tired. They're not sleeping well. Their diet isn't great. Their meds are stacking up. They're losing muscle. They've got low-level inflammation. And they think, "Well, you know, it must be my iron." So, they start taking iron. They don't need it. And that iron builds up quietly over months and years, but it starts to do damage, and they can't see it. They don't notice it. They don't feel it. It's in the arteries. It's in the liver. It's even in the brain.
So, if it's not iron, what is it? In a lot of cases, it's mitochondrial. But you remember going back to that fatigue that caused you to start taking iron in the first place. What's causing the fatigue if it's not iron? What is it? In a lot of cases, it's a mitochondrial problem. A problem with the powerhouse of your cell, the system that makes energy, ATP. We've noticed that mitochondrial dysfunction was a major component of aging. We've known that for almost 100 years.
CoQ10 can make a difference. Co-enzyme CoQ10, it's a mitochondrial co-factor. It helps your cells turn fuel into usable energy. Now, I'm not going to go deep into the evidence on this. The evidence is a major challenge because we're looking at such a deep level of metabolic function. There are a lot of challenges in the research around mitochondria. CoQ10 can be especially important in high-demand tissues like the heart and brain. But as we age, especially if you're taking statins, CoQ10 drops. What happens when you replace it? You can support that ATP production better and reduce oxidative stress, improve endothelial function. You can even lower blood pressure slightly and in some people improve exercise tolerance.
There's something interesting happening in people with heart failure. There was a trial called Q-SYMBIO. It's a trial. Patients who took 300 milligrams of CoQ10 a day had a 43% reduction in cardiovascular mortality. Now, that's impressive. Although, I'll take the results with a grain of salt since the study was partially funded by CoQ10 manufacturers. So, you've got a big yellow light going on there. But the reality is that CoQ10 is one of the safest supplements out there. It can reduce oxidative stress.
And here's what I tell my patients like Ron. Don't take iron just because you feel tired. Get tested. Look at your ferritin, your transferrin saturation, your hemoglobin, your C-reactive protein. If it's low at that point and all of those are pointing to the same direction, we need to figure out why. And if it's not low, iron is not going to help. We look at other drivers: sleep, inflammation, medications, diet, muscle, lack of exercise, mitochondria, and that's where we intervene. For Ron, it wasn't anemia, it was sleep apnea, metabolic syndrome, and a little statin-induced fatigue, muscle fatigue. We treated the causes, not the symptoms, and he got better. So, if you're feeling run down, don't reach for iron. Reach for answers.
Supplement number five: cadmium, mercury, and arsenic and lead. A few years ago, one of my patients, let's call her Carol, showed me a plastic bag full of supplements. She was in her early 70s, retired teacher, kept a spreadsheet for her vitamins. She meant business. She said, "Doc, I've been doing everything right. I take magnesium for my blood pressure. I use a plant protein shake in the morning. I've got my greens powder, my fiber, my calcium, my multivitamin. Why am I not feeling better?" And she wasn't wrong to ask that. Her blood pressure had crept up. C-reactive protein was elevated. She started having palpitations at night, and she had this low-grade fatigue that just wouldn't lift.
So, we looked at a few things, a few additional labs based on her history. We looked at heavy metals. There it was. Her lead level was high. Cadmium was borderline. Mercury was up as well. She looked at me like I just told her she was smoking again. And yes, smoking can do that, too. Those same metals. She said, "I don't understand. I haven't started smoking. I don't eat fish. Where did this come from? I haven't touched a cigarette in 40 years." It came from the bag. She showed me.
The truth is, nobody's taking lead or cadmium on purpose. But if you're using the wrong protein powder, the wrong magnesium, the wrong greens blend, you might be getting a little bit every day. And over time, a little bit adds up. The independent lab tests from groups like the Clean Label Project and ConsumerLab have repeatedly found lead, arsenic, mercury, and cadmium in some of the most popular supplements on the shelf.
Protein powders are one of the biggest offenders, especially plant-based ones. I hate to say that. We've got plenty of friends and family that are plant-based and plenty of friends and families and patients that are plant-based and that take plant-based protein powders. Be careful when you do, especially the chocolate flavor. Almost half the top-selling powders exceeded safety limits for heavy metals. And it gets worse. The so-called healthy ones, organic, plant-based, were often the worst offenders. Some of the chocolate powders had over a hundred times more cadmium than the vanilla version. So, like I said, especially the chocolate, just back off on that stuff. One scoop a day every day doesn't sound like much, but month after month, year after year, this stuff piles up, and suddenly you're wondering why your arteries are stiffer and your blood pressure is harder to manage.
And then there's psyllium. I've taken psyllium a lot for many years. I'm not taking it now. A lot of people take it to lower cholesterol, improve blood sugar, improve gut function. When ConsumerLab tested some of their psyllium products, not their psyllium products, the psyllium products on the market, they found lead in every single product. Some had 30, 40, almost 40 micrograms per serving when the safe limit is not 10, not 20, not five, not 1.5. And they were seeing 30 and 40 micrograms. It doesn't end there. They're greens powders like spirulina, organic superfood blends. They sound good, but three out of four spirulina samples had lead. So blends with turmeric, kelp, or ashwagandha, these weren't clean either.
Even basic magnesium, one of the safest, most evidence-based nutrients we use for heart health, can be contaminated. And again, especially the cheaper ones because these minerals come from the soil, and that soil isn't always clean. Sometimes it has these minerals in them.
So what do these metals do? Lead damages the endothelium, the lining of your arteries. It increases blood pressure. Cadmium stiffens blood vessels, damages the kidneys, promotes oxidative stress. Mercury and arsenic impair mitochondrial function. They raise the risk of arrhythmias and they've been linked to higher rates of ischemic heart disease, cardiovascular disease. They don't just hit the heart, they cross into the brain. They accelerate aging. The effects are worse in older adults because your ability to detox declines with age. And because many seniors are taking more supplements, not fewer. So symptoms like fatigue, high blood pressure, palpitations, things that get written off as "that's just normal aging" or "maybe that's just symptoms," maybe actually they're linked to chronic exposure, and most people never think to look.
That was what happened with Carol. She wasn't toxic in the dramatic sense, but she was getting micro-doses every day from supplements she thought were helping her. So we worked with her, and she made some changes. We simplified her stack, her supplement stack. She dropped the chocolate plant protein, went to a high-quality whey isolate, and actually decreased that and started focusing on getting more natural protein. And by the way, the isolate that she ended up taking was third-party tested. We replaced her greens powder with real greens: salad, cooked spinach, arugula, fermented kraut, stuff that just doesn't come with a Prop 65 warning. We switched her magnesium to one that was certified, tested for purity. Same with her fiber, real food, not powder. And over the next few months, her labs improved. Blood pressure came down, C-reactive protein dropped, her palpitations stopped.
Check your labels, but more importantly, check the company. Don't assume organic means clean. Be extra cautious with powders, especially if you're taking several a day, every day. If you've got symptoms that don't quite add up, especially if you're already doing the right things, ask for a heavy metals panel. It's not routine, but in the right person, it can be the piece that explains everything.
Let me show you what that looks like with someone who thought he was doing everything right. His name is Fred. He worked in wellness for years. He knew a lot about health. He took a bunch of good supplements, like about 10 of them. He thought he was doing everything right. And then he had a heart attack. He ended up in the ER and came close to needing bypass surgery.
So, when he reached out, we took a look at his plan. And here's what stood out. The supplements really weren't the problem, but they were not helping him either. That's the mistake I see all the time. Smart people trying to do this on their own. It's your health, your life on a DIY, do-it-yourself. I get it. Most doctors don't want to talk about supplements. So, you're left piecing it together yourself, looking at YouTube videos, blogs, blog articles, what friends and neighbors suggest. Even great supplements only work if they're part of the right strategy. A plan based on your goals, your labs, your risks.
That's why I built a team to help. Health coaches I've trained myself so you're not guessing. So, when you join one of our programs, we help you figure out what's working, what's not, and what you need to do next. If that sounds like what you've been looking for, call us at 859-721-1414. One of our clinical advisors can walk you through the options, help you find a program that you choose, that fits you, that you're comfortable with.
Now that you know what to avoid, here's the next step. Watch this video where we break down how to actually get stronger legs from creatine, especially if you're over 50.