By Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.N., C.N.S., C.B.T.
Metabolic cardiology is a new field of medicine which concentrates on the prevention, management, and treatment of cardiovascular disease at the cellular level, through biochemical interventions that are native to the human body. Diseased hearts are energy-starved, which means they lack enough adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to fuel healthy cardiac function. ATP molecules are both synthesized and recycled within the body, and supply all of the body’s energy. Metabolic cardiology aims to build up and maintain ATP stores in the heart, and ultimately enhance heart health, by providing the body with the nutrients it needs to make ATP.
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), L-carnitine, D-ribose, and magnesium, the staples of metabolic cardiology, are nutrients essential for ATP production. I call these nutrients, “the awesome foursome.” While the body requires D-ribose to synthesize ATP de novo, or from scratch, it utilizes carnitine and CoQ10 to efficiently recycle ATP. Magnesium, which participates in over 300 enzymatic reactions in the body, also helps boost ATP production to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease.
In Metabolic Cardiology: It’s all about ATP part 2, Dr. Richard Passwater, Ph.D, author of several books on nutrition, interviews me about the roles ATP and its precursors, CoQ10, D-ribose, and the carnitines, play in heart health. In an earlier interview with Dr. Passwater, Co-enzyme Q10 and Heart Health, I explain how and why I started treating patients with CoQ10 in the 1980s.
You can read more about metabolic cardiology in my book, The Sinatra Solution: Metabolic Cardiology or in my recent peer-reviewed articles, Metabolic Cardiology: The Missing Link in Cardiovascular Disease and Metabolic Cardiology: An Integrative Strategy in the Treatment of Congestive Heart Failure.
I believe that metabolic cardiology provides an enormous source of hope for patients with any form of cardiovascular disease. In my clinical experience, metabolic cardiology has proven to reduce human suffering while often supporting longevity.
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