As something of a natural health expert, I naturally enjoy perusing health periodicals to see what other supposed health aficionados are saying about foods and supplements that are “best bets.” One such periodical is Men’s Health magazine, which frequently spotlights fruits, proteins, supplements and exercises in the form of “top 10” lists or “the best of.” I don’t always agree with their recommendations, but this time, for the most part, we’re in agreement with regards to heart health.

If you’re a regular reader of mine or Men’s Health magazine and have applied one or both of our advisements into your own life on one occasion or another, it likely comes with some sense of satisfaction that we’re in mutual agreement on this matter. After all, as I mentioned, our recommendations are rarely synonymous. But this time, four of the five supplements they list for heart health I’ve also written about, and are readily available to read in our backlog of articles under “A to Z Health” (i.e. Omega-3, Vitamin D, Niacin, Coenzyme Q₁₀).

But even here, we don’t entirely see things eye-to-eye. The one supplement they advise for heart health that I do not recommend is aspirin.

Men’s Health points to aspirin’s beneficial heart benefits in how it thins out the blood, providing greater circulatory effects. But there are too many mixed reviews on the health effects of aspirin for me to endorse supplementing regularly with aspirin, including a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicating aspirin can cause excessive bleeding when taken with common clog-fighting drugs like warfarin.

Instead of aspirin, I recommend taking a regular Kyolic supplement. Kyolic is a natural garlic extract, and as anyone familiar with garlic knows, it’s one of the best natural herbs on the market today – more available to the public than any other natural herb in my estimation. Similar to aspirin, garlic – Kyolic, specifically – thins out the blood, allowing for greater blood flow and a reducing the risk of excessive blood clotting. In addition, Kyolic helps lower cholesterol and blood pressure levels, thanks to the high levels of allicin found in garlic, the compound that gives garlic its rather distinctive odor.

While garlic is great to smell in the kitchen or while walking on the sunset strip on a warm summer’s evening with that special someone, it’s not exactly the smell one wants emanating from their pores, which can happen with some garlic supplements. That’s not a problem with Kyolic. The derivatives found in Kyolic are naturally odorless, providing the health benefits one needs, minus the offensive odor.

I’m always wary about health magazines’ “best of” lists because so many people take their recommendations as gospel when their recommendations are often off-based. Thankfully, that’s not the case with this “best of” list. With the exception of aspirin, in my estimation, Men’s Health recommendations for heart healthy supplements are A-OK.