Beta-Blockers Are Useless, and Sometimes Risky, for Most Cardiac Patients
Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health
Briana Mercola
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2025
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
- Beta-blockers offer no survival benefit for most heart attack patients with normal heart function, even though they're still widely prescribed
- Women face higher risks on beta-blockers, including nearly double the risk of death when given higher doses, while men show no measurable harm or benefit
- Side effects such as fatigue, dizziness, depression, and sexual dysfunction often burden patients without providing meaningful protection
- The real root of heart disease lies in damaged mitochondria, which are overwhelmed by linoleic acid (LA) from vegetable oils found in most processed foods
- You can protect your heart by reducing LA, eating the right kinds of carbohydrates, walking daily, getting safe sunlight, and tracking your HOMA-IR score
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Are you taking a drug after a heart attack that offers no survival benefit and may raise your risk if you're a woman? |
| 0:06.0 | Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries of our latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. |
| 0:15.0 | No reading required. Subscribe for free at Mercola.com for the latest health insights. |
| 0:20.0 | Hello and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. |
| 0:23.9 | Today we're examining new evidence on beta blockers after heart attack in people |
| 0:28.3 | whose heart still pump normally, what the numbers truly show, why outcomes differ |
| 0:33.5 | for women, and how you can focus on cellular health to protect your heart. I'm Ethan |
| 0:38.7 | Foster. I'm a Lara Sky. The core finding is direct. In patients with preserved heart |
| 0:45.1 | function after a heart attack, beta blockers did not reduce death, repeat heart attack, or |
| 0:50.4 | hospitalizations for heart failure. Side effects like fatigue, dizziness, depression, and sexual |
| 0:57.6 | dysfunction are common. Yet for many people, they bring burden without measurable protection. |
| 1:03.5 | Let's anchor this with the large trial that followed 8,438 heart attack patients. After a median |
| 1:10.6 | 3.7 years, event rates were virtually identical, whether patients use |
| 1:15.4 | beta blockers or not. |
| 1:17.0 | There were 22.5 versus 21.7 events per 1,000 patient years, and deaths were nearly the same. |
| 1:24.9 | 161 with beta blockers versus 153 without. That is not a survival advantage. |
| 1:31.5 | When researchers looked at specific outcomes, repeat heart attacks were equal, 143 in each group, |
| 1:37.9 | and heart failure hospitalizations were similar, 39 versus 44. Safety outcomes also showed no advantage. |
| 1:46.6 | For someone with preserved pumping function, |
| 1:49.2 | these data argue that you don't gain meaningful protection |
| 1:51.8 | while you still face the side effect profile. |
| 1:55.3 | Despite this, major guidelines have continued to endorse |
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