Vitamins are essential to keep your heart healthy. Of course, you need to eat the right foods with less fat and cholesterol, but you need to supplement your food with vitamins to keep your body in the best shape and your heart pumping for a long time.

Vitamin E is the first vitamin that pops into the mind of those that are looking to improve their overall heart health. Vitamin E seems to stop cholesterol in the body from oxidizing and harming the arteries surrounding the heart. When cholesterol oxidizes, it's more able to stick to the sides of the arteries and cause buildup and possible blockage that can lead to heart attacks and other infarctions.

Doctors often recommend additional supplements of vitamin E. Or, they suggest you include more foods rich in vitamin E in your diet. Nuts, like almonds, for example, are a terrific way to get your daily dose of vitamin E.

Vitamin E also seems to be showing a lot of promise for those patients that have already suffered a heart attack. The vitamin seems to prevent additional heart attacks by encouraging the arteries to be more 'open' and less conducive to blockage.

Doctors are of the opinion that supplements of Vitamin C can help boost the effect of Vitamin E and make it work even better. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that helps to prevent the damaging effects of cholesterol, and at the same time it assists Vitamin E in its beneficial effects.

If you take vitamins E and C together, you are on your way to creating a healthier heart and better artery function. This is the easiest way to ensure the health of your heart, especially if you have a history of heart disease or you are concerned about the risk to your heart.

So how much should you take? Well, ideal doses may vary from patient to patient, but 400IU (international units) of vitamin E seems to work well for most people. Vitamin C is tolerable in higher doses without harmful effects. You can safely take 500miligram of vitamin C twice a day, mornings and evenings, to help keep your heart fighting fit.

And studies are backing up this additional step in your day. Talk with your doctor in case you are on any medications for there are some that will interact or need to be taken at different times to be more effective.

A good, nutritious eating plan is the ideal way to get your daily doses of vitamins. But taking additional supplements is sensible, and recommended and if you're trying to boost your heart health.