Fish - Good for a Healthy Heart
Once again I get to brag about the healthy benefits of a supplement I've been recommending for years. Turns out, the oils in fatty fish like salmon might be even better at preventing sudden death caused by heart problems than defibrillators.
But there's a catch: You have to eat the fish at least two or three times a week. And it has to be grilled, baked, or broiled-fried fish won't cut it. (In fact, research has shown that fried fish loses all of its healthy benefits.)
In a recent study out of Minnesota, researchers created computer models to gauge sudden death risk in a fictional group of people between the ages of 30 and 83 years.
To get their results, the researchers tested several different scenarios.
In the first scenario, the fictitious people ate adequate amounts of omega-3 fatty acids, either from actual fish or from fish oil supplements. (Typical western diets are generally too short on omega-3 fats.)
In another scenario, people had 24/7 access to defibrillators both in their homes and in public. (AEDs are used to shock the heart back into action after it stops beating. Few people have access to them-or know how to use them properly.)
In the third and final scenario, people who had suffered heart failure received implantable defibrillators. (Your risk of sudden death is greatly increased by heart failure.)
In the end, all three scenarios lowered the peoples' risk of sudden death. But omega-3s showed the best results, including among healthy people.
In fact, sudden death risk dropped by 6.4 percent when people had a diet that consisted of an adequate amount of omega-3s. Implantabledefibrillators showed a 3.3 percent decreased risk and AEDs showed only a 1 percent decrease.
Now, this isn't to say that defibrillators don't work, or that if you're experiencing heart failure you can just pop a couple of fish oil pills and expect everything to be fine.
But, what it does mean is that preventing death just got a whole lot simpler. It's just like they say: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Of course, if you don't like fish, there are other options out there. Walnuts, flaxseed, canola oil, broccoli, cantaloupe, kidney beans, spinach, grape leaves, Chinese cabbage, and cauliflower are all good sources of omega-3s. But you need a lot more of these things than fish to get the same amount of omega-3s.
To make up for whatever omega-3s you might be lacking in your diet, supplements are always a good idea. But the researchers did find that if you eat fish two or three times a week, you might not even need supplements.
If you do opt for a supplement, I recommend taking 500 mg, twice a day.
