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Fish Oil: A Natural Medicine for Heart Attack Prevention

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Fish Oil: A Natural Medicine for Heart Attack Prevention

Posted on Feb 13, 2022 | Author DR. SHABIR AHMAD DAR, FAISAL RASHID AND K. SABA

Fish oil nutrients are one of the most important nourishments that our body needs to function efficiently. Polyunsaturated fatty acids like alpha-linolenic acid (omega-3 fatty acids) and linoleic acid (omega-6 fatty acids) are the essential fatty acids foods that our body desperately needs but cannot be synthesized in the body. Therefore, in order to supply our body with these essentials we rely on essential fatty oil diets to make our body whole. A non-essential but very beneficial fatty acid is omega-9 fatty acid. It’s an oleic acid and monounsaturated fatty acid primarily produced by our body and mostly found in olive oil. When you combined omega-3 from fish oil nutrition, and omega-6 from vegetable oil nutrition with omega-9, what you have is a unique balance of fatty acids in one powerful pill in Omega-3-6-9 formulas. Unlike the dangers caused by saturated fats in our diets, the benefits and utmost importance of unsaturated fats in our diets cannot be overemphasized. Hypercet Omega-3-6-9 is not the only omega-3-6-9 formulas on the market, but it one of the best formulated essential fatty acids foods on the market. It simply gives you all the benefits of fish oil nutrition without the danger of excessive heavy-metals.

 

An enormous amount of medical literature testifies to the fact that fish oils prevent and may help to ameliorate or reverse atherosclerosis, angina, heart attack, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. Fish oils help maintain the elasticity of artery walls, prevent blood clotting, reduce blood pressure and stabilize heart rhythm. Danish researchers have concluded that fish oil supplementation may help prevent arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death in healthy men. An Italian study of 11,000 heart attack survivors found that patients supplementing with fish oils markedly reduced their risk of another heart attack, a stroke or death. A group of German researchers found that fish oil supplementation for 2 years caused regression of atherosclerotic deposits and American medical researchers report that men who consume fish once or more every week have a 50% lower risk of dying from a sudden cardiac event than do men who eat fish less than once a month.

 

Greek researchers report that fish oil supplementation (10 grams/day) reduces the number of attacks by 41% in men suffering from angina. Norwegian medical doctors have found that fish oil supplementation reduces the severity of a heart attack and Indian researchers report that supplementation started immediately after a heart attack reduces future complications. Bypass surgery and angioplasty patients reportedly also benefit from fish oils and clinical trials have shown that fish oils are safe for heart disease patients. The evidence is indeed overwhelming. An adequate daily intake (about 1 gram) of EPA and DHA is essential to maintain a healthy heart. Fish oils are especially important for diabetics who have an increased risk of heart disease.

 

Safe and easily available

It is estimated that 85% or more of people in the Western world are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and most get far too much of the omega-6 fatty acids. Vegetarian diets, for example, tend to be very high in omega-6. The recommended daily intake of EPA plus DHA is about 650 mg rising to 1000 mg/day during pregnancy and lactation. Clinical trials have used anywhere from 1 g/day to 10 g/day, but little additional benefit has been observed at levels above 5 g/day of EPA and DHA combined. The benefits of therapeutic supplementation may become evident in a few weeks when blood parameters (triglycerides, fibrinogen) are involved, but may take 3 months or longer to materialize in degenerative diseases like atherosclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The processing and packaging of the fish oil are crucial in determining its quality. Low quality oils may be quite unstable and contain significant amounts of mercury, pesticides, and undesirable oxidation products. High quality oils are stabilized with adequate amounts of vitamin E and are packaged in individual foil pouches or other packaging impervious to light and oxygen. Some very recent research carried out at the University of Minnesota found that emulsified fish oils are much better absorbed than the straight oils in gelatin capsules.

 

Cod liver oils and fish oils are not the same. Cod liver oil is extracted from cod liver and is an excellent source of vitamins A and D. Fish oils are extracted from the tissues (flesh) of fatty fish like salmon and herring and are good sources of EPA and DHA. Fish oils contain very little vitamin A and D, but cod liver oil does contain EPA and DHA. However, you would probably exceed the recommended daily intake of vitamins A and D if you were to try to obtain therapeutic amounts of EPA and DHA from cod liver oil.

 

Supplementing with fish oils has been found to be entirely safe even for periods as long as 7 years and no significant adverse effects have been reported in hundreds of clinical trials using as much as 18 grams/day of fish oils. Fish oil supplementation does, however, lower blood concentrations of vitamin E so it is a good idea to take extra vitamin E when adding fish oils to your diet. A clinical trial carried out by the US Department of Agriculture found that taking 200 mg/day of synthetic vitamin E (equivalent to about 100 IU of natural alpha-tocopherol) is sufficient to completely counteract this effect of fish oil supplementation.

 

 

(Authors are Faculty of Fisheries, Rangil, SKUAST-Kashmir. Email: shabirdar777@skuastkashmir.ac.in)  

 

 

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