pufa

I wonder why they keep testing to see if omega-3 fatty acids are healthy for us. Can anyone enlighten me? It’s been a done deal since ever I was a budding physician. If you couldn’t wait for the “modern” science, there is always the simple demographic, that eskimos never died of heart disease or stroke. Their diet was hugely fat based, including plenty of fish sources (DHA and eicosapentanoic acid). Case closed. Well, they did another study, just to be sure! (we’ll come to the real reason in a moment). Basically, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, found those subjects with the highest levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) had the lowest levels of mortality [April 2, 2013 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine]. All-cause mortality fell by 27%, with most of the benefit due to a reduction in cardiovascular death. The rate of arrhythmic death, in particular, fell by nearly one-half. This translated into an average of about 2.2 extra years of life, just from this one nutritional intervention. Such cardiovascular-outcome effects are consistent with abundant evidence from laboratory and clinical studies that omega-3 intake may benefit heart rate, blood pressure, myocardial contractile function and electrical stability, and endothelial, autonomic, and hemostatic function, write the study’s authors, led by Dr Dariush Mozaffarian. Bit of a mouthful, but you get the point. Here’s what the average quack… sorry, doctor, will miss out on: docosahexaenoicacid (DHA) gave more benefit than eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA); but both together had the greatest effect of all (I could have told them that, from 40 years of clinical practice).

I wonder why they keep testing to see if omega-3 fatty acids are healthy for us. Can anyone enlighten me? It’s been a done deal since ever I was a budding physician. If you couldn’t wait for the “modern” science, there is always the simple demographic, that eskimos never died of heart disease or stroke. Their diet was hugely fat based, including plenty of fish sources (DHA and eicosapentanoic acid). Case closed. Well, they did another study, just to be sure! (we’ll come to the real reason in a moment). Basically, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, found those subjects with the highest levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) had the lowest levels of mortality [April 2, 2013 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine]. All-cause mortality fell by 27%, with most of the benefit due to a reduction in cardiovascular death. The rate of arrhythmic death, in particular, fell by nearly one-half. This translated into an average of about 2.2 extra years of life, just from this one nutritional intervention. Such cardiovascular-outcome effects are consistent with abundant evidence from laboratory and clinical studies that omega-3 intake may benefit heart rate, blood pressure, myocardial contractile function and electrical stability, and endothelial, autonomic, and hemostatic function, write the study’s authors, led by Dr Dariush Mozaffarian. Bit of a mouthful, but you get the point. Here’s what the average quack… sorry, doctor, will miss out on: docosahexaenoicacid (DHA) gave more benefit than eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA); but both together had the greatest effect of all (I could have told them that, from 40 years of clinical practice).