- Note - Omega 3 does is not only available in fish. A
superior source of it is found in Udo's Choice Perfected Oil Blend...available
in most health food markets. Look in refrigerated section or ask for it
directly. -ed
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- New research out Tuesday provides the strongest evidence
yet on the health benefits of eating fish a simple dietary step that goes
a long way in protecting against heart disease. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.
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- Many of the lunchtime customers at Legal Seafoods in
Boston have already heard of the health benefits of fish.
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- "We love fish, and my husband's had a heart attack
and a bypass, and I have been told I have high cholesterol," said
Joan Romanish.
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- The research out today leaves no doubt. A 16-year study
of almost 85,000 women found that those who ate fish two to four times
weekly cut their risk of heart disease by 30 percent, compared with women
who rarely ate fish. Women who ate fish five or more times weekly reduced
their risk 34 percent. Past studies showed similar benefits for men, but
this was the first to look specifically at the effect in women, according
to the new research published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association.
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- Plus, a 17-year study of men with no history of heart
disease published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that those
with the highest blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids the healthy fat found
in fish were more than 80 percent less likely to die suddenly from heart
disease.
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- "It's a low-risk, very inexpensive way to lower
the risk of heart disease," said Dr. JoAnn Manson of Boston's Brigham
and Women's Hospital, co-author of the men's study.
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- The key to the heart benefits of fish is omega-3 fatty
acid. Some kinds of fat are bad for you, but the fat in fish actually lowers
cholesterol, helps prevent blood clots that form in heart attacks, and
lessens the chances for the irregular heart beats that cause about 250,000
sudden deaths a year.
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- The best sources of the healthy fatty acid are ocean
fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel and arctic char. But even if you can't
afford these tasty, sometimes expensive fish, canned tuna or sardines work
just as well.
-
- Some people eat almost nothing else. "We eat fish
at least eight times a week, maybe even more," said Edel Cummings.
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- There's nothing wrong with that, but "you don't
have to be a seal - even eating fish twice a week can give almost all the
benefits that there is to eating fish in general," said Dr. Walter
Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health.
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- And then there are fish oil supplements. A study in Tuesday's
issue of the journal Circulation suggests that fish oil supplements reduced
sudden cardiac death by 42 percent in the three months after patients had
a heart attack. Researchers stressed those findings must be confirmed,
and the American Heart Association said it will not recommend supplements
until there is more evidence.
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- The best advice, experts say, is to eat fish - because
the more science studies it, the more it seems to be a miracle food.
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- Robert Bazell is the chief science correspondent for
NBC News. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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- http://www.msnbc.com/news/736389.asp?0na=x2229130-
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