The best nutrient for heart health ❤️
Cardiovascular disease is the number 1 killer of women in North America - well above cancer.
But there's good news here...
We can use preventative, lifestyle-based measures to help protect ourselves from it. (AKA - avoid statins!)
So, any time there's solid new science to support this, I listen up…and share with you, dear reader! So let’s go…
A new study published this week in Mayo Clinic Proceedings shows people with higher omega-3 levels are significantly less likely to develop or die from heart failure.
The researchers analyzed data from nearly 272,000 adults in the UK Biobank. A big sample size!
They found that people with the highest omega-3 levels (top 20%) were 21% less likely to develop heart failure over an average follow-up of 13.7 years compared to those with the lowest levels (bottom 20%).
Additionally, among the 1,239 individuals with a diagnosis of heart failure at the start of the study, those in the top 20% for omega-3 levels had a 50% lower risk of dying from ANY cause during the follow-up period compared to those in the bottom 20%.
Wow! 🤩
This is new and powerful evidence — but not proof since this was an observational study, not a randomized controlled trial (RCT) — that maintaining a high omega-3 level (which is driven by higher intakes from oily fish like salmon and sardines or omega-3 supplements) is heart-healthy.
The bigger picture
This is certainly not the first study to show benefits of omega-3’s for heart health: over the last three decades, numerous high quality RCTs have explored the preventive benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for cardiovascular events in the general population.
A major meta-analysis of some of these studies - including ~150,000 patients - found that omega-3 supplementation reduced the risk of heart attack by 13% and fatal heart attack by 35%.
Plus, a recent meta-analysis involving approximately 30,000 patients with coronary heart disease found that omega-3 supplementation reduced all-cause mortality by 10%, cardiovascular mortality by 18%, heart attack risk by 23%, sudden cardiac death by 33%, and hospitalizations for heart failure or unstable angina by 25%.
WOW WOW WOW! 🤩🤩🤩
Easy ways to increase your omega-3s
Eat more oily fish! I love the acronym “SMASH” fish, which helps me remember them: salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring.
Take a high quality omega-3 supplement. Quality is important on this one, since it can have a lot of contaminants or be rancid (which makes it healthy). I recommend a couple of options on my Fullscript dispensary. Also, surprisingly/unsurprisingly, Costco’s Kirkland brand is rated among the purest on the market as well! Go for the most concentrated version.
(Note: If you are a genetic ApoE4 carrier and therefore at higher risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s, choose a version that is higher in DHA. If you’re unsure, talk to me.)
To your heart health! ❤️❤️❤️
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