Can Fish Oil Benefit Heart?

Omega-3 fatty acids can be found in such wild oily fish as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines and herring. It is believed that omega-3 fatty acids could benefit heart as it could raise HDL (high-density lipoprotein) or good cholesterol, lowers harmful fats known as triglycerides and slow the growth of plaque that tend to clog arteries.

According to the recommendation by the American Heart Association, adults should take fish at least twice a week, and people with heart disease should consume 1 gram of omega-3 fatty acid a day.

However, a recent large study conducted in Germany seemed to get a rather surprising finding. Researchers from the University of Heidelberg reported that fish oil capsules did not offer added benefit to heart attack patients who are already taking the right medications to prevent future problems. Their results were presented on March 30, 2009 at an American College of Cardiology conference.

In the study, more than 3,800 people who had suffered a heart attack in the previous 2 weeks were given 1-gram daily dose of a prescription version of highly purified omega-3 fatty acid or dummy capsules. About 90 percent of these people were already receiving all the necessary medications prescribed by their doctors to prevent a second attack, including aspirin, anti-clotting and cholesterol drugs.

The prescription version used in the study is a highly purified and standardized form, and is different from what many consumers buy off the shelf. They are sold as Omacor and Lovaza in the United States and as Zodin in Europe,

After a year, the researchers found no difference in both groups of patients, whether they took fish oil or dummy capsules. The researchers also found that 2 percent had suffered sudden cardiac death, 4 percent had another heart attack and fewer than 2 percent had suffered a stroke in both groups of patients.

The researchers argued that there is nothing much can be done to further reduce the risk for heart attack patients, who have already received good care from their doctors (given all necessary medications). Nevertheless, this does not mean that fish oil is of no value. In the first place, the study did not address whether fish oil could help prevent heart disease.

What Type of Diet Can Control Diabetes and Prevent Heart Disease?

Being the most common form of diabetes, type-2 diabetes is closely linked with obesity. Because of a high blood sugar level, diabetics are at a high risk of developing heart disease, kidney damage, stroke, and blindness.

Therefore, when one is diagnosed with diabetes, he or she will have to adhere closely to the diet suggested by the doctors in order to control the blood sugar level.

The latest findings, which appeared on December 16, 2008 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, by Canadian researchers from St Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto indicated that a diet that is rich in nuts, beans and lentils is better than a high cereal-fiber diet in controlling diabetes and hence preventing heart disease.

In the study, 210 people with Type-2 diabetes were randomly selected to try 1 of 2 diets for 6 months. All the participants were prescribed with medications for controlling their blood sugar and had monthly blood tests.

An abundance of beans, peas, lentils, nuts and pasta were given to people who were on the low-glycemic index diet. They were also asked to have low-glycemic index breads like pumpernickel, quinoa and flaxseed and breakfast cereals including large flake oatmeal and oat bran.

On the other hand, people in the high fiber group were given a largely 'brown' diet, which included whole grain breads and cereals, brown rice, potatoes with skins and whole wheat bread, crackers and cereals.

People in both groups were also encouraged to eat 3 servings of fruit and 5 servings of vegetables daily.

The examination at the end of 6 months showed that those on the low-glycemic diet lost slightly more weight. They had not only significantly better control of their blood sugar but also higher levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the so-called good cholesterol.

The results showed that the diet could be one of the many options available to people with diabetes, other medical conditions and even healthy people.

According to the researchers, many popular diets including the South Beach Diet and the Zone Diet already focus on low-glycemic index foods, which produce only small changes in blood glucose and insulin levels. In fact, many of the popular books on diets have already been ahead of the scientists in using it.

While food industry has an opportunity to produce modern foods with low-glycemic properties that can fit palatably into the diet, many of the traditional foods such as beans, pasta that were eaten by the older generations, can usefully be brought back into the diet.

How Effective Is Crestor In Preventing Heart Disease?

Being manufactured by AstraZeneca, Crestor is a cholesterol-lowering medicine that aims to reduce levels of bad cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein, or LDL) and triglycerides in the blood, and in the meantime increase levels of good cholesterol (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL). It has been approved for use in over 95 countries with nearly 15 million patients being prescribed presently worldwide.

By lowering the bad cholesterol, it is possible to help prevent heart disease and hardening of arteries. These two conditions can develop heart attack, stroke, as well as vascular disease. Nevertheless, how effective is this medicine?

Presented during November 2008 at an annual meeting of the American Heart Association in New Orleans and published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, the study known as “JUPITER” revealed that Crestor could actually reduce by 44 percent the risk of heart problems among patients who currently do not face a high risk of getting a heart disease.

The study involved 17,802 men and women, of the age of 50 and more, who took 20 milligrams of Crestor on a daily basis. It was found that the combined risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, arterial revascularization, hospitalization for unstable angina, or death from cardiovascular causes was reduced by 44 percent as compared with placebo among men and women with elevated hs-CRP but low to normal cholesterol levels.

By the way, CRP is a protein that is produced by the liver. It plays an important role in inflammatory processes and serves as a biological marker to measure the risk of artery blockage.

Also shown in the study, patients who took Crestor also had the combined risk of heart attack, stroke or death from heart disease reduced by 47 percent. Meanwhile, their risk of heart attack was cut by more than half, the risk of stroke was reduced by nearly half and the total mortality of the participants was lowered by 20 percent.

It was also recorded in the study that a daily dose of 20 milligrams of Crestor was well tolerated in nearly 9,000 patients during the course of the trial, and there was no difference between treatment groups for major adverse events, including cancer or myopathy.

No Trans Fat Is Allowed In All New York Restaurants!

Trans fat has been classified as bad stuff that not only increases LDL (bad cholesterol) but also reduces HDL (good cholesterol). People with such pattern of cholesterol level are at higher risk of heart disease, and several other medical ailments.

Foods with trans fat can be found almost everywhere. Besides candy, noodles, cookies, chips, there are hundreds of other processed products available in supermarket do contain trans fat in different amounts. Despite its unhealthy nature, most foods with trans fat are favored by both children and adults.

On July 1, 2008, the artificial trans fat can no longer be presented in the menu in New York restaurants. In this way, the authorities in New York help remove a major cause of heart disease from their residents’ diets.

Last year, the authorities had already banned all restaurants from using frying oil and spreads containing trans fats. Now, the restriction will apply to all types of food, including the fat used by bakers and pastry chefs.

For all foods served, including baked goods, oils, shortenings and margarine used for baking, and pre-prepared items, the amount of artificial trans fat, must not be more than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. However, foods served in the manufacturer's original, sealed packaging, such as candy and crackers, can still be exempted for the time being.

According to the health department in New York, there was widespread acceptance of its last year's ban, with more than 98 percent of inspected restaurants were in compliance as at June 2008. Many restaurants had gone even further to voluntarily cut down the amount of saturated fat.

As confessed by the owner of one of the restaurants in New York, the transition he made 7 months ago by cooking his patties and baked goods with replacement shortenings has hurt neither the products nor his business. Meanwhile, he feels happy that the move is healthier for his customers.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pointed out that trans fat, which is made by adding hydrogen to vegetable oil. This increases "bad" cholesterol levels, raising the risk of coronary heart disease.

New York was the first city in the United States to start banning trans fats in restaurants, followed by Philadelphia last year.

Knowing Heart Disease Risk May Prompt You Adopting Heart-Healthy Lifestyle

In order to reduce the risk of a heart attack and heart-related death, one should try to lower levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while raising levels of good cholesterol (HDL). Regretfully, most patients do not obediently follow recommendation from their doctors so as to change their lifestyle or taking their cholesterol reducing medications.

However, when the doctor tells the patients who are at risk of coronary heart disease exactly what their risk is and how they can help lower their risk, they seem to respond better to preventive treatment. This is the findings of a recent study conducted by a group of researchers at the McGill University in Montreal, Quebec and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The researchers actually found that people who had discussed openly with their doctor about their coronary risk profile achieved better improvement in their cholesterol levels than those who did not discussed with their doctor. As found out by the study, about one-third of people, who are not convinced that they need their cholesterol medications, stop taking them.

In order to ascertain whether boosting patients' knowledge of their heart risk profile might help them to adopt heart-healthy lifestyle, the researchers randomly assigned 3,053 adults being treated for cholesterol problems into 2 groups: one group received usual care while the other group received a 1-page computer printout displaying the probability that they will develop heart disease in the next 8 years based on their current lifestyle, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and other risk indicators. The printout group also received ongoing feedback on how much they could cut their risk through lifestyle modification and drug therapy.

There were 2,687 patients completed the 12-month study. Those in the intervention group who kept track of their heart risk profile had small but significantly greater improvements in their cholesterol profiles.

In addition to communicating risk, there are also other means that can be used to improve adherence to heart-healthy lifestyle. These include enhancing self-monitoring and using support of family and friends.

Do You Want A Healthy Heart? Watch What You Eat!

Having a healthy heart is important because if something happens to your heart, you will be in great troubles. A fatal heart attack can end one's life almost instantaneously. Besides regular physical activities and exercises, what you eat into your stomach can have different effects on your heart.

Eating very oily foods can stress your heart! Does it sound familiar, but in your heart, do you believe it?

Take a look at a new research conducted at The Cleveland Clinic in Ohio where the researchers have found that a single high-calorie meal is sufficient to strain the arteries of the heart.

People having a meal that is high in saturated fats could lower their ability of HDL-cholesterol (good cholesterol) to protect against clogged. On the other hand, if a person takes a meal high in polyunsaturated fats, his or her arteries will be protected against a build-up of plaque.

It is already known that saturated fat actually causes formation of plaques in the arterial wall, and these plaques are major cause of heart attack and stroke. The findings of the aforesaid research further explain such mechanism.

An excessive-calorie diet consisting of high amount of total fat and saturated fat will almost guarantee your way to obesity. Why is this so?

Before getting to the answer, let us find out how the food digests in our stomach.

An average meal with a proper serving size of foods including lean meat or fish generally will spend about 2 to 5 hours in the stomach, another 4 to 5 hours in the small intestine and then stay in the large intestine for another 5 to 25 hours.

This chemical process may vary for different kinds of food. Since fat can delay the stomach from emptying, a meal that consists of higher amount of fat can take longer for digestion. If one is lack of exercises or physical activities, the extra fats will be accumulated in the body over time. By now, you should realize why obesity is the definite end result.

Besides heart disease, poor eating habits and high-fat diet can also lead to the risk of contracting other diesease such as cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

In fact, the American Heart Association recommends that one should limit the intake of saturated fats to less than 7 percent of the total daily calories.

Nevertheless, you need not avoid foods that we are enjoying totally. The best way to control the amount of fat, saturated fat and cholesterol in your diet is to eat a variety of foods in moderate amounts.

For example, you can still eat potato chips, which is high in total fat, saturated fat and sodium. Instead of eating a whole bag, you should watch the amount you eat, or simply share among your friends or families. The best approach is to choose a healthier choice such as baked chips. By the way, taking foods high in sodium can lead to a high risk of developing high blood pressure.

Let’s Talk About Fats Again – Trans Fats

Being of no health benefits at all, trans fat is often a pervasive and often hidden ingredient in many food items.

It clogs the arteries and makes them more rigid. It not only increases the bad cholesterol (LDL) but also decrease the good cholesterol (HDL).

Eating too much trans fat will make one become possible victim of coronary heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Therefore, people are advised to consume no more than 2 g of trans fat a day, as recommended by The World Health Organization (WHO).

Though a small amount is naturally found in some animal-based foods such as meat and diary products, trans fat is mainly found in processed foods such as:

• Shortening
• Margarine
• Snack foods like crackers and cookies
• Fried food like French fries
• Fast food
• Baked goods
• Dairy creamer or coffee creamer
• Sweets
• Instant noodles, which are fried in palm oil

These foods are always sources of saturated fat as well.