THE OMEGA-3S: The very pood fats Part 2

KEEPING THE BLOOD FATS LOW

Much of the latest research is finally corroborating what the more perceptive heart scientists have known for years: elevated triglycerides are more strongly associated with heart disease than is elevated cholesterol. Even a triglyceride reading of 100 mg/ml once thought to be ‘normal’, now is associated with twice the heart risk of a lower reading. Fish oils very reliably lower th triglyceride threat. Success has been achieved with daily doses of as little as 1 gram each of EPA and DHA. At last count more than seventy studies documented that omega-3 oils can be counted on to lower triglycerides by an average of 25-35 per cent. Combine EPA and DHA with a sharp curtailment of carbohydrates and you can expect your triglycerides to plunge 75 per cent.

Arrhythmia
Heart doctors should also use fish oils for what may be their most lifesaving mechanism – the prevention of an irregular heartbeat. A number of my cardiac patients have come to me after their own doctors have unsuccessfully attempted to control their arrhythmias. A regular rhythm is reestablished in a majority of them with fish oiJ supplements, and they work especially well combined with magnesium, potassium, taurine and a sugar-free diet.

Coronary
Large doses — up to 10 grams per day — have lowered the number of angina attacks by 41 per cent. Exercise tolerance also increases. And this dose cuts the risk of sudden cardiac death in half.

Blood Pressure
Fish oil’s ability to lower blood pressure is well documented, even at a dose of just 2 grams per day. Early studies yielded inconsistent results, but more recent experiments, using 4 grams of EPA and DHA daily, have been quite successful. Although EPA and DHA alone may not reduce hypertension sufficiently, they nevertheless support our better nutritional treatments. Magnesium, potassium, CoQ10 and taurine, taken within the overall context of a sugarless diet, will regulate blood pressure and avoid the need for drugs more than 80 per cent of the time.

Diabetes
Triglycerides pose a greater than normal cardiovascular danger to people with diabetes, making fish oil a partic-ularly valuable treatment. Still, there are those who question its role in diabetic therapy since some studies show that EPA may raise blood glucose. Others have found no impact at all, while yet others indicate that the disease may interfere with how EPA is metabolized.
It is my considered judgment that fish oil’s overall benefit far outweighs any modestly elevating effect it may have on blood sugar. The more recent research tends to agree that fish oils consistently diminish the triglyceride threat faced by most diabetics. In addition, fish oil maintains arterial flexibility, important for preventing the plaque buildup that leads to hardening of the arteries. Finally, in an area outside of heart disease, fish oil supplements can cut in half the pathological finding of protein in the urine of people with diabetic kidney disease.

Best of all, EPA’s edge need not come at the risk of higher glucose. A mere 500 IU supplement of vitamin E, research demonstrates, can prevent most EPA-produced elevations of blood sugar. Vitamin E and fish oils should, in any event, be used together. They have the synergistic effect of helping to magnify insulin’s effectiveness and increase the fluidity of the body’s cell membranes — both vital for the health of diabetics.

Cancer
Cultures known to have consumed significant amounts of EPA and DHA have had low levels of cancer – at least they did until ‘civilized’ man arrived with sugar, white flour and refined omega-6 oils. Until the introduction of these refined foods, cancer was rare among the Greenland Eskimos. Diabetes, tooth decay and a whole range of other ailments were also not known before they were given junk food.

Omega-3 oils have a particularly inhibitory effect on cancers of the breast and colon. Women who eat fish high in EPA, for example, have a significantly lower rate of breast cancer. Additionally, women who have been diagnosed with a tumour typically display a smaller concentration of omega-3 fats in their breast tissue than do their healthy peers.

While many people speculate that a high-fat diet may increase the risk of colon cancer, such an association simply does not exist when the fats are EPA and DHA. For example, among people who took omega-3 supplements, one study found a decline in premalignant changes in the mucus lining of the colon, a sign of decreased cancer risk and, in all likelihood cation that fish oil might prevent the appearance of precancerous polyps. When an adenoma (a precancerous lesion) was present, supplements normalized cell proliferation in the rectal lining in twelve weeks. Fish oils block tumour-stimulating hormones that come from omega-6 fats.

Treating Cancer

Fish oils are valuable in treating established cancer; they can cut down the number of T suppressor cells cells that turn off the immune response) when 18 grams daily are given.

Besides preventing and reversing different varieties of cancer, EPA and DHA may serve as a breakthrough treatment combi-nation to stave off something that all people with cancer face – cachexia, the tissue-wasting, life-threatening loss of body mass. Halting that loss and keeping body weight up is critical to any cancer patient’s survival. A group of patients with pancreatic cancer were experiencing this loss of body mass at a rate of about 2.7 kilograms a month when researchers began to give them 2 grams of EPA per day. Study participants didn’t merely stop losing weight; they actually gained a few kilograms. More significantly, blood tumour markers that reveal the disease’s progress were improving, a suggestion that the EPA was having broad anticancer effects in addition to the weight gain. This effect may represent an entirely new application for EPA and its wider use in cancer treatment.