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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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tomk80
SFN Regular
Netherlands
1278 Posts |
 Posted - 09/16/2004 : 02:34:30 [Permalink]
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One more research pointing to the beneficial effects of fish. Which is good, cause I like fish, especially fatty fish 
According to this review some of the unsaturated fatty acids ingested by eating fish regulate the cells in the cell wall of the artery. This regulation keeps them from forming plaques, which in turn reduces coronary artery disease. IIRC, these fatty acids are mainly present in fresh, fatty fish.
I also remember having read reports that fish consumption reduces cancer risk, but I'm not sure whether these findings have been reproduced in later reports. |
Tom
`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll- |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 09/16/2004 : 05:58:52 [Permalink]
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Fatty fish oils - like whitefish or cod - are heavy in omega-3 fatty acids (also "n3 fatty acids"), which have some anti-inflammatory and blood-thinning properties. Since atherosclerosis is largely an inflammatory process, one would think that a high intake of omega-3s would have a beneficial effect.
It has a slight effect on another inflammatory disease: psoriasis. The effect in psoriasis is better if the omega-3 oils are infused, via IV, into the bloodstream rather than ingested. I imagine the same might be true for heart disease.
On the down side, years ago I read one account of how people who take large amounts of omega-3 oils can doom themselves to serious problems if they fail to inform their doctors about it prior to, say, major surgery. The blood-thinning effects can cause a person to "bleed out" in circumstances where they would otherwise be fine. Including accidents.
So, as with all medications (and if you're going to use omega-3s to treat heart disease, you're using them as a drug), know what you're taking, how much, and why. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 09/16/2004 : 06:09:53 [Permalink]
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Oh, and I also wanted to say that much of what the Mercola site has to say, at least with regard to psoriasis (which is how I was introduced to the site), is nonsense. It's alarmist crap like this:Omega-3 is essential to the human body, however the diets of most Americans are dangerously low in omega-3. As a matter of fact, researchers believe that about 60 percent of Americans are deficient in Omega-3 fatty acids, and 20 percent have so little that test methods cannot even detect any in their blood. which drives Mercola's money-making sales of products. After all, if omega-3s are essential, then 1/5th of the US population should be actively dying from deficiency. It's not happening.
Note also that many people suggest that a balance between omega-3s (anti-inflammatory) and omega-6s (pro-inflammatory) should be maintained, as eliminating inflammation would leave a person open to infection of all sorts, and retard wound healing. Mercola fails to mention this at all, even if the "balance" idea is completely full of crap. He's too busy yakking about mercury contamination and switching from fish oil to cod oil - despite cod being fish. Argh! |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 09/16/2004 : 14:41:49 [Permalink]
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Not sure about the mercola numbers.... but I have read multiple sources that suggest n3-fatty acid intake (from cold-water fish, like cod) in moderate ammounts can be beneficial to cardiac health.
In combination with a generally healthy lifstyle it's probably helpfull. |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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