Reduced omega-3 and elevated trans-fatty acid levels predict nonfatal heart attack better than established risk factors

An article published online on June 9, 2009 in the British Journal of Nutrition reported the conclusion of a study conducted by South Korean researchers that red blood cell fatty acid profiles may prove to be a better predictor of who is at risk of heart disease than Framingham risk factors.

Framingham risk scores are calculated from values for the following traditional risk factors: age, gender, smoking status, total cholesterol levels, HDL-cholesterol levels, diabetes history and hypertension history. While an individual’s Framingham score is 70 to 80 percent accurate in predicting coronary heart disease risk, it fails to take into account more recently recognized risk factors that could improve its predictive value.

The researchers, from the Hanyang University in Seoul, matched 50 men and women with acute nonfatal myocardial infarction (heart attack) with 50 age and gender-matched controls who did not have a history of heart attack. Red blood cells were analyzed for levels of trans-fatty acids (undesirable fatty acids found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil), and the beneficial omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (found in fish and the algae they feed on). Continue Reading

Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation improves surgical recovery

In the March, 2009 issue of the Annals of Surgery, researchers at Trinity College Dublin and St James’s Hospital report that supplementing with the omega-3 fatty acid eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) helps preserve muscle mass in patients recovering from esophageal cancer surgery.

“There are almost 450 new cases of esophageal cancer diagnosed every year in Ireland and Ireland has one of the highest rates of esophageal cancer in Europe,” noted lead researcher and John V Reynolds, who is a professor of surgery at Trinity College Dublin. “An increasing number of patients are treated with chemotherapy alone or in combination with radiation therapy before they undergo surgery. The surgery is a serious operation lasting several hours, and can take weeks to recover from and up to six months to recover pre-illness quality of life.

Weight loss is extremely common both before and especially after this type of surgery, and any approach that can preserve weight, in particular muscle weight and strength, may represent a real advance.”Dr Reynolds and colleagues randomized 53 patients to receive a calorie-rich nutritional supplement with or without 1.1 gram EPA twice daily before and after surgery. Participants consumed the supplement orally starting five days prior to surgery and through a feeding tube for two to three weeks after the operation. Continue Reading

Greater omega-3 fatty acid intake associated with decreased risk of advanced prostate cancer

In an article published online on March 24, 2009 in the American Association for Cancer Research journal Clinical Cancer Research, scientists from the University of California, San Francisco report a protective effect of long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids against advanced prostate cancer risk.

Professor of epidemiology and biostatistics John S. Witte, PhD and his associates compared 466 men with aggressive prostate cancer to 478 healthy men matched for age and ethnicity. Dietary questionnaire responses were evaluated for omega-3 fatty acid intake, and blood samples were analyzed for nine variants in the gene that controls cylooxygenase-2 (COX-2), an enzyme involved in fatty acid metabolism, inflammation and cell proliferation. Earlier research has demonstrated decreased expression of COX-2 among animals fed high omega-3 fatty acid-containing diets, as compared to high omega-6 diets.




Advanced prostate cancer risk declined with increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake. Men whose intake of omega-3 fatty acids was among the top 25 percent of participants had a 63 percent lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer compared with those whose intake was in the lowest fourth.


This association was stronger among men with a particular modification of the gene that controls COX-2 expression, resulting in an over five times greater risk of advanced prostate cancer in men with this variant who reported a low intake of omega-3 fatty acids. "Previous research has shown protection against prostate cancer, but this is one of the first studies to show protection against advanced prostate cancer and interaction with COX-2," Dr Witte stated. "The COX-2 increased risk of disease was essentially reversed by increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake by a half a gram per day." Continue Reading

High omega-3 diet of Japanese linked with significantly lower heart disease risk compared to Americans

The number of deaths from coronary heart disease among Japanese men is less than half that of American men. Whether this effect is due to genetic, dietary or other factors has not been confirmed. In the first international study of its kind, published in the August 5, 2008, issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health assistant professor of epidemiology Akira Sekikawa, MD, PhD, and colleagues evaluated data from 868 men aged 40 to 49 enrolled in the ERA JUMP (Electron-Beam Tomography, Risk Factor Assessment Among Japanese and U.S. Men in the Post-World War II Birth Cohort) Study. Two hundred eighty-one of the current study’s subjects were from Japan; 306 were Caucasian men from Pennsylvania; and 281 were Japanese-American men living in Hawaii. Blood tests measured total fatty acids, and the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic, docosahexaenoic, and docosapentaenoic acids, which are commonly obtained by consuming fish. Ultrasound examination assessed carotid artery intima-medial thickness (IMT), which is used to evaluate atherosclerosis. Coronary artery calcification (CAC) in the heart’s arteries, which also identifies heart disease, was assessed via electron-beam CT scanner.

Although total fatty acid levels were similar among all subjects, the percentage of fish-based omega-3 fatty acids was twice as high among Japanese men compared with Americans of both European and Japanese descent. Japanese men had significantly less atherosclerosis, as indicated by lower average intima-media thickness and coronary artery calcification. Among Japanese men, intima-media thickness values declined with rising omega-3 fatty acid levels, a phenomenon that was not observed in either American group. Continue Reading