Omega-3 and Your Health: Is the need for omega-3 related to gender?

Wonderful new article and amazing questions about omega-3 and IQ, focus and gender differences at Omega-3 and Your Health: Is the need for omega-3 related to gender?

Roy: Reasons to be proud

We recently summarized in answer to a key question:

Why buy PharmaOmega products?

I was very proud of the answers and don't mind sharing some of them:

•Exceptional standards: PharmaOmega products are concentrated to provide the most omega-3 per capsule, purified to be free of pollutants, metals, impurities and effective. We make products based on published research. I have personally visited all our suppliers and can confirm that their quality controls are the highest I have ever seen.

•True, validated standard of product quality: PharmaOmega fish oil is made according to Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient standards. What’s more, our products are independently tested and exceed US and European Pharmacopoeia Standards. Yes - we use third party laboratories to test each batch.

•Products are developed for specific needs: Each PharmaOmega product is formulated for specific needs. And it’s not only the content of the capsule, it’s the size of the capsule and flavor, too. This is most apparent with our MOM, CHILD and LEARN products, but after studying the CARDIO and LIFE products you will see the same principles apply.

•Environmentally Responsible: Made from fish that is plentiful in supply, without interrupting the aquatic food chain, PharmaOmega fish oil is caught using responsible practices. I have personally been very impressed by government regulation and our carefully selected fishing fleet's compliance. They usually are only permitted to fish for four weeks per year in two, two week periods and all fish must be processed within 24 hours of being caught.

•Easy to take, every day: Our pocket pack makes it easy for you to take your omega-3s with you and helps you remember if you’ve taken your fresh, lightly flavored PharmaOmega product. This is a clincher for many people - Omega-3 is extraordinarily powerful, but only if you take it! There used to be so many days that I would relaize i had forgotten mine and then we came up with the pocket pack and now I think i remember to take it about 9 days out of every 10 - not perfect but then who is?

Roy: Sudden heart attacks and death

Two fathers of children at my son's school died suddenly in the last three weeks. Both were in their forties (like me), both appeared to be fit and healthy, one had run the chicago marathon last year and both just died suddenly of heart attacks, leaving wives with young children. It sure makes you think........

When I mentioned this to my colleagues, instead of sympathy, they replied rather aggressively - "were they taking our omega-3 fish oil?". I had actually given our website address to one of them but not yet to the other and so I hadn't done much. I let them and their families down, because I know that their risk of death would have decreased by more than 25% if they had been taking Pharmaomega.

The American Medical Association (the association to which more than half of all US doctors belong) published a paper in 2005 stating that when it comes to avoiding death from heart attack and stroke, Omega-3s are more effective than any other treatment, in fact, almost twice as effective as statin drugs. To draw these conclusions, scientists evaluated 97 studies involving over 250,000 people. Omega-3s reduced risk of overall mortality by 23% and statins reduced risk by 13%. Omega-3s were even more impressive in people with heart disease (like those two dads and anyone else with high cholesterol). In those people, omega-3s reduced risk of cardiac mortality by 32% compared to 22% for statins.

In addition, recent studies have shown that if you are already taking a statin you get further benefits by also taking highly purified and concentrated fish oil:

In a study of more than 18,000 patients who were all taking statins, half were given 1800 mg/day of highly purified fish oil capsules. After a follow-up of 4.6 years, the addition of highly purified and concentrated fish oil capsules to low-dose statin therapy resulted in a 19% reduction in the risk for major coronary events, defined as sudden cardiac death, fatal or nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI), unstable angina, or the need for revascularization.

So... why are so many people being put on statins and not also being encouraged to take a high concentrate, high purity fish oil?

References:

Effect of Different Antilipidemic Agents and Diets on Mortality - A Systematic Review - Marco Studer, MD; Matthias Briel, MD; Bernd Leimenstoll, MD; Tracy R. Glass, MSc; Heiner C. Bucher, MD, MPH Arch Intern Med. 2005;165:725-730.

Yokoyama M, Origasa H, Matsuzaki M, et al. Effects of eicosapentaenoic acid on major coronary events in hypercholesterolemic patients (JELIS): a randomised open-label, blinded endpoint analysis. Lancet 2007; 369:1090-98.