Omega-3 & Omega-6 are Essential to Good Health

Omega-3 and Omega-6 Nutritional oils are an essential part of our diet. They are known as essential because our bodies do not produce them independently, we must supplement them in our diets. Without supplementation of nutritional oils our bodies simply would not function properly.

Fish oil is an important source of Omega-3 fatty acids. It is often called the thinkers oil because they are rich in two powerful brain fat compounds called EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). These are both important compounds for the healthy function of the brain and retina. Fish oils also have been shown to reduce inflammation, increase blood flow, and help manage blood hormones. Omega-3 oils also reportedly prevent heart disease.

Omega-6 oils have been shown to reduce high cholesterol, blood pressure, inflammation, and arthritis. Preliminary clinical trials have shown possible uses of Omega-6 fatty acids for acne, alcoholism, allergies, attention deficit disorder, eye disease, and diabetes. Used together Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids play a critical role in brain function as well as normal growth and development.

Click Here for More Information on Omega-3 & Omega-6 Essential fatty acids.

Fish oil may flow in the fountain of youth

The Spanish Explorer Ponce De Leon spent countless years looking for the fountain of youth. The answer wasn’t the water but what was swimming in it. Yet another study shows that fish oil may be a key to longer life.

Omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil may slow the ageing process by slowing the rate that telomeres shorten. Telomeres are the structures at the end of a chromosome that affect cell stability and replication. A growing body of research shows that the longer the telomeres, the longer the life of cells, which ultimately means slower ageing.

“Telomere length is an emerging marker for determining biological age, and many scientists are interested in understanding the impact of influences such as age, exercise, oxidative stress, diseases like diabetes and heart disease, and how interventions like dietary supplements, statins and omega-3 fatty acids impact length,” said the study, which was lead by Dr. Ramin Farzaneh-Far, assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “We are excited to identify omega-3 fatty acids as a potentially protective factor that may slow down telomere shortening,” he said.

Previous research indicates heart patients with a higher intake of Omega-3s as have higher survival rates. Now researchers may know why. The new telomere Omega-3 research validates this and other studies on the importance of Omega-3 with regards to life expectancy. A study published in the April 2009 edition of PLoS Medicine, an online journal, showed that Omega-3 deficiencies may contribute to as many as 97,000 deaths annually.

“We know that daily doses of Omega-3 EPA/DHA can help with many conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, and we’re committed to increasing consumer awareness about the drastic Omega-3 EPA/DHA deficiency in the Western diet. However, these recent studies validate that Omega-3 EPA/DHA is more than just part of a healthy diet … it’s a matter of life and death,” said Lori Colvert, Ocean Nutrition Canada’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications.

For the telomere study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers evaluated 608 patients with stable heart disease (from the Heart and Soul Study from September 2000 and December 2002) and followed up on their status for a median period of six years.

Researchers evaluated participants for Omega-3 fatty acid levels at the start and throughout the study. They also isolated DNA from the blood and evaluated the length of the telomere of the leukocyte, a type of blood cell. Telomeres in patients with the lowest Omega-3 levels shortened 2.6 times faster than patients with the highest levels of Omega-3s. The study only looked at blood levels of Omega-3s, not dosage.

Cardiologists note that this study was the first to look at telomere length over time. The question remains whether the study results apply to healthy people because the researchers only looked at patients with heart disease. Though according to Farzaneh-Far, telomeres shorten in everyone, so Omega-3s could indeed benefit most people.

By Kimberly Lord Stewart @ functionalingredientsmag.com
For more on telomeres, see Nobel Prize News
For more information on Omega-3 fatty acids please visit our website at www.AmericanNutrition.com

Keep Your Heart Healthy with Fish Oil & Omega-3 Fatty Acids

The American Heart Association Recommends Omega-3 fatty acids an fish oil supplements. Omega 3 contains Fish oil which can benefit the heart of healthy people, and those at high risk of  or already have  cardiovascular disease.

You should be eating fish (particularly fatty fish) at least two times a week. 
Fish is a great source of protein and doesn’t have the high saturated fat that meat products do.  Fatty fish like mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon are high in two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

Dietary sources of omega-3 fatty acids include fish oil and certain plant and nut oils. Fish oil contains both docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), while some nuts (English walnuts) and vegetable oils (canola, soybean, flaxseed/linseed, olive) contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA).

There is evidence from multiple studies supporting intake of recommended amounts of DHA and EPA in the form of dietary fish or fish oil supplements lowers triglycerides, reduces the risk of death, heart attack, dangerous abnormal heart rhythms, and strokes in people with known cardiovascular disease. It also slows the buildup of atherosclerotic plaques (“hardening of the arteries”), and lowers blood pressure slightly.

*Some species of fish carry a higher risk of environmental contamination, such as with methyl mercury. So make sure the source of your supplementation is a trusted one like American Nutrition.

American Nutrition Fish Oil is guaranteed to comply with strict European standards for heavy metals, PCBs, dioxins, pesticides and other unwanted compounds.

Click here to learn more about Omega 3’s & Fish Oil Supplementation…