Copper River Health Food Fresh On The Grill / Craig Medred Photo
Summer is here; the salmon run in Alaska; and the latest research shows that consuming more of it could add years to your life.
Scientists who evaluated the data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study have linked a diet high in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids with an overall longer lifespan.
The latest study builds on earlier discoveries that omega-3 fatty acids massively reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVDs), the world’s number one killer.
An estimated 17.9 million people died of cardiovascular disease in 2019, which corresponds to 32 percent of all deaths worldwide, ”according to the World Health Organization. “Of those deaths, 85 percent were due to heart attacks and strokes.”
That is almost ten times as many people as the WHO estimates were killed by the pandemic disease COVID-19 in the past year, and a significant number of pandemic victims already suffered from cardiovascular diseases, which they are much more susceptible to after being infected with SARS make death. CoV-2 virus.
Western countries with high CVD rates are particularly hard hit. Italy, whose CVD rate is roughly twice the global average, has suffered 211 per 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, according to Worldometer tracker.
Japan, which has a CVD rate of only about 60 percent that of Italy, has a COVID-19 death rate of about 12 per 100,000. The low rate of CVD in Japan is largely attributed to a diet rich in fish.
University of South Dakota researcher William S. Harris noted this difference in a 2008 peer-reviewed study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that reported, “As (research) subjects, classified into categories of increasing fish consumption (less than one per month, one to three per month, three once a week, two to four per week, and five or more per week), those in the highest dose group showed a 40 percent reduction in risk.
This year Harris, along with researchers from Tufts Universities, Boston and Guelph Universities and the Hospital del Mar medical research institute in Spain, reported even broader health benefits from consuming foods high in omega-3s.
They even went so far as to suggest doctors use levels of omega-3 fatty acids in patients’ blood to assess their risk of death.
Groundbreaking
The study has received a lot of attention from the medical community.
“A low omega-3 index is just as effective as smoking in predicting early death,” wrote News Medical last week.
Medical Xpress called the research a “Signpost Score,” based on the “Framingham Risk Score Based on Eight Basic Standard Risk Factors” – Age, Gender, Smoking, Hypertension Treatment, Diabetes Status, Systolic Blood Pressure, Total Cholesterol (TC), and HDL Cholesterol . “
The suggestion was that low omega-3 levels can now be added to the list of risk factors.
“It’s interesting to note that in Japan, where the average omega-3 index is above 8 percent, the expected lifespan is about five years longer than in the United States, where the average omega-3 index is about 5 percent “Said Dr. Michael McBurney of the University of Guelph in Canada and the lead researcher on the site’s new study. “Therefore, dietary choices that change the omega-3 index can in practice extend life.
“In the final combined model, smoking and the omega-3 index appear to be the most easily modifiable risk factors. A current smoker (65 years of age) is expected to subtract more than four years of life (compared to not smoking), a reduction in life that corresponds to a low versus a high omega-3 index. “
Of course, salmon is one of the foods richest in omega-3s.
At an average of more than 4,123 milligrams per serving, the fish are about 35 percent richer in omega-3 fatty acids than the cod liver oil that some parents used to dose their children with, according to the Healthline website.
Better choice
And salmon tastes much better.
“If you ask a group of seniors about their experiences with cod liver oil, you will likely find that they turn up their noses at the tasteless memory,” writes Joe Graedon of The People’s Pharmacy. “People of a certain age were often dosed with cod liver oil as children in winter.
“Hundreds of years ago, in northern climates like Norway, Sweden, and Scotland, mothers relied on cod liver oil to keep their families healthy when the weather turned bleak. They may not understand why this foul tasting oily liquid seemed useful, but their powers of observation told them that children given cod liver oil were less prone to colds and flu. “
The mothers seem to have been way ahead of modern science.
They also sent their children outside to play, which helped ensure a daily dose of heart-healthy exercise that also protects against premature death, cardiovascular disease, and a variety of diseases, including COVID-19. Anyone can catch the pandemic, but fat and shapeless people are at a higher risk of seriously suffering or dying, according to various studies.
Patients with COVID-19 who were constantly inactive were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized, almost twice as likely to end up in the intensive care unit, and almost two and a half times more likely to die “than patients who were permanently” were meeting the guidelines for physical activity, ”researchers reported back in April in a peer-reviewed study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
To date, it appears that no researcher has looked directly at omega-3 levels in relation to COVID-19 mortality, but it might be interesting if they do.
The state of Alaska is still trying to determine the average fish consumption of its 49th state residents, but there is evidence that it is well above the national average.
Meanwhile, the state’s COVID-19 death rate has also been documented below the national average of 186 deaths per 100,000 people.
As of this writing, Alaska has a COVID-19 death rate of 50 per 100,000 people, despite an infection rate of more than 9,300 per 100,000, according to the Worldometer tracker.
West Virginia has a similar infection rate of 9,149 per 100,000, but this state has more than three times as many deaths per capita. The same goes for pretty much every state in the 9,000 to 10,000 infections per 100,000 range.
Why Alaska did so well in the pandemic is a mystery right now.
Like this:
Loading…
Categories: News, Outside
source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/key-to-longer-life-craig-medred/
No comments:
Post a Comment