Cutting the risk of sudden cardiac death
Last Updated Aug 2007
Heart disease remains the primary killer of Americans with more than 500,000 dying
every year. Of that number, about 50 percent or 250,000 die from sudden cardiac
death. This is when you grab your chest and die on the spot. Of those 250,000,
more than half have no family history of heart disease or elevated cholesterol.
It's as if these 125,000 people were hit by a thunderbolt. That's four times more
than die from prostate cancer each year and three times more than die from breast
cancer on an annual basis. However, we know that the underlying cause of sudden
cardiac death is abnormal heart rhythms. The heart is a synchronized muscle. If
the rhythms get out of sync, then the heart simply stops beating and you die.
New data appearing in the May 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical
Nutrition confirms that taking a lot of omega-3 fatty acids dramatically reduces
the time between the heart's electrical waves, both reducing heart rate and also
the risk of sudden cardiac death. Other studies have indicated that if the total
levels of EPA and DHA combined in the blood are greater than 4 percent of the total
fatty acids (as measured by the AA/EPA test), then the risk of sudden cardiac death
is reduced by 70 percent. So if you want to reduce the likelihood of sudden death,
then take your fish oil. How much? You will probably need up to 5 grams a day of
EPA and DHA to get your blood levels over the 4 percent threshold. That's a lot of
fish oil, but considering the alternative (i.e., sudden cardiac death) it's a
pretty reasonable insurance policy to take out.