Protect your heart with fats
Want to protect your heart? Forget aspirin... stop the statins... and don't even touch those BP meds.
Fill your plate with delicious fatty fish instead -- and, while you're at it, take a fish oil supplement -- because the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish can do more to protect your heart than those meds ever will.
That's true for anyone. But it's especially true for people who already have heart problems -- and in the new study, the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil were shown to help the hearts of patients with metabolic syndrome in at least four different ways:
First, it can improve your flow-mediated dilation. That's a measure of blood flow so critical to heart health that every 1 percent dip in FMD can increase your risk of heart problems by 12 percent.
Second, those 2 grams a day can improve your pulse wave velocity, a key measure of arterial stiffness.
Third, it can slash your levels of inflammation, causing your levels of the inflammation marker interleukin6 to drop.
And fourth, it can slash your triglycerides. You know I don't give a hoot about LDL and HDL cholesterol, but triglycerides are another story -- the higher they are, the higher your heart risk.
But plain old fish oil can bring them down to where they need to be.
Of course, you don't have to be suffering from metabolic syndrome yourself to get these and other benefits from fish oil. The omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil can help protect your heart, brain, eyes and more -- and that's true whether you're trim and fit, or already fighting off the ravages of heart disease.
Along with fatty fish, you'll find omega-3s in grass-fed meats and raw dairy.
But to get what you really need, day in and day out, take a quality fish oil supplement from a maker you trust. Look for one that's been purified to remove sea contaminants such as mercury.