Omega-3 Research Update: Heart Disease and Women

The risk of cardiovascular disease is 3 times higher for women who don’t consume omega-3 containing fish- compared with women who ate fish every week, says a newly released study. Check out a few of the details of this study as well as a list of other important recent published studies on the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for depression, eye health, mental stress and more.

The long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish oil, such as DHA, are increasingly recommended for their many health benefits since they’ve repeatedly been shown in studies to protect against a range of chronic diseases. Recently, a large prospective cohort of young healthy women explored the association between intake of long chain omega 3s and the risk of cardiovascular disease in this less studied population. A food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and phone interviews were used to assess the women’s intake of fish and LCn3FAs and at 8 years follow-up, low intake was found to be associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease; risk of cardiovascular disease 3 times higher for women who never ate fish compared with women who ate fish every week, lending further support to previous literature on the importance of omega 3s in protecting cardiovascular health and preventing disease.

References:
Strøm M, Halldorsson TI, Mortensen EL, Torp-Pedersen C, Olsen SF. Fish, n-3 Fatty Acids, and Cardiovascular Diseases in Women of Reproductive Age: A Prospective Study in a Large National Cohort. Hypertension. 2012 Jan;59(1):36-43. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22146511

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