A new research paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition last week showed that a low omega-3 Index is just as powerful in predicting early death as smoking. This landmark finding is rooted in data pulled and analyzed from the Framingham study, one of the longest running studies in the world.
The Framingham Heart Study provided unique insights into cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and led to the development of the Framingham Risk Score based on eight baseline standard risk factors—age, sex, smoking, hypertension treatment, diabetes status, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol (TC), and HDL cholesterol.
CVD is still the leading cause of death globally, and risk can be reduced by changing behavioral factors such as unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and use of tobacco and alcohol. Therefore, researchers in this study say biomarkers integrating lifestyle choices might help identify individuals at risk and be useful to assess treatment approaches, prevent morbidity, and delay death.
Among the diet-based biomarkers are fatty acids (FAs), whether measured in plasma or red blood cell (RBC) membranes. The FAs most clearly associated with reduced risk for CVD and for total mortality (i.e., death from any cause) are the omega-3 FAs, EPA and DHA, which are typically found in fish like salmon and herring, as well as omega-3 supplements like fish and algal oil.
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American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Study Paper:
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