Cardiovascular diseases

Cardiovascular diseases include e.g. arteriosclerosis, insufficiency of heart, hypertension, arrhythmias, sudden cardiac deaths, coronary diseases as well as coronary and cerebral thrombosis.

Researches provide all the time more evidence to support the notion that the Omega-3 fatty acids obtained from nutrition reduce the risk of coronary diseases and thrombosis by means of several different mechanisms:

By preventing the insufficiency of heart and arrhythmias (Billman et al.1999, Christensen et al. 1997, Kang & Leaf 1996, McLennan 1993, Nair et al. 1997)
By reducing the hardening of artery walls i.e. arteriosclerosis (von Schacky et al. 1999)
By reducing the formation of tromboxane-A2 and that way the excess coagulation tendency of thrombocytes (Harker et al. 1993)
By reducing the triglyceride content of plasma (Harris 1989)
By increasing to some extent the amount of ‘good’ cholesterol (HDL) and simultaneously reducing the amount of triglycerides in blood (Harris 1989, 1997)
By regulating the functioning of cell membranes (De Caterina et al. 2000)
By reducing the formation of eicosanoids aggravating inflammations (James et al. 2000)
By reducing blood pressure to some extent (Morris 1994).

References

Billman GE, Kang JX, Leaf A. 1999. Prevention of sudden cardiac death by dietary pure ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in dogs. Circulation 99:2452–2457.
Christensen JH, Gustenhoff P, Korup E, Aarøe J, Møller JM, Rasmussen K, Dyerberg J, Schmidt EB. 1997. n-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids, heart rate variability and ventricular arrhythmias in patients with previous myocardial infarcts. Ugeskr Laeger 159:5525–5529.
De Caterina R, Liao JK, Libby P. 2000. Fatty acid modulation of endothelial activation. Am J Clin Nutr 71:213–223.
Harker LA, Kelly AB, Hanson SR, Krupski W, Bass A, Osterud B, Fitzgerald GA, Goodnight SH, Connor WE. 1993. Interruption of vascular thrombus formation and vascular lesion formation by dietary n-3 fatty acids in fish oil in nonhuman primates. Circulation 87:1017–1029.
Harris WS. 1989. Fish oils and plasma lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in humans: A critical review. J Lipid Res 30:785–807. Harris WS. 1997. n-3 Fatty acids and serum lipoproteins: Human studies. Am J Clin Nutr 65:1645S–1654S.
James MJ, Gibson RA, Cleland LG. 2000. Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids and inflammatory mediator production. Am J Clin Nutr 71:343S–348S.
Kang JX, Leaf A. 1996. Antiarrhythmic effects of polyunsaturated fatty acids: Recent studies. Circulation 94:1774–1780. McLennan PL. 1993. Relative effects of dietary saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids on cardiac arrhythmias in rats. Am J Clin Nutr 57:207–212.
Morris MC.1994. Dietary fats and blood pressure. J Cardiovasc Risk 1:21–30.
Nair, SSD., Leitch, JW., Falconer, J. and Garg, ML. 1997. Prevention of cardiac arrhythmia by dietary (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids and their mechanism of action. J Nutr. 127: 383-393.
von Schacky C, Angerer P, Kothny W, Theisen K, Mudra H. 1999. The effect of dietary ω-3 fatty acids on coronary atherosclerosis. A randomized, doubleblind, placebo-controlled trial. Ann Intern Med 130:554–562.