Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Strokes
January 1st, 2011 Posted by: Lee Cole
DHA supplements are so important to brain health on account of all the omega-3 essential fatty acids, DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid is the one which is most prevalent in the brain. Although reports have not shown that omega-3 fatty acids can help cure Alzheimer’s, there exists a link between getting the right amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in your diet and not developing Alzheimer’s to begin with. Not only has a connection between omega-3’s and Alzheimer’s been found, but a link between omega-3’s and strokes exists, too!
The problem with omega-3 fatty acids is we can’t manufacture them in our bodies from other substances. We have to get our omega-3’s from our diets. This is a difficult issue, because our diets don’t contain the omega-3’s they used to. One big way people get omega-3’s nowadays is through eating fish, specifically cold water fatty fish. So, you should expect that folks who consume a lot of fish don’t develop as many problems like strokes as people that don’t. And usually this is basically the case…but not always.
In the USA, we have an area known as the “stroke belt”. This is a section of the South where stokes are statistically more widespread than in other areas. Specifically, the stroke belt includes North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. What’s odd in regards to the stroke belt is people who live there are more prone to eat more servings of fish in a given week than folks in other places of the country. So, you would probably expect people in the South to have less instances of strokes, not more.
Scientific study has been looking into this. And have determined that although people in the South eat more fish, they are more likely to eat fried fish. Apparently frying destroys a number of the omega-3 efas in the fish. So, it’s not just eating fish that counts. It’s how we cook it.
Another issue might be the species of fish eaten. Omega-3 efas are much more usual in fish that come from cold, Northern waters. Fish like tuna, by way of example, tend to have a much higher omega-3 fatty acid concentration than fish from tropical waters. Additionally, farm raised fish of any species have less omega-3’s than fish caught wild. Fish don’t make omega-3 fatty acids. They get them from their diet. Additionally , the diet of farmed fish is usually deficient in omega-3’s.
