Eat More Fish to Cheat Death

Forget that icelandic men eat practically no vegetables, and that they affectionately refer to their local liquor as Black Death. Chances are, you could learn a lot from them about healthy eating.

You see, the men in Iceland live longer than those anywhere else on the planet—an average of 78.7 years, to be exact. That beats the second-place Japanese by a couple of months, and the likes of you by more than 4 years. The natives claim that the secret to their longevity is their Viking blood. Sciencepoints to their dinner plates.

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Every year, the people of Iceland eat 29,000 tons of fish, which equates to 200 pounds of fish per capita, more than any other nation, except for a few tiny, unpronounceable island states. (No offense to our loyal readers in Tokelau and Niue.)

That’s 200 pounds of live weight, but even after you subtract for bones, heads, guts, and leftovers gone bad, it’s more than 6 ounces of fish every day, for every man, woman, and child—eight times the amount the average American eats. It’s not difficult to connect the dietary dots.

What is it about fish? Scientists believe it’s the fat. Nutritionists usually recommend that you avoid the fat in beef and pork, but the fat in fish is, well, an entirely different animal. That’s because it’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids—healthy polyunsaturated fats that are essential for many biological functions. In fact, you need them to live.

“Omega-3 fatty acids are part of the membrane of every cell in the body; they’re also the building blocks of hormones that govern much of the body’s physiology,” says David Katz, M.D., director of the Prevention Research Center at the Yale school of medicine.

A quick primer on omega-3 fatty acids:

• There are three types: eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, and alpha-linolenic acid, known respectively as EPA, DHA, and ALA.

• EPA and DHA, the omega-3 fatty acids that are most easily used by your body, are found in significant amounts only in marine life, particularly cold-water fish (because they carry more fat for insulation).

• ALA, on the other hand, is obtained from plant-derived foods, such as flaxseed, canola oil, soybeans, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts.

An important detail: “For ALA to provide any health benefits, your liver must convert it into EPA and DHA,” says Bruce Holub, Ph.D., a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Guelph, in Ontario. “The estimated average efficiency of conversion is around 10 percent to 15 percent.”

That means for every gram of omega-3s you take in from fish sources, you need about 6 grams from plant foods to glean an equivalent amount of EPA and DHA. And that may be why fish consumption is related to longevity.

In the 1970s, scientists observed a very low death rate from heart disease in Greenland Eskimos, despite the high fat content—nearly 40 percent of total calories—of their diet. This became known as the “Eskimo Paradox,” since it contradicted previous findings that a high-fat diet increased cardiovascular-disease risk. In subsequent investigations, Danish researchers found that the pivotal factor was the source of the fat.

Turns out, there was a strong correlation between the Eskimos’ low incidence of heart disease and their high consumption of fatty fish, a finding that was later echoed in studies of other fish-eating cultures—in Japan, Alaska, and the Mediterranean.

And that established a direct link to the life-extending benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, particularly EPA and DHA, since they’re mostly absent in plant and land-animal food (unless you count lamb and pig brain).

The Many Benefits of Fish

But prevention of heart disease isn’t the only benefit EPA and DHA offer. When Harvard University researchers tracked 47,882 men for 12 years, they found that those who ate fish three times a week had a 25 percent lower risk of developing deadly prostate cancer than those who consumed fish less than twice a month.

Regular EPA and DHA consumption may also lower the risk of colon cancer, stroke, asthma, and arthritis.

There’s evidence that these omega-3 fats can help your brain, too. According to a 2005 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services meta-analysis that reviewed 497 studies, high EPA and DHA consumption may help ward off Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

And a Finnish study of 3,204 men and women found that those who ate fish less than once a week were 31 percent more likely to be depressed than those who ate it at least twice a week.

Granted, no matter how long its list of virtues, you’re unlikely to start eating fish in Icelandic proportions. But you don’t have to: The AmericanHeart Association recommends just two to three servings of fatty fish per week—reckon a serving as 3 to 4 ounces, an amount that provides a total of about 3,000 milligrams (3 grams) of EPA and DHA—to reap most of the health benefits.

For example, you could meet your weekly quota by having a can of tuna for lunch on Monday, lox at breakfast on Thursday, and a restaurant portion of sea bass on Saturday night. (Design your own menu using the chart below listing the best sources of EPA and DHA.)

SOURCE (3.5 oz serving)EPA/DHA

Salmon2,200 mg

Mackerel1,200 mg

Sardines (canned in oil)1,000 mg

Trout1,000 mg

Mussels800 mg

Sea bass800 mg

White tuna (canned in water)800 mg

Calamari600 mg

Flounder500 mg

Halibut500 mg

Lox500 mg

Crab400 mg

Now if the only seafood you’ll eat is found on the menu at McDonald’s (a Filet-O-Fish is pollock, which has about 120 mg of EPA and DHA per serving, but is also deep-fried and packed with sodium), you’ll be happy to know that fish-oil capsules seem to work as well as the fish itself.

When researchers in Italy gave 2,800 heart-attack survivors 1 g fish oil (composed almost entirely of EPA and DHA) a day, they found that the supplement reduced their risk of dying of heart disease by 30 percent and of sudden cardiac death by 45 percent, compared with those who didn’t supplement their diets.

“You see virtually the same risk reduction in supplement trials that you do in the studies in which people consume a similar amount of omega-3fats by eating fish,” says William Harris, Ph.D., a professor of medicine and the director of the lipid research laboratory at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

The science is strong: Incorporate more EPA and DHA in your diet, and you improve your chances of living a longer, more productive life. And just imagine the possibilities if you started eating your vegetables, too.

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Include These Natural Blood Pressure Reducers In Your Diet

1. Nattokinase is derived from the traditional Japanese soy product natto. This supplement helps address one of the most overlooked problems in the development of arterial disease and high blood pressure: hyperviscosity, which refers to thick and sticky blood that moves slowly through the circulatory system. Hyperviscosity feeds the inflammatory process that damages arteries, and it also increases the risk of clot formation. Nattokinase reinforces the actions of plasmin, your body’s own enzyme that breaks down the clotting agent called fibrin, thereby preventing abnormal thickening of the blood and helping to lower blood pressure.

I recommend nattokinase supplements regularly to promote normal blood pressure and reduce high blood pressure. I have seen it result in such significant improvements that patients are often able to cut down, and sometimes even cut out, their high blood pressure medication. Nattokinase supplements are widely available in health food stores. As for dosage, start at 50 mg a day and raise the dose to 100 mg after a week. Note that people taking pharmaceutical blood thinners such as Coumadin (warfarin) should not take natural blood pressure reducers like nattokinase because the combination may thin the blood too much.

2. Garlic is an excellent natural blood pressure reducer. It is so effective as a blood thinner that I instruct some patients to lay off garlic if they are on a pharmaceutical blood thinner like Coumadin. As for its effect on blood pressure, a recent Australian review of 11 studies in which patients with high blood pressure were randomly given garlic or a placebo found that garlic can reduce blood pressure as effectively as some drugs.

Since you need to eat about four cloves of garlic (about four grams) daily to achieve a noticeable blood pressure–lowering effect, a garlic supplement is a great natural supplement to lower blood pressure. I like enteric-coated softgel garlic capsules (softgels are better absorbed in the body). Take 500–1,000 mg daily in divided doses.

3. Hawthorn, like garlic, is a natural blood pressure reducer. Although hawthorn has been used medicinally for centuries, in the last 100 years it has become increasingly popular for cardiovascular health, including to reducer blood pressure. Hawthorn acts in a fashion similar to a commonly prescribed class of high blood pressure medicines called ACE inhibitors, especially when combined with a garlic supplement. Specifically, the combination of hawthorn and garlic inhibits angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), minimizing the production of angiotensin II, a powerful blood vessel constrictor responsible for increasing blood pressure. I recommend 1,000–1,500 mg daily of hawthorn taken in divided doses.

4. Melatonin helps reduce blood pressure during sleep. Blood pressure naturally fluctuates over a 24-hour period, and is highest during the day and lowest at night. Researchers call this natural drop in pressure a nocturnal dip. Some people dip only slightly or not at all, while others dip as much as 20 to 30 percent from their daytime highs. The folks in the 20 percent to 30 percent range are called “extreme dippers.” Others, just called “dippers,” experience drops of 10 percent to 20 percent. And, as it turns out, both extreme dippers and dippers have a much lower rate of death from cardiovascular events. What’s more, melatonin—a hormone that contributes to regulation of circadian rhythms—can help you become one of these dippers.

Ongoing research has shown that oral melatonin can act as a natural supplement to lower blood pressure by promoting the dipping process. Not surprisingly, the studies indicate that melatonin improves sleep quality, which allows the body to relax more. But they also show that melatonin is involved in biochemical reactions that influence blood pressure levels. I suggest 2.5 mg of melatonin at bedtime.

5. Folate reduces high blood pressure risk. In a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, women who took more than 1,000 mcg a day of folate (folic acid) had an astonishing 46 percent lower risk of high blood pressure than those getting less than 200 mcg a day. While researchers have yet to fully explain how high folate intake is a natural remedy for high blood pressure, we do know that folic acid reduces homocysteine levels, and high homocysteine levels are toxic to blood vessels in the brain and heart.

This study also demonstrated that women who got their folate from dietary sources—such as oranges, leafy greens and beans—did not derive the same benefit as those taking folic acid supplements. Most of us only get about 200 mcg in foods, so I recommend taking at least 800 mcg a day in supplement form to promote normal blood pressure levels.

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Tips for Lowering Salt Intake

The more salt you eat, the greater the potential rise in your blood pressure — so people with hypertension should consume no more than 1,500 mg of sodium a day. One surefire way to reduce your intake: Take the saltshaker off the table, and try not to add salt to foods you prepare at home. If you miss the flavor, experiment with some of the salt substitutes on the market. When you do use salt, use a coarser salt with less sodium per teaspoon, like kosher salt and certain coarse-grain sea salts. 

When you’re comparing nutrition labels on products at the grocery store, make sure you check the sodium content too. All nutrition stats are listed per serving, so if you eat more than one serving, you’ll need to make sure you calculate total sodium accordingly. As a general rule, look for entrées with no more than 600 mg sodium and snack foods with no more than 300 mg — and of course, the lower the better. Go out of your way to buy brands that offer low-sodium varieties, especially when it comes to canned goods. 

This list includes deli and processed meats (like bacon, sausage, and hot dogs), canned soup and broth, canned vegetables and beans, pickles, frozen entrées, and salty condiments like soy sauce, ketchup, and bottled salad dressing. When you do use these foods, eat them sparingly or look for “reduced sodium” varieties. If you’re lucky enough to find “no salt added” versions of canned beans, tomatoes, and other products on this list at your supermarket, you’re totally in the clear. 

Fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and most other unprocessed foods are naturally low in sodium. Plus, many of these foods are rich in potassium, a mineral that helps counterbalance sodium’s elevating effect on blood pressure. (These foods are also chock-full of nutrients and low in calories — so eating more of them is an all around win). When whole foods are the foundation of your diet, you’re in charge of the specific seasonings that are added during the cooking process. Be stingy with the salt. 

Restaurants (fine dining, chain, and fast food) are notorious for pouring on the salt. A single restaurant entrée can easily dish out more than 4,000 mg sodium (that’s almost triple what someone with hypertension should have!). Dining at home more often will make a significant dent in your sodium intake, and, in all likelihood, cut back on your calories, refined carb and saturated fat too. Make dining out a special treat; your blood pressure, waistline — and wallet — will thank you. 

Snack on naturally low-sodium foods like crunchy apples and carrots, as well as creamy picks like bananas and yogurt. Try my Apple & PB ‘Wiches andVanilla Pumpkin Pudding for great (lower-salt) taste.    

When buying store-bought snacks, check nutrition labels and stick with items containing no more than 300 milligrams of sodium per serving – and try your very best to eat just one serving, or the sodium will quickly add up.

Looking for specific foods than can help lower blood pressure? Incorporatethese 8 Foods into your daily menu.

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4 ways yoga is good for your heart

1. Yoga helps beat stress

When you encounter a stressful situation, the brain releases adrenaline into your system to help you either fight or flee the threat. This causes your heart to beat faster and your blood pressure increases.  While this response can help you protect yourself when facing a threat, living in a constant state of stress may wreak havoc on your cardiovascular system. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, people who are prone to stress have a higher risk for heart disease than their calmer counterparts.

“What we want is a nervous system that reacts to stressful situations when they happen, but then shifts back to relaxation,” says Dr. Timothy McCall, a San Francisco-based doctor of internal medicine and medical editor of the Yoga Journal. Yoga may help by dampening your body’s reaction to stress. A2012 article published in the journal Medical Hypotheses suggests yoga could prevent and treat some medical conditions, including cardiac disease, by improving stress-related imbalances in the nervous system.

2. Yoga reduces inflammation

Inflammation is your body’s way of responding to injury and harmful situations, including stress. But it’s also “at the core of most pathologies, including heart disease,” says Dr. Hana Stastny, a medical doctor and yoga therapy instructor at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

Learning to relax through yoga may help decrease stress-related inflammation.A 2010 study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine showed that when women who practiced yoga regularly were exposed to a stressor, they had less of a blood compound linked to inflammation than novice practitioners.

. Yoga may lower blood pressure

According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, long-term high blood pressurecan weaken your heart and damage blood vessel walls, causing plaque to build up and potentially narrow or block arteries. This is a leading cause of heart attack and stroke.

While poor diet and lack of exercise are major risk factors, “we know there’s an element of stress involved in high blood pressure,” says McCall. A 2012 reviewpublished in the journal Holistic Nursing Practice suggests that yoga practice may be an effective treatment for high blood pressure because of its ability to decrease the body’s response to stress.

. Yoga promotes physical activity

People who are physically inactive are twice as likely to be at risk for heart disease as those who do exercise, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Yoga improves strength and flexibility, which contributes to cardiovascular health, says Stastny.

Research shows that people who do yoga are also more likely to stick with an exercise routine. A 2012 study published in the journal Alternative Therapy Health Medicine enrolled previously inactive people in twice-weekly yoga classes for 10 weeks. Researchers found that doing the classes significantly increased the likelihood that the participants would continue to take part in physical activity.

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Know the facts about menopause and heart disease

Heart disease risk rises for everyone as they age, but, for women, symptoms can become more evident after the onset of menopause. While menopause is a natural part of aging for women, it’s important for women to consider how changes at this time in life might affect their cardiovascular and overall health.

While menopause itself is not a risk factor for cardiovascular heart disease, many complex hormonal changes take place during menopause and some of them have been linked to an increase in cardiovascular disease. For one, a decline in estrogen may be the biggest factor in increased risk for cardiovascular disease for menopausal women. Estrogen is believed to have a positive effect on arteries and keeping blood vessels pliable.

Early natural menopause (that which occurs before or around 44 years of age) has also been associated with an increase in the risk of cardiovascular disease in two large studies. Despite the link between declining estrogen levels and an increase in cardiovascular disease in women, a causal relationship has not been established.

Many women may remember their mothers taking hormones to help relieve symptoms of menopause and reduce health risks. This was a popular therapy especially during the 1960s and 1970s. Based on research, there has been a shift in the use of hormone replacement therapy. Several large, well-known studies including the Women’s Health Initiative and the HERS trial, found that estrogen replacement had no cardio-protective effect and may have been harmful in some cases. Therefore, the American Heart Association has recommended against hormone replacement therapy as a way to prevent cardiovascular disease in peri- and post-menopausal women.

Other changes more prevalent at the onset of menopause include an increase in blood pressure, increase in bad cholesterol, or LDL, and no change or even a decrease in the “good” HDL cholesterol. Triglycerides, which are specific fats in the blood, tend to increase as well.

Other factors like smoking, obesity, family history, high blood pressure and diabetes are all large contributing factors in raising cardiovascular risks in women and should be prevented as much as possible. Most cardiologists agree that a healthy lifestyle goes a long way toward preventing the onset of heart disease in women, especially after menopause.

To promote optimal health following menopause, women should consider:

Stop smoking: Smokers have twice the risk than non-smokers of cardiovascular disease, and this includes second-hand smoke.

Watch your weight: Maintaining a healthy weight has many health benefits, not just helping to reduce the risk for cardiovascular disease. A healthy weight reduces the stress on blood vessels and your heart, which lowers risk factors.

Maintain healthy eating habits: Following a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, good fats like olive oil, lean meats and fish and moderate portions of carbohydrates and dairy has shown to reduce many health risks including cardiovascular heart disease.

Get regular exercise: Like other muscles in your body, the heart needs exercise to keep strong. Regular exercise improves blood flow and improves how the heart pumps blood to the blood vessels. Exercise also helps reduce stress, which is good for overall health, especially cardiovascular health. Ideally, you should exercise 150 minutes a week or 60 minutes a day if you are trying to lose weight.

Treat with medications if necessary: Sometimes the addition of certain medications is necessary to control risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Always check with your primary care physician, gynecologist or cardiologist and have them monitor all medications that you may be prescribed.

While menopause does increase the risk factors in post-menopausal women, it is manageable with these simple lifestyle changes.

Good habits that you start earlier in life go a long way toward reducing your risk factors as you age.

Menopause is a natural part of the aging process but it does not need to be a large contributing factor in cardiovascular disease in women. Work with both your gynecologist and cardiologist to manage both symptoms and risks for maximum heart health.

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Foods and Vegetables Containing Omega-3

Omega-3 fats often make the news for their role in heart and brain health and as inflammation fighters. You may be aware that fish oil supplements and fatty fish such as salmon and sardines are good sources of omega-3s, but there are also many other foods that can provide this healthy, essential fat and can be added to your diet instead of, or in addition to, fish.

Nuts and Seeds

Flaxseed and flaxseed oil top the list of plant-based omega-3 foods and oils, with just 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed or 1 teaspoon of the oil supplying your daily requirement of alpha-linolenic acid, or ALA, an essential omega-3 fat. Walnuts and walnut oil are another rich source of omega-3s, as are canola oil and chia seeds. If you’re getting your omega-3s from flax, make sure you grind the seeds shortly before serving so you can absorb the nutrients, and keep the oil away from heat, which destroys the ALA in flaxseed oil, but not in other oils.

Beans, Veggies and Leafy Greens

Soybeans are another good source of omega-3 fat, along with tofu, which is made from soybeans, soymilk and edamame, which are young, green soybeans. Some green vegetables also have omega-3 fat, including bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli and salad greens. If you’re not a fish eater, try to incorporate some of these vegetables and some soy foods into your diet each week. Make a stir-fry with tofu and greens, add soybeans to chili or a salad, or snack on edamame.

Fortified Foods

Some manufacturers fortify margarine spreads with omega-3 fat, and there are eggs that have a higher omega-3 content. Often, the spreads have a blend of flax and other oils rich in omega-3s, and the eggs come from chickens that are fed a diet rich in flax seeds. If you drink dairy milk, stick to organic to get some omega-3s. Full-fat organic milk contains significantly more omega-3s than conventional milk because the cows that produce it graze on ALA-rich grass and legumes as part of their feeding regimen, according to a study published in “Plos One” in 2013.

Plants vs. Fish

Omega-3s are essential fats, which means you must get them from your diet. However, there’s a difference between omega-3s from fish, and those from plant sources. Whereas some plant foods and oils have the omega-3 fat ALA, fish has two different kinds of omega-3s: eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA, and docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA. Your body can utilize these fats right away, but ALA has to be converted to EPA and DHA before your body can use it. Unfortunately, not all of it gets converted. It’s a good idea to eat a varied diet that includes fish, plant foods and healthy oils. If you don’t eat fish, make sure you get a good balance of nuts, seeds, ALA-rich oils and lots of other plant foods to ensure that you’re getting enough omega-3 fats.

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