Roman Bystrianyk, "Omega-3 Fats Greatly Reduce Sudden Death", Health Sentinel, February 22, 2005

Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops beating. The heartbeat stops when a person dies from illness or injury, or it may also stop abruptly and unexpectedly. When the heart stops suddenly it is called sudden cardiac arrest and is often associated with coronary heart disease (CHD). According to the American Heart Association about 335,000 people die each year of coronary heart disease without being hospitalized. However, no statistics are available for the exact number of sudden cardiac arrests that occur each year.

In the journal Circulation, over 45,000 men were examined in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study to determine the roll of polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs in influencing heart disease.

Major food sources of omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids include fish, fish oils, dark green leafy vegetables, and some nuts and seeds. Polyunsaturated fatty acids from fish are EPA (eicosapentaenoic) and DHA (docosahexaenoic).

Omega-6 (n-6) fatty acids are found abundantly in soy oil, sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, tahini, corn oil, and in most nuts. Over the last 150 years the diet in industrialized countries has markedly shifted to higher amounts of omega-6 fatty acids and lower amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.

What the study authors found was that there was a remarkable 40% to 50% decrease in sudden cardiac death in people with modest dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids from fish rich in EPA and DHA. They also found that this result occurred regardless of the amount of omega-6 fatty acids. “In this large prospective cohort study, modest dietary intake of long-chain n-3 PUFAs (>= 250 mg/d) was associated with a 40% to 50% lower risk of sudden death, regardless of background intake of n-6 PUFAs.”

They also found that omega-3 fatty acids from plant sources also lower the risk of nonfatal cardiac events and CHD. This suggests that in the absence of fatty fish, vegetable sources of omega-3 may influence CHD risk.

The authors conclude that, “our findings suggest that dietary intake of long-chain n-3 PUFAs from seafood may lower the risk of sudden death regardless of the background intake of n-6 fatty acids. This lower risk was seen with modest dietary intake (>= 250 mg/d), the equivalent of approximately 1 to 2 fatty fish meals per week. Our results also suggest that when long-chain n-3 PUFA intake is low, dietary intake of intermediate-chain n-3 PUFAs from plant sources may lower CHD risk, regardless of background n-6 PUFA intake. Together these results suggest that attention to relative intakes of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids may be less important than simply increasing the intake of n-3 PUFAs. Our findings also suggest that dietary consumption of plant sources of n-3 fatty acids may be important for CHD prevention among persons who do not regularly consume fatty fish or in populations in which fatty fish is not readily available.”