by: Greg Post

Myocardial infarction is a technical term used to describe an
irreversible injury to heart muscle. It is normally used as a
synonym for a heart attack and will be so used in this essay.
Myocardial infarction is normally related to progressive
atherosclerosis (blockage of the arteries.) Essentially the heart is
slowly starved of oxygen and stops functioning properly causing
irreparable damage and even death.

It is no surprise that much of the developed world suffers from
heart disease because of diet and other lifestyle habits. In the
United States heart disease remains the number one killer among
adults and demonstrates similar statistics in many other modern
countries. The surprise comes in knowing that the majority of heart
disease is avoidable yet educated people continue to ignore the
dangers and promote lifestyles conducive to cardiac damage. Though
many factors contribute to heart disease the current essay will
focus on one, in two parts. First we will consider the relation of
fish consumption and myocardial infarction. Secondly we will
consider the effects of dietary supplementation with omega-3 and
vitamin E for those who had previously survived a heart attack.

Fish consumption and heart disease has been a topic of innumerable
studies. One research project combined data taken from several such
studies including the Chicago Western Electric Study, the Zutphen,
Rotterdam and Swedish studies and the Study of U.S. Physicians among
others. The goal of this research was to examine the relationship
between fish consumption and the 30-year risk of death from coronary
disease.

The participants of the study included 1,822 men between the ages of
forty and fifty-five who were free of cardiovascular disease. For
the first ten years annual examinations were given and mailed
questionnaires and/or telephone interviews were used for the next
fifteen years. Death certificates were used to classify cause of
death for each patient.

During the 30-years follow up there were a total of 430 deaths from
cardiovascular disease with 293 due to myocardial infarctions. Of
the latter 196 were sudden, 94 were non-sudden and the remaining
three could not be classified as either. Almost all of the sudden
deaths were caused by myocardial infarction.

Detailed dietary history was kept on each participant with daily
fish consumption as the primary focus. Each participant was
categorized into one of four groups. The first group reportedly
consumed no fish. The second group consumed between one and
seventeen grams of fish per day. The third and fourth groups
measured consumption as eighteen to thirty-four grams per day and
greater than thirty-four grams per day respectively.

Predictably the results demonstrated an inverse relationship between
fish consumption and the occurrence of myocardial infarction. In
particular the participants who ate at least 35 grams of fish per
day had a 42% lower death rate from heart attack compared to those
who ate no fish at all.

The findings of these combined studies were consistent with other
data concluding that diets high in fish demonstrate a reduced
occurrence of death from coronary heart disease. This is especially
true in relation to deaths that are of a non-sudden nature. That is
not to conclude, however, that fish consumption does not inversely
affect the risk of sudden cardiac death. Other studies have verified
that such a relationship exists. Those studies are, however, beyond
the scope of this essay.

But why does fish consumption improve heart health? It could just be
the fact that people who eat fish eat less of other harmful foods.
To focus a little more closely on the beneficial causes of fish
consumption it is important to consider at least one study that
isolated omega-3 intake via dietary supplements regardless of diet.
The interesting thing about this study is that it was concerned with
the effects of omega-3 and vitamin E supplementation on patients who
had already experienced a heart attack.

The GISSI-Prevenzione trial, as it is known, hoped to establish any
relationship that might exist between omega-3 and vitamin E as
combined agents in the fight against heart disease. It was a
randomized trial involving 11,234 patients who had survived a heart
attack within the previous three months at the time the study began.
The participants were divided into four groups. Group one received
one gram of omega-3 supplements daily. Group two received 300mg of
vitamin E every day. Group three received both while the control
group received neither. Each participant received clinical
examinations with blood samples taken and were asked to fill out
diet questionnaires at the outset of the experiment and at six,
twelve, eighteen, thirty and forty-two months.

The data were analyzed using two methods. A two-way analysis was
made comparing omega-3 supplementing and no omega-3, as well as
vitamin E intake compared to no vitamin E. A four-way analysis was
also conducted comparing the combination of omega-3 and vitamin E
with omega-3 alone and vitamin E alone. The effects of the combined
supplements were also compared with the group that took no
supplements.

The results of the test demonstrated a 14% decrease in death from
any cause for the two-way analysis and a 20% drop in death rate for
the four-way analysis. Concerning only death due to cardiovascular
disease, the two-way analysis showed a 17% reduction of risk while
the four-way analysis revealed a 30% decrease. Though vitamin E is
known to be a powerful antioxidant, the group that supplemented with
the combination of omega-3 and vitamin E showed no life-expectancy
advantage over the group that supplemented with only the omega-3.

The overall conclusion of the GISSI-Prevenzione trial was that
supplementing with omega-3 provided long term benefits in lowering
risk of death for patients who had experienced a myocardial
infarction.

About the author:
Greg holds degrees in science, divinity and philosophy and is
currently an I.T. developer.

http://www.optimal-heart-health.com/fishoils.html