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The World's Top Anti-Aging Specialist |
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Fish Oil and Stroke Part 1Dear Friend,We have recently covered some in depth mechanisms by which Fish Oil prevents heart attacks, right down to the level of genetic expression. Interestingly enough the mechanisms by which Fish Oil prevents stroke are, "The same only different!" to quote Cheech Marin in 'Up in Smoke'. Stroke as it turns out can be simplified by an understanding of why it happens. Just like heart attack, stroke or as it is now often referred to "brain attack" is caused by an interruption of blood flow to some part or parts of the blood. Much like the heart parts of the brain then die. As a matter of fact the heart actually has a lot more resilience to low oxygen levels than the brain. The traditional value is 3 minutes of oxygen loss leads to dead brain cells. Lately a fascinating fact has become apparent. Brain cells do have some capacity to regenerate, and the brain can "grow new" cells if the proper nutrients and growth factors are supplied. It should come as no surprise that Fish Oil and CoQ 10 are among them. There is also fascinating research with melatonin and prenenolone. As more facts become available on this I'll keep you posted. Back to the brain. By far and away the majority of strokes are called" ischemic" which means a blood vessel blocked. There is however another fairly common sub type, called embolic. This happens when the heart is beating irregularly and flicks off a clot that lands "downstream" in the brain. It can also happen when a piece of cholesterol breaks of a major artery and floats into the brain as well. Many of you already have figured out how Fish Oil may prevent stroke based on the same mechanisms that it prevents heart disease (remember, the FDA doesn't want me using prevent!!). But there is a little difference between these common Ischemic strokes and heart attacks which are also caused by the same Ischemic mechanism. If you look at all the progress that has been made at preventing heart disease and strokes, there is something that becomes apparent. Most of the stroke prevention seems to have come from the lowering of the nation's blood pressure. There seems to be almost a 1 to 1 correlation with blood pressure lowering and the reduction of stroke. Not so with heart disease. If you look at how much improvement in heart attack rate you see with what you'd EXPECT to see with lower blood pressure numbers heart disease only goes down about 25% of what is expected. Bottom line: Fish Oil can lower the incidence of both according to studies but Fish Oil's Blood pressure lowering effect seems to be much more important in stroke prevention...
Other than that the same mechanisms apply to stroke and heart disease: 1)Improvements in the overall inflammatory state of the body 2) Decreased platelet stickiness improving blood flow into "tight spaces" 3)Plaque stabilization 4) Decreased smooth muscle proliferation in the plaque, again right down to the genetic expression of these cells growth. 5) Improvements in local Nitric Oxide levels again from the affect of Fish Oil in the genetic expression of the cell. 6) Improved recovery and healing of the cells if an ischemic event occurs There is a smaller subset of strokes that occur because of bleeding in the brain. This would Not be a place for fish oil, but again this number is small compared to the ischemic (decreased blood flow variety). I say this because I practice in a very litigatious state and society. In point of fact the data do not support that fish oil increases the risk or incidence of bleeding strokes. I often point this out when people usually doctors state that fish oil increases bleeding complications. 1: Prev Cardiol. 2003 Winter;6(1):38-41. Consumption of fish and fish oils and decreased risk of stroke. Skerrett PJ, Hennekens CH. Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Consumption of fish and fish oils was first associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease almost 50 years ago. Since then, a number of epidemiologic studies have evaluated whether their consumption is specifically associated with stroke. Ecologic/cross-sectional and case-control studies have generally shown an inverse association between consumption of fish and fish oils and stroke risk. Results from five prospective studies have been less consistent, with one showing no association, one showing a possible inverse association, and three demonstrating a significant inverse association. In the latest and largest of these, the Nurses Health Study, the relative risk of total stroke was lower, significantly so, among women who regularly ate fish/fish oil than among those who did not. A significant decrease in the risk of thrombotic stroke (relative risk, 0.49; 95% confidence interval, 0.26-0.93) was observed among women who ate fish at least two times per week compared with women who ate fish less than once per month, after adjustment for age, smoking, and other cardiovascular risk factors; a decrease was observed among women in the highest quintile of long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake. It would seem that higher doses confer higher amounts of protection. No association was observed between consumption of fish or fish oil and hemorrhagic stroke. These data support the hypothesis that consumption of fish several times per week reduces the risk of thrombotic stroke but does not increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke. Copyright 2003 CHF, Inc. Another importatn fact here is that higher dosages seem to confer more protection. This may be from Fish Oil's blood pressure lowering effects. Here's one from JAMA. I love to bust on JAMA. They try so hard to be traditional and "anti-anti aging", but every now and then one of their editors gets a wild hare and lets a pro supplement article slip in! JAMA. 2001 Jan 17;285(3):304-12. Related Articles, Links Intake of fish and omega-3 fatty acids and risk of stroke in women. Iso H, Rexrode KM, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE, Colditz GA, Speizer FE, Hennekens CH, Willett WC. Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 900 Commonwealth Ave, Third Floor, Boston, MA 02215, USA. "There was no association between fish or omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake and risk of hemorrhagic stroke. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that higher consumption of fish and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is associated with a reduced risk of thrombotic infarction, but is not related to risk of hemorrhagic stroke. Similar study in men this time: : JAMA. 2002 Dec 25;288(24):3130-6. Related Articles, Links Fish consumption and risk of stroke in men. He K, Rimm EB, Merchant A, Rosner BA, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, Ascherio A. Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston, Mass 02115, USA. khe@hsph.harvard.edu Circulation. 2003 Apr 15;107(14):1852-7. Epub 2003 Mar 31. Related Articles, Links Comment in: • Circulation. 2003 Apr 15;107(14):1834-6. • Circulation. 2003 Apr 22;107(15):e9033-5. Fish and long-chain omega-3 fatty acid intake and risk of coronary heart disease and total mortality in diabetic women. Hu FB, Cho E, Rexrode KM, Albert CM, Manson JE. CONCLUSIONS: A higher consumption of fish and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids was associated with a lower CHD incidence and total mortality among diabetic women. I thre w this last one in to stress that "Total Mortality " was reduced. This means that not just death from heart disease in these women, but also stroke cancer and other causes. Since death is the ultimate enemy of the anti-aging physician, I hope you can see why Fish Oil is my number One anti-aging compound. I'd like you to consider the email I received recently. Dr. Dave, I am a new reader of your emails. Do all your emails just push Fish Oil? Eric C. Tempe Arizona I make no bones about "pushing" Fish Oil. I have worked long and hard to make it the best product available anywhere in the world at any price. You can't get it anywhere else, and it has helped so many people with so many different problems. Who knows how much future disease and misery it has saved you. I also hope you appreciate and realize the amount of research and effort that goes into the emails. If you consider how much you know about disease, prevention cures, and fatty acid biology I am sure you will agree there is a lot of educational value here also. Sometimes in my office a patient will ask me, "Do I have to do X,Y, or Z?" My answer is usually, " This is not Russia! You do not have to do anything I tell you. But you'd be a fool not to! The choice is yours." Best,  Dave Woynarowski, M.D., CPT The Nation's #1 Anti-Aging Physician P.S. For the worlds best anti-aging supplements including Dr Dave's Best Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil go here and order now. Don't delay; you are not getting any younger, YET! 
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