"If The Possibility Of Reducing Your Risk Of Early Death By 50% Is Important To You, Then Read This Article From Top To Bottom"

Omega-3 fatty acids are no stranger to the press. They may not garner the attention of the typical Hollywood celebrity; however, their coverage is well-deserved and nearly always positive. If scientists aren’t investigating their positive effects on triglyceride levels and blood pressure, then it’s their anti-depressant and mood-stabilizing properties that are making headlines. And that’s the short list.

Below are some of the potential benefits of increasing your intake of omega-3 fatty acids; EPA and DHA (discussed below), in particular:

•    Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD) of 30-50%*
•    Reductions in blood triglycerides of 25-50%*
•    Reductions in platelet aggregation*
•    Reductions in heart rate of ~2 mm Hg*
•    Reductions in systolic blood pressure*
•    Anti-depressant effects*
•    Mood-stabilizing effects*
•    Protection from bone loss*
•    Anti-inflammatory effects (e.g. reduced severity of arthritis symptoms)*
•    Anti-obesity effects (demonstrated in rodents)*
•    And more…

[Note that the benefits listed above are dependent on dose and current health status, among other things. For instance, people with higher baseline triglyceride levels can expect a smaller reduction when supplementing with omega-3s.]

The “Bad” Side Of Omega-3s

If there’s anything “bad” about omega-3 fatty acids, it’s that we don’t eat enough of them. But why do we need to eat them in the first place?

Fatty acids are the principal building blocks of fat. Each fatty acid consists of a chain of carbon atoms. A carbon atom can be thought of as having four “hands.” In a fatty acid, two of the hands are usually occupied by holding onto neighboring carbon atoms (one with each hand). The remaining two hands are often used them to hold onto hydrogen atoms (again, one with each hand).

There are exceptions. Sometimes the two free hands of a carbon atom hold onto one another to form a double bond. Because it’s not carrying as many hydrogen atoms as it can, we say that the fatty acid is unsaturated. Omega-3 fatty acids are said to be polyunsaturated because more there is more than one point of unsaturation (i.e. more than one double bond).

Your body can synthesize some fatty acids from scratch, but unlike plants, it’s not very good at making polyunsaturated fatty acids. Some it can’t make at all, like alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). This omega-3 must be supplied in the diet. That’s why we call it an essential fatty acid (EFA). ALA, in turn, can be converted into the long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids eicosapentanoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA). EPA and DHA are thought to be largely if not wholly responsible for the omega-3s’ positive effects on cardiovascular and mental health, and possibly much more.

It’s here that we encounter two problems:

•    Problem 1: Most of us eat little in the way of ALA, possibly because we don’t eat enough fresh plant foods. Americans have been estimated to get only about 7% of their calories from polyunsaturated fat. Of this, only about 10%, or 0.7% of calories overall, is ALA. (In contrast, nearly 90% of polyunsaturated fat intake has been estimated to come from the omega-6 fatty acids, a staggering difference. Omega-6s effectively “crowd out” omega-3s, reducing your opportunity to experience the potentially major health benefits provided by the latter.)

•    Problem 2: Even if we can convert ALA into EPA and DHA, it seems that this process is quite limited, possibly as low as 0.2%¹. Thus, you can drink flaxseed oil until you’re ready to gag and you may never achieve the levels of EPA+ DHA thought to reduce your risk of early death from heart disease². 


•    Solution: You need to increase your intake of EPA and DHA. This essentially means eating more fish –oily fish, in particular.

“Higher intakes of [omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids] have been associated with a reduced risk for death from any cause, largely related to their benefit on CHD [coronary heart disease] mortality. In 3 prospective cohort studies that provided data on EPA+DHA consumption (11, 30, 150), significant reductions in all-cause mortality were associated with higher intakes; this, however, was not observed in a study in women initially free of heart disease (15). In a meta-analysis of the effects of treatments for dyslipidemia (diets and drugs), Studer et al. (151) reported that total mortality was reduced by only 2 interventions: [omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids] and statins. In 2 large randomized trials in cardiac patients (23,25), treatment with EPA+DHA reduced risk for death from any cause.”³

Not To Be Confused With Motor Oil

William Harris, Ph.D., is Director of the Cardiovascular Health Research Center at Sanford Research/University of South Dakota. He’s also one of the leading researchers of omega-3s, a subject he’s been publishing studies on since 1980.

Harris explains that the term oil almost by definition refers to triglyceride, unless you’re talking about motor oil. A triglyceride consists of three fatty acids attached to a syrupy substance known as glycerol. Oily fish like salmon, herring, mackerel and sardines, which are rich in EPA and DHA, contain these fatty acids predominantly in the form of triglycerides. A smaller amount occurs in the form of phospholipids, another type of fat that happens to be the building block of the membrane that surrounds every cell in your body.

When you grind up the carcasses of oily fish, the triglyceride effectively “floats” to the top, like the oil in oil and vinegar dressing. This makes it relatively easy to extract, such as occurs in the production of fish oil supplements. But why not just eat oily fish instead of waiting for them to be ground up and turned into fish oil capsules?

For whatever reasons, North Americans just don’t seem to like oily fish. Michael Lucas, Ph.D., R.D. is an epidemiologist and nutritionist at the University of Laval. His team4 analyzed the intake of marine foods and EPA and DHA in a representative sample of adults in Quebec, Canada. Only about a third of them reported eating at least one meal of oily fish per week. This could be a problem, because in order to reach the target EPA + DHA intake recommended by some international organizations to reduce your risk of death from heart disease, scientists say you need to eat two meals (113 g or 4 oz) per week of oily fish⁴.

Things aren’t any better south of the border. The average intake of EPA + DHA in the U.S. has been estimated to be only 100-200 mg/day5, well below the range of values thought to protect you from dying prematurely of a failing heart. While eating white (non-oily) fish may seem like a more desirable option, it requires increasing the number of weekly meals to as many as nine⁴. Just thinking about it is enough to grow a dorsal fin.

Scientists believe that one of the main ways in which EPA and DHA protect the heart is by lowering triglyceride levels. Abete et al.5 caution, however, that in order to do this, you’ll need to consume four 120-g servings of canned albacore tuna to achieve a reasonable daily amount of EPA and DHA. They add that some types of fish often contain high levels of methyl mercury, dioxins, polychlorinatedbiphenyls (PCBs), and other environmental contaminants. “At present, pregnant woman or nursing mothers should limit fish intake to [180 g] per week, according to Environmental Protection Agency and FDA recommendations [36].”⁵

While Lucas’s team of scientists point out that the consumption of oily fish is the most economical way to increase EPA+ DHA intake, they admit that many people are unable or willing to consume the heart-protective omega-3s EPA and DHA from fish alone. Something more is required.

Krill: “We’re Not Oily!”

Recently, an alternative to oily fish and the unappealing (to some) products derived from them has appeared on the market, one that scientific evidence suggests can effectively increase your EPA + DHA levels, possibly while providing additional benefits not available from fish oil supplements.

The shrimp-like krill may only be a couple of inches long, but they make up for it in numbers: So large is their collective weight, or “biomass”, that it’s measured in the billions of tons. Krill dine on single-celled organisms known as phytoplankton that float near the surface of the ocean. Krill, in turn, are the main entrée for many of our planet’s largest predators, including whales.

Despite the term “krill oil”, krill aren’t oily at all², consisting of over 65% protein⁶. The small amount of fat they do carry on their tiny lean frames is approximately 20% omega-3s, including plenty of EPA and DHA. And unlike fish, krill contains proportionally more phospholipid than triglyceride^2,6.

Because phospholipids are water-soluble, they’re more difficult to extract from the tiny krill. But it may be worth the effort. While many fish may be considered quite clean, Harris says that krill may contain fewer environmental toxins², possibly because of their lower position on the food chain. Their large biomass, furthermore, means that they can be harvested fairly easily with lower risk of depleting their populations. From this perspective, you could argue that the use of krill supplements is more “eco-friendly.”

As Effective As Fish Oil

If you go searching for independent studies comparing krill oil with fish oil, you may come up empty-handed. There aren’t many. Part of the reason for this may be the newness of krill oil as a dietary supplement. That being said, the research that has been done shows that it is an effective alternative.

In a randomized, double-blind trial, Maki et al.⁷ gave healthy subjects 2 g/day (two 500-mg capsules with each of two meals) of krill oil, fish oil or olive oil (serving as the control) for 4 weeks. Subjects taking the krill oil supplement got 212 mg of EPA and 90 mg DHA per day, whereas those taking the fish oil got 216 mg EPA and 178 mg DHA.

The krill oil group showed an increase in plasma EPA levels of about 90% over baseline, whereas subjects in the fish oil group showed an increase in EPA levels of about 82%. The scientists conducting the study considered these results equivalent⁷. Similar results were found for DHA. Subjects taking krill oil increased their DHA levels by about 23% over baseline, whereas those getting the fish oil capsules experienced a 46% increase. “However, if you consider the fact that the krill oil group received half as much DHA and adjust accordingly, you get [a 26% increase] per 100 mg of supplemental DHA for krill and 26% per 100 mg of supplemental DHA for [fish oil]. In other words, those results are also equivalent.”⁷

What the study described above suggests is that krill oil can raise EPA and DHA levels just as effectively as fish oil.*

Jeffrey Cohn, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Sydney University and an expert on lipid metabolism and cardiovascular disease. He and his colleagues⁸ recently conducted a study to determine if krill oil would improve the metabolic health of mice fed a high-fat diet (it did). When asked about the advantages of krill oil phospholipids versus fish oil triglycerides, Cohn explained that several groups of researchers have provided evidence that the absorption of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, including DHA, may be greater when they are supplied in the form of phospholipids.

Invest In More Life (Literally) With New EFA Icon

If you’re like the average North American, then you need to increase your intake of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA in order to enjoy their exceptional health benefits.* It’s important to emphasize how extraordinary these benefits can be. As explained by Harris et al.³, studies using dietary intake questionnaires suggest that death from heart disease can be reduced by 35% by consuming a modest amount of EPA + DHA, in the range of 250 to 500 mg/day. This reduction, they say, is at least as great as that found in patients taking statin drugs.  Others have come up with even more impressive numbers. In a healthy Dutch population with a low habitual fish intake, de Goede et al.⁹ recently found that the risk of dying from coronary heart disease (CHD) in individuals with the highest intake of EPA+DHA (~250 mg/day) was reduced by about half compared to those with the lowest intake (~40 mg/day).

The statistics don’t lie. For whatever reasons, most of us don’t like the idea of eating several meals of oily fish every week. And others don’t like the idea of swallowing a capsule containing oil produced by grinding up the same fish any more appealing, or eco-friendly. So, for those of you who want an equally reliable if not also more desirable tool to help you take your EPA and DHA levels up to “death-defying” levels, Prograde’s R&D scientists developed new EFA Icon. Used as a supplement to the diet, EFA Icon provides a fast and convenient way to boost your intake of EPA and DHA in particular and omega-3 fatty acids in general.*

EFA Icon Advantages

Each serving of EFA Icon consists of two easy-to-swallow softgel capsules containing 1000 mg of pure harvested krill oil supplying 190 mg of EPA + DHA, 400 mg of phospholipid and 50 µg of astaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant.

As explained above, “oily” fish by definition contain larger amounts of triglyceride. Not everyone likes the idea of ingesting fish oil (from whole fish or supplements) whether it’s because of concerns of cleanliness, environmental toxins, or otherwise. Krill, being closer to the bottom of the food chain, have been suggested to be cleaner. However, another potential advantage of EFA Icon is its content of EPA. Supplements have been found to contain more EPA than DHA, whereas in fish the opposite is true (Harris et al., 2009). This may be important because EPA has been suggested to play a bigger role than DHA in providing mental health benefits.* In a meta-analysis of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation studies performed by Martins¹⁰, symptoms of depression were significantly reduced in 13 studies using supplements containing greater than 50% EPA. EFA Icon contains 63% EPA.*

Also, because EFA Icon relies on krill as its source of EPA and DHA, it naturally contains astaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant that is soluble in fat –perfect for protecting the sensitive cargo of omega-3 fatty acids tucked inside every softgel capsule from oxidation and possible loss of biological activity.*

“In both retrospective and prospective biomarker studies among generally healthy individuals without known CHD, compared with individuals in the highest quartile of EPA+DHA tissue levels, individuals in the lowest quartile had 10-fold higher risk of SCD independent of other known risk factors. This suggests that findings based on dietary questionnaires alone substantially underestimate the true benefits of (n-3) LCPUFA on SCD. Furthermore, the magnitudes of risk reduction seen with biomarkers of EPA+DHA are rarely seen in epidemiology—comparable to associations of smoking or asbestos with incidence of lung cancer—and are nearly impossible to explain solely by residual confounding by other factors.”³

 

$1.53 Can Go A Long Way To Reducing Your Risk Of Early Death.

This is no exaggeration. The general consensus among international organizations and some of the world’s leading omega-3 researchers like William Harris is that a daily intake of 250-500 mg of EPA+DHA is necessary for primary prevention of death from CHD, and to reduce the risk of death from CHD after a coronary event.

When you buy EFA Icon with Smart Ship, it only costs $34.95. That’s a $10.00 savings. And it amounts to only $1.53 per 250 mg serving of EPA + DHA, a level that studies including those cited here suggest may reduce your risk of death from heart disease by as much as 50%.* That’s not a bad deal if you can get it. And you can get it from Prograde right now.

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Scientific Support
1. Pawlosky RJ et al. (2001). J Lipid Res, 42: 1257. NOTE: One of the only studies to compare flaxseed oil with fish oil supplements found that the optimal dose of the former was double that of the latter (2.4 g of flax vs. 1.2 g of fish)11. Also, flaxseed oil took several weeks longer to elevate the long-chain omega-3 content of subjects’ red blood cells than those taking fish oil (~8 weeks vs. ~2 weeks). DHA levels were only elevated in subjects taking fish oil, providing further evidence that ALA cannot be converted into this fatty acid.
2. Harris WS (May 2010). Personal communication. Commenting on the study by Pawlosky et al., Harris adds that it’s one thing to “elevate” your EPA+DHA levels. It’s something else entirely to get them into the target range considered to provide protection from heart disease. He explains that 1 g of EPA + DHA may take someone’s omega-3 index from 4% to 7-8% after several months, whereas 4 g of flaxseed oil (providing ~2 g ALA) may only raise the omega-3 index from, say, 4% to 4.1%.
3. Harris WS et al. (2009). J Nutr 139(4): 840S.
4. Lucas M et al. (2010). Public Health Nutr 13(1): 63. And personal communications, May 2010.
5. Abete P et al. (2009). Curr Pharm Des 15(36): 4186. And references therein.
6. Bridges KM et al. (2010). J Agric Food Chem 58: 2830. And references therein.
7. Maki KC et al. (2009). Nut Res 209: 29. And personal communications, May 2010.
8. Tandy S et al. (2009). J Agric Food Chem 57(19): 9339. And personal communications, May 2010.
9. de Goede J et al. (2010). J Nutr 140(5): 1023.
10. Martins JG (2009). Am J Coll Nutr 28(5): 525.
11. Barcelo-Coblijn G et al. (2008). Am J Clin Nutr, 88(3): 801.