New Proof that eating fish helps you live longer

Scientists had proven that eating seafoods high in omega-3 fatty acids helps people to lessen the risk of cardiovascular diseases. The data gathered was from questionnaires that the participants answered.

However, a new study that relies on blood tests and years of clinical exams suggests that higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids may decrease the risk for heart disease and death in people over age 65.

The blood tests used in tracking down the levels of three different types of omega-3 in 2,692 participants with an average age of 74 by the start of the study, which lasted for 14 years. All of the participants were healthy and were suffering from heart diseases. None of the participants were using fish oil supplements before the study.

The study got published online on April 1 in the website Annals of Internal Medicine.

After the 14 years study, there were 1,625 that occurred during the said period. Those with the highest blood levels of the three kinds of omega-3, individually and combined were the ones with the lowest total mortality.

After adjusting the number of variables, the researchers discovered that those in the highest 20 percent, in omega-3 blood levels, were 27 percent less likely to die of any disease than those in the lowest fifth. Participants with blood levels in the highest fifth were also 40 percent less possible to die of coronary heart disease, and 48 percent less expected to die of an arrhythmia than those in the lowest fifth.

Those people with the highest levels of omega-3s have lesser stroke, but the difference was not that far. On the whole, the researchers believed that those with the highest omega-3 blood levels may live an average of 2.22 more years than those with lowest.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, lead author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard said that the highest levels could be attained by eating an average of 400 milligrams of seafood rich with omega-3s daily.

He claim that they know that an extra omega-3 could provide more benefit, but some people might not afford it anymore.

If you cannot afford to buy fish all the time, then you can still get the required omega 3 from fish supplements. You can combine eating fish with taking fish supplements, and the result is just the same as eating more fish in a day.