Why Omega-3 Fatty Acids Are Essential For Your Heart

By Peter Bertonich

Recently I've written a lot about the health benefits of
taking fish oil supplements, or what is also known as Omega
3 supplements. Lets look today at the heart benefits of fish
oil supplements.

The Jan/Feb issue of Sports Health, A Multidisciplinary
Approach, has published the results of a new study.
It was a study of the heart benefits of taking fish oil
supplements, or essential fatty acid supplements, the main
component of which is fish oil.

There were 36 pro football players who took part and they
took either omega 3 fish oil supplements or else a placebo.
The fish oil capsules they took contained 2560 mg of omega-3
fatty acids (650 mg EPA and 450 mg DHA in each capsule.)

The study, or it's results, backed up the conclusions of so
many other studies that supported the health benefits of
Omega 3 fish oil supplementation that increased the levels
of essential fatty acids in the diet.

The results were good. HDL levels (good cholesterol) went up
while LDL (bad cholesterol) went down.

And triglycerides went down too, an excellent result.

Now this isn't the first fish oil supplements study to
confirm a link between improved heart health and the intake
of more fish oil, or Omega 3 fatty acids. There's now many
studies that confirm the heart benefits of fish oil
supplements.

And the American Heart Association also recommends that we
all take at least a gram a day of EPA and DHA and that if we
have elevated triglycerides that this be increased.

So now that you know how important taking sufficient Omega 3
fats in your diet is, how do you increase your intake? By
using the very best Omega 3 fish oil supplements.

Be aware that not all Omega 3 supplements are created equal.
There are issues with both the quantity of DHA in each
capsule as well as the purity of the fish oil, some fish
oils being contaminated with heavy metals and PCBs and
mercury. These are only small amounts but the best fish oil
capsules contain higher levels of DHA than most others and
undetectable levels of contaminants.

So anyone at risk of heart related health problems should be
taking the very best fish oil supplements. That's you.


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Benefits of Fish Oil in your diet? Visit Peter's Website
Healthy Omega 3 Fish Oil.

Some Questions On Heart Rate Answered

What is heart rate? Heart rate (HR) is an indicator of the
heart's work and is calculated as number of heart
contractions (beats) in one minute (beats per minute - bpm).
Individual heart rate is very much influenced by physical
fitness of the person, genetics, age and environment.

What is the heart rate reserve? Heart rate reserve is the
difference between the maximum heart rate and so called
resting heart rate. If your maximum heart rate is 200 beats
per minute (bpm) and your resting heart rate is 60 bpm, then
your heart rate reserve is 140 beats per minute (200 - 60).
Trained people usually have larger heart rate reserve than
those who do no sports.

What is recovery heart rate? Recovery heart rate is the
decreased heart rate measured after a period of time after the
training. For example if your heart rate immediately after
the training was 185 beats per minute (bpm) and after 2
minutes your heart rate decreased to 110 bpm, then the 110
bpm represents your recovery heart rate. Together with
maximum heart rate, recovery heart rate also helps to
determine the intensity of your training.

How does the heart rate decrease after training? The time
that the heart needs to decrease its rate to resting rate is
individual. Typically, trained people do have higher maximum
heart rates, their heart can work longer with higher heart
rates, their resting heart rate is lower than the heart rate
of an untrained individual and they need less time to reach
resting heart rate. With a semi-trained person, the heart rate
drops at least 20 beats per minute (e.g. 180 bpm during the
training, 140 bpm or less after 2 minutes).

What is resting heart rate? Resting heart rate represents
the number of heart beats in one minute while you are at rest.
The resting heart rate is best measured if you did not
perform any activity for at least 10 minutes (standing up
from the chair is considered an activity!), ideally after
waking up the natural way, without an alarm (an alarm signal
causes stress in an organism and results in an increased heart
rate) still resting on the bed.

What is maximum heart rate? Maximum heart rate represents
the highest number of heart contractions a person can bear.
As maximum heart rate can be truly measured only during a
moderated stress test under physician's supervision, you can
estimate your maximum heart rate using the following
formula: Maximum heart rate = 220 - age (in years); That
means that if your actual age is 34 years, your maximum
heart rate would be 186 bpm (220 - 34). The maximum heart
rate of a trained person is higher than the maximum heart
rate of the less fit person.

What is normal heart rate? There is nothing like average
normal heart rate. A typical resting heart rate of a medium
conditioned man is approximately 70 bpm. Genetics and mostly
physical fitness play a significant role. The resting
heart rate of a well conditioned sportsman can be as low as
40 bpm as a trained heart works more effectively.

What is a safe heart rate during training? If your heart
is healthy (means you never suffered from a heart disease or
a heart attack) the safe range would be 70-80% of your
maximum heart rate. This doesn't apply to people who are in
cardiac rehabilitation, their exercise heart rate is limited
at maximum 50-60% of their maximum heart rate.

What is the difference between Heart Rate and Heart Rate
Variability? While heart rate refers to the number of times
a heart contracts in one minute, heart rate variability
refers to the beat-to-beat alterations in heart rate.