Raena Morgan: Dr. Jorn Dyerberg is an expert in the field of nutrition and a pioneer in the
research of Omega 3s. Dr. Dyerberg, could you tell us how Omega 3s—
how do they affect coronary health?
Dr. Jorn Dyerberg: That’s a big question because over the years we have actually found out
that there are new things every 2nd year coming up, so it’s not one effect
on coronary risk, it’s a multitude of effects. Let’s start with the lipids. If
you increase the long chained Omega 3s you improve your blood lipids in
a way that the risk of coronaries decreases. The effect is that you increase
your good cholesterol a bit, not much, but you increase your good
cholesterol a bit, but then you lower your triglycerides.
Raena Morgan: Oh, you do?
Dr. Jorn Dyerberg: Yah. And, triglycerides, that’s another family of fats, and actually its most
of the fat we eat is triglycerides…we have been accustomed to look only
at cholesterol, but over the years it has come up that triglycerides are a
huge risk factor for coronaries. Actually, there were two major studies
published in the well known American Medical Journal JAMA—Journal
of American Medical Association—showing that the non fasting
triglyceride level—we’ve always measured triglycerides in a fasting
state…but most Americans and most Danes are not fasting.
Raena Morgan: They don’t fast?
Dr. Jorn Dyerberg: They are non-fasting all the time! So, our coronaries are bathed in non
fasting all the time and only in the early morning we are in a fasting state.
And, they found out if they measured non fasting triglycerides in normal
conditions, and took that value and related that to the risk of coronaries,
there was a huge positive association. The higher your non fasting
triglycerides, the higher the risk of coronaries and, it is so that Omega 3
EPA and DHA intake lowers fasting and non fasting triglycerides
substantially. So, this is one of the effects of Omega 3s of coronaries, but
there have been several others coming up over the years. When you get a
coronary it’s a plaque—an accumulation of fat, cholesterol in your
coronaries that bursts a bit, cracks a bit, and on top of that a blood clot is
formed. And, the stability of the plaque also is a risk factor. It has been
shown that by increasing Omega 3s the stability of the plaque in your
coronaries—if you had one or I had one—increases due to a lowering of
the inflammation in the reaction.
Raena Morgan: That’s what I was going to ask you about—it affects inflammation?
Dr. Jorn Dyerberg: Inflammation, yes. It lowers the inflammatory response of your cellular—
your cells in the body—and thereby stabilizes the plaques, but aside from
that, there are other effects. One of the major studies in fish oil and
coronaries is a large Italian Study called the Gissi Study, including more
than 11,000 patients who had had a coronary, and giving them either fish
oil or nothing—the two groups. And, they found out that the group that—
and then they had an observation period of more than 3 years—it’s really a
major study—and they found out that the survival—the overall survival in
the fish oil group was 20% better than in the non fish oil group, and
especially the rate of sudden cardiac death—falling dead down, you know.
It was nearly halved, reduced by 45% in the fish oil group, and that is due
to an effect of what causes sudden death, which is a fibrillation of your
heart. You know, the heart pumps, but suddenly due to electrical, and a lot
of things, the pumping can be irregular and the heart just sits there
fibrillating and the only thing you can do is heart massage and then get
something to put an electrical current on it, you know, this resuscitation,
and then you can hopefully bring the heart back to normal beating, but
many people die from that. So, a lot of experiments have been performed
since that and it seems as the building in of EPA and DHA in the heart
cells make them more resistant to arterial or myocardial fibrillation and
thereby reduce[s] the risk of sudden cardiac death. And that’s another
fascinating [one] and new ones will come up over the next years I can
guarantee you.
Raena Morgan: Well, thank you Dr. Dyerberg.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services