Want To Reduce Cholesterol Risk? Think Like An Eskimo

Lowering cholesterol is important business. The airwaves are replete with messages promoting drugs to reduce cholesterol risk. "Ask your doctor if Brand-X is right for you."

I am not here to minimize the importance and usefulness of proper drug therapy in cholesterol management. Simply put drugs save lives. For many they are an integral part of reducing the risk of heart disease. In situations like these the mantra of the 1960’s, “Do drugs!” might be appropriate.

But there is a down side to drug therapy. It is expensive. And drugs can have many negative side-effects. If given the choice, would it not be better if you could reduce your cholesterol risk without drug therapy?

Suppose for a moment that you and I lived inside the artic circle… in an igloo. Since television reception would be a bit limited we would have to content ourselves with more conversation. What would we talk about? It is an interesting scenario.

One topic of conversation that would not arise is that of cholesterol management. It simply would not be an issue. We would be ignorant of the topic. Not because we couldn’t watch the local news, but because we would have no problems with our cholesterol levels. Wouldn’t that be a switch?

For us our whole world would be our freezer. But the contents of that freezer would be a bit different than the freezers we have now. There is, however, one thing that would be the same. In both scenarios our freezers would be stuffed with fatty foods. In fact it could be argued that the artic freezer has more fatty foods than the one I have out in my storage room.

Towards the middle of the last century researchers discovered that the Inuit Eskimos had diets high in fat yet had very low incidence of heart disease. This flew in the face of our ideas concerning heart disease and fat.

The fact is the Inuit Eskimos had stable cholesterol profiles and low triglycerides. Their blood platelets also were not as sticky as their American and European counterparts. They stuffed their faces with fatty foods all day long and yet had healthy hearts. Apparently they could teach us a thing or two about cholesterol management.

As you can imagine this discovery gave rise to a flurry of scientific studies. The flurry still has not subsided. Finally we could have our fat and eat it too.

We have learned some things since then. We now know that not all fats are the same. We know that there are some fats which are known as essential fatty acids. They are necessary for proper health and our bodies cannot produce them.

The particular essential fatty acid that the Eskimos were getting in abundance – they still are I suppose – is known as omega-3.

Since the startling discovery involving the Inuit Eskimos omega-3 has received abundant attention among researchers. The result is that omega-3 has been used in the treatment of a variety of chronic health conditions. Some of these include…

· High Blood Pressure
· Stroke
· Diabetes
· Arthritis
· Osteoporosis
· Depression
· ADHD
· Eating Disorders
· Skin Disorders
· Asthma
· Macular Degeneration
· Cancer

This list doesn’t include heart conditions such as arrhythmia, sudden cardiac death, and serum cholesterol and triglycerides levels.

So where do we get this marvelous omega-3? It primarily comes from two sources. Vegetative sources such as flax seeds and broccoli are rather high in ALA which is a form of omega-3. The other two forms, EPA and DHA, are found in cold-water fatty fish. These two omega-3 varieties are responsible for the low incidence of heart disease among those who consume large amounts of fish like salmon, mackerel and tuna.

How much fish is enough? Well, for those of us who do not live in igloos it is a lot of fish. Two or three meals per week including fish high in omega-3 is a good start for those who have no history of heart disease.

However if you have an arrhythmia, high triglycerides, high cholesterol or atherosclerosis build up, two to three meals per week including cold-water fish probably isn’t enough. You may want to consider taking a quality fish oil supplement. It is a great way to get sufficient levels of omega-3 without the fear of contaminants like mercury poisoning. A few of the best ones don’t even have a fishy aftertaste.

So, if you are concerned with heart health and would like to live without the drugs, eat more fish. Eat it every day. If you can’t eat it everyday, consider fish oil supplements. Think like an Eskimo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John B. Perry, P.T., C.S.C.S. is a fitness and biomechanics enhancement expert. He writes a weekly newsletter, writes e-books and articles, produces fitness videos and performs seminars and teleseminars on Health, Wealth and Fitness. He can be found at http://www.hiptobefit.com/ and you can contact him at info@hiptobefit.com.

Nutrition - Articles and Resources

Want To Reduce Cholesterol Risk? Think Like An Eskimo

ABOUT THE AUTHOR