PETER'S PRINCIPLES - September 2, 2007
Mike from West Bloomfield emails asking about the health benefits of fish.
Mike, fish is so good for you because of the omega 3 fatty acids. They can fight off prostate cancer, cut your risk of heart disease, fight diabetes and protect your eyes from macular degeneration. In fact a new study found people who ate about 11 ounces of fish per week reduced their risk of an irregular heart beat by almost 30%.
The best sources of omega 3s come in fish such as salmon, tuna, trout and herring. It is also found in nuts and green vegetables. But choose wisely, foods enhanced with omega 3s such as eggs, vegetable oil, cereal, yogurt and milk wonÕt give you as much of the fatty acid as you think.
Ryan from Wixom emails asking me to clear up all the numbers on cholesterol. Just how low should his bad cholesterol be?
Ryan, that is a great question! Keeping your cholesterol in check is critical to staying healthy and avoiding heart disease. Two new studies followed almost 2,000 patients with heart disease whose LDL levels, the bad cholesterol, was 100 or less. They put the group on therapy to lower their cholesterol and found lower is better at reducing events such as heart attack, stroke, even death.
Those who lowered their numbers to 40 or less saw a 39% reduction in cardiac events. Compared to only a 20% reduction for those who reduced their bad cholesterol to between 60 and 80.
