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Pastimes : Heart Attacks, Cancer and strokes. Preventative approaches -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (3652)	2/20/2009 12:38:29 PM
From: Joe NYC	1 Recommendation Respond to of 39319

Consume more omega-6 fatty acids? They have to be kidding. Dr. Barry Sears I don’t get a chance to respond to critics of the Zone Diet anymore since it seems to be so mainstream, especially since the newest dietary recommendations from the Joslin Diabetes Research Center at Harvard Medical School are essentially those of the Zone. But an American Heart Association Advisory on omega-6 fatty acids that was published in Circulation on Jan. 28, 2009, caught my attention. In essence, the authors were trying to make the case that it’s OK to consume a lot of omega-6 fatty acids. However, they neglected to point out in their article that a comparison of their dietary recommendations to a much lower omega-6 fatty acid diet in patients who already had suffered a heart attack had already been published in the same journal 10 years earlier. The results? A 70-percent reduction in cardiovascular death and heart attacks in the low omega-6 fatty acid group. Below is my Letter to the Editor of Circulation, which was sent out today. Although I am doubtful it will be published, you might be interested in its contents: Omega-6 Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Mortality. Barry Sears, Ph.D. Inflammation Research Foundation, Marblehead, MA 01945 Dear Sirs: I read with great interest the AHA Science Advisory on omega-6 fatty acids (1). However, none of the references in that article referred to the Lyon Diet Heart Study, which represented one of largest dietary intervention studies ever conducted (2, 3). In the Lyon Diet Heart Study, the AHA dietary recommendations were compared to a much lower intake of omega-6 fatty acids. At the end of the study, the participants in the low omega-6 fatty acid group had a 70-percent reduction in both fatal and non-fatal heart attacks compared to those on the AHA diet, which contained a high level of omega-6 fatty acids. The failure to discuss this major study and its implications on cardiovascular mortality and myocardial infarction in your Science Advisory greatly undermines its conclusion that the current consumption of omega-6 fatty acids is safe for the American public. References 1. Harris WS, Mozffarian D, Rimm E, Kris-Etherton, P, Rudel LL, Appel LJ, Engler MM, Engler MB, Sacks F. Omega-6 Acids and Risk for Cardiovascular Disease. Circulation. 2009;108:1-6. 2. de Lorgeril M, Reanud S, Mamelle N, Salen P, Martin JL, Monjuad I, Gidolet J, Touboul P, Delaye J. Mediterranean alpha-linolenic acid-rich diet in secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. Lancet. 1994;343:1454-1459. 3. de Lorgeril M, Salen P, Martin JL, Monjaud I, Delaye J, Mamelle N. Mediterranean diet, traditional risk factors, and the rate of cardiovascular complications after myocardial infarction: Final report of the Lyon Diet Heart Study. Circulation. 1999;99:779-785.