Fish Oil: Omega 3 Fish Oil and Diabetes

Anna Gibson-Farringer

If you are a woman with diabetes, you need to eat more fish. Diabetic women who eat fish once a week have a 40 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those who don’t. (Circulation, Vol. 107: 1852-57)

A group of researchers from Harvard University concluded that diabetics have up to twice the risk of heart disease and two to four times the risk of a stroke. As of the 1980′s, heart disease resulting in fatalities has risen by 13 percent for men and 23 percent for women. For those who do not have the disease, the risk of heart diseases dropped by 27 percent for women and 36 percent for men.

They also concluded that if diabetics ate more salmon, sardines, salmon, and other fish that contain DHA and EPA, they could lower these statistics. However, up to 85 percent of Americans are deficient in omega 3 oil with 20 percent not even having it showing up in blood tests.

In contrast, Europeans eat twice as much and the Japanese eat up to six times as much fish.

The American Heart Association says that all people should eat fish rich in omega 23 oil up to two to three times a week to protect themselves from cardiovascular disease and fatal heart attack or sudden cardiac death. They advise for diabetics and those at a greater risk of heart disease to take it under a doctor’s supervision. At the moment, there is no data about men with diabetes and fish oil, but a study did say that if they eat fish twice a week, they would have a 29 percent lowered risk of mortality.

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