LifeHealth is dedicated to helping you and your employees stay healthy.  Consider arranging for one of our Health Screenings or sign on for one of our upcoming Office Wellness Makeovers.  We provide seminars on healthy lifestyles, and tips from this web-site or our monthly newsletter will launch your good habits one easy step at a time.  Consider, for a moment, the benefits of adding that old stand-by tuna casserole (or fish oil supplements) to your diet. 

I haven't been deficient in tuna casserole since my mom sent me a copy of "The Impoverished Students' Book of Cookery, Drinkery, & Housekeepery." And a good thing too as medical research confirms that ample tuna casserole--or omega-3 fatty acids in any other form--is a good way to ward off an untimely demise! Here's what researchers at the University of Washington found. 

They gathered blood samples from 300 unfortunates who had pitched over mid-life from sudden cardiac arrest. They then minced up the red cell membranes from the dearly departed and analyzed them for omega-3 fatty acid content. This measurement of omega-3 fatty acids in red cells--specifically DHA and EPA-- measures the levels of these worthy fats as a percentage of total fat found in the cell membrane. 

The scientists compared the omega-3 indices of the fallen to those of a control group from persons of similar age who remained alive and well. This upstanding group--who doubtless loved tuna casserole or rare tuna steaks or anchovy pizza--were far more likely to own red cells with at least 5% omega-3 content. 

A preventive cardiology group at the University of Munich crunched the omega-3 indices from many subjects in many studies and correlated them with risk of sudden death from cardiac causes. Check out these compelling statistics in favor of downing fish oil capsules every day, mackerel breath or not: 

"A review of the literature, expanded by measurements of the omega-3 index, indicates that the risk of sudden cardiac death correlates inversely with the omega-3 index. For persons with an omega-3 index <4%, risk of death is tenfold, as compared to persons with an omega-3 index >8%.  

So omega-3 fatty acids, specifically EPA and DHA (read the label on your fish oil supplement selections and choose the capsule with the highest content of these two components), have anti-atherosclerotic (prevents build-up of cholesterol plaque) and anti-arrhythmic (prevents your heart from beating too fast, too slow, or too irregularly) properties. Furthermore, that fishy oil in the red cell membranes makes them less likely to glump together in a clot and more likely to squish through narrow places. 

So what's your excuse for passing up tuna casserole or skipping fish oil capsules?