Pumping Marvellous

Great News about Fish Oils

Not to say I haven’t been saying so for a while but this is great news about the effect of fish oils – however please note that the fish oil is highly refined but the article which is in the Telegraph Newspaper does tell you where you can get some. Be aware when you but fish oils. I get my fish oils from here -

A specific high quality fish oil sold by Holland and Barrett
A highly refined fish oil with added Ubiquinone from Xtend-Life which is a New Zealand based company

Be aware of cheap fish oil, they don’t contain the levels of DHA and EPA and always discuss any supplements with your Doctor or Heart Failure Nurse.

“A study found that people with heart failure, where the organ fails to beat with sufficient force, were less likely to die if they took fish oils.

Around 700,000 people in Britain suffer from the condition that has debilitating symptoms, including breathlessness and fatigue, that can be so severe patients may remain virtually housebound.

Prof Martin Cowie, of Imperial College London and the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, reviewed the study of almost 7,000 people with chronic heart failure and randomly assigned them to take 1 gram of fish oil capsules per day on top of their usual medication or a dummy pill.
There was a nine per cent reduction in deaths among those taking the fish oil after two years. There was also a cut in hospital admissions for the condition.
The results are now expected to be incorporated in Europe-wide guidelines for the treatment of heart failure.
Prof Cowie said if two thirds of heart failure patients took the capsules daily, it would mean around 10,000 lives a year would be saved.
Patients who have had a heart attack are already recommended to take 1g of fish oil per day and adding in all heart failure patients will mean the majority of people living with heart conditions will be taking the supplements.
The review, published in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine, said cost-effectiveness studies were under way and are likely to show that prescribing fish oil in these patients would pass evaluation by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
The fish oil used in the study was a high quality supplement containing 90 per cent omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid ethyl esters, called Omacor, rather than a standard over-the-counter product.
Omacor costs the NHS 51p per patient per day and it can also be obtained from a pharmacist without prescription.
The research paper said: “Although not yet licensed for use in patients with chronic heart failure, it is likely that updates on international guidelines will make a recommendation to at least consider increasing omega-3 PUFA ethyl esters consumption in the form of oily fish or capsules, 1g per day, in patients with chronic heart failure already optimally medically treated.”
It is thought the fish oils helps regulate heart rate and have an anti-inflammatory action which may help to relax blood vessels to ease the workload on the heart.
Dr Jeremy Pearson, deputy medical director at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Researchers have been trying to find something that fish oils really do so this is interesting. If people feel they can tolerate it, which most people do if they take capsules and not liquid, I don’t think there is any suggestion that they might be doing themselves any harm.”

New Complimentary Fish Oils

I have just received my new fish oils from New Zealand from a company called Xtend-Life. You can visit their website via the link but I have my fingers crossed over their Omega 3 QH Ultra product. This is a very refined fish oil but it has a special added ingredient called Ubiquinol.

I will keep it very brief but my aim is to increase my ejection fraction percentage. These fish oils are part of my strategy for this reason. Ubiquinol is reportedly 6 times the strength of the normal Q10 which you buy and it is absorbed fully through the intestinal wall without degrading. Normal Q10 is Ubiquinone not Ubiquinol.

Ok this is where it gets complicated – and i have taken this from Wilkipedia – ” In terms of its functions, ubiquinol’s primary roles are in the synthesis of mitochondrial energy and as a protective antioxidant. The vitamin-like nutrient is found concentrated in the inner mitochondrial membrane where it serves as a carrier of reducing equivalents in the mitochondrial electron transport chain’s I and II complexes. In this process, ubiquinol serves to produce ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the main energy intermediate in living organisms.”

In other words it is vital to cell growth and that includes heart cells.

I will update you as and when I have any further information on the fish oils mentioned.

Complimentary Supplements and Heart Health

I would never suggest you don’t use your prescribed drugs from your Doctors and Nurses but I am getting very interested in all these complimentary supplements.

Before I had Heart Failure which was caused by a viral attack I was a great exponent of the following supplements –

High Potency Vitamin C
High Potency Vitamin D
Co-Enzyme Q10
Very good quality Fish Oil – High EPA and DHA levels – more expensive than the average but better for you
Plant Stereol supplement

These were taken every morning without fail. Now you may say well you got heart failure so they can’t be that good – well you are wrong. The results of my MRI cardiac scan indicated no signs of heart disease, furred arteries or scaring of the heart. I was just unlucky that a virus, it has been suggested herpes simplex (cold sore) or an influenza style virus attacked my heart.

So as well as my beta blockers, ACE inhibitor, spironolactone, diuretic, digoxin and warfarin I have now started back on the complimentary supplement route.

I now take –

Vitamin C 2000mg per day (1000mg in the morning and 1000mg at approx 6pm)
Vitamin D high potency (1 capsule in the morning)
Fish oil capsule once in the morning (EPA/DHA level is 950mg out of total 1360mg)

I have just bought some 6 hour bovine colostrum which from what I can gather may promote increased density of stem cell production and more, this is a very interesting product. I am just awaiting delivery from the USA.

I am looking to get myself associated with Q10 again, however Q10 is a pro-agulant and this will effect my INR warfarin level. I have researched Q10 for a while now and I came across a site that the kills two birds with one stone. Very good quality fish oil with added Ubiquibnol from Kaneka in Japan. Highly absorbent Q10 with highly refined fish oil as well.

In fact the whole site is excellent and seems to be a quality business. I will buy some and post the results.