By: Diana Barnes-Brown for Heart1A recent report from the American Heart Association’s 2004 Scientific Sessions notes that diets rich in alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), may help to prevent sudden cardiac death in women.
This information was reported after the publication of the Nurse’s Health Study by Harvard health researchers. The study asked participants what they ate while also recording other types of health data, and found a correlation between diets rich in ALA and absence of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias, a key predicting factor for sudden cardiac death.
To come up with their findings, researchers split the women in to five categories based on increasing ALA intake. From group to group, the average daily intake of ALA varied from 0.7 grams to 1.5 grams. Those in the group with the highest average daily intake had 46 percent lesser risk of dying from sudden cardiac death, when compared to the lowest intake group. Also, those who had the highest ALA intake levels were 21 percent less likely to die from coronary heart disease than their counterparts in the lowest ALA intake group.
The lead author of the study was Dr. Christine M. Albert, an M.D./M.P.H. and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. “A clinical trial that randomly assigns people to ALA supplements or to a diet high in ALA would be needed to know for sure that ALA lowers risk of coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death,” she noted.
Even so, the study’s huge number of female participants – a total of 76,763 women participating in the Nurse’s Health Study since 1984 and returned for follow-up data collection every four years – provides some persuasive evidence of a potential causal relationship.
“If this fat were to prevent sudden cardiac death,” noted Albert, “it would support the hypothesis that these oils were preventing fatal arrhythmias.” She added that in the 16-year follow-up period of the study, “women who had higher ALA intake had a significantly lower risk of dying from sudden cardiac death or coronary heart disease.”
ALA is a fatty acid found in green leafy vegetables, certain nuts, canola oil, flaxseed oil and supplements, as well as a handful of salad dressings and margarines.
Source: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions Meeting Report, November 2004
