A better way to prevent heart attacks Q: My heart health is pretty good overall, but I still want to do as much as I can to reduce my risk of having a heart attack. My doctor recommended that I take an aspirin each day. He said it's the simplest approach for keeping the blood flowing smoothly and protecting against heart attacks. What do you think? Dr. Wright: While it's true that daily aspirin can reduce heart attack risk, it certainly isn't the best option. Long-time Nutrition & Healing and Health e-Tip readers have heard me say it before, but I'm still far behind the commercials in trying to get my message across, so I'm going to say it again: Fish oil reduces heart attack risk as well or better and has many other beneficial effects that aspirin just can't match. Both aspirin and fish oil reduce the inflammation in your cardiovascular system. But aspirin reduces your risk of heart attack by interfering with blood clotting, or platelet aggregation. Fish oil, on the other hand, reduces your risk of heart attack by literally doing a "lube job" on your platelets, so they can't stick together abnormally. Fish oil also reduces your risk of sudden cardiac death, reduces abnormally high triglycerides, increases HDL ("good") cholesterol, and decreases abnormally high levels of fibrinogen (another independent cardiovascular risk factor). Aspirin doesn't have any of these additional benefits. For adults, I recommend at least 1 tablespoon of fish oil every day, and, if your cardiovascular risk is elevated, take 1 tablespoon twice daily. I usually recommend cod liver oil, since it also supplies a substantial amount of vitamin D. Don't forget to take 400 IU of vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) daily for each tablespoonful of fish oil. And make sure that the brand of fish oil you use has no heavy metals, especially mercury, and is free of other toxins. | 
