By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, July 9, 2009, abstracted from “The Preventable Causes of Death in the United States: Comparative Risk Assessment of Dietary, Lifestyle, and Metabolic Risk Factors” in the April 2009 issue of PLoS Medicine

In an effort to increase awareness among Americans on leading a healthy lifestyle, Healthy People 2010 (HP2010) is “a set of health objectives for [the U.S.] to achieve over the first decade of the [21st] century” (1). Specifically, HP2010’s two stated goals are “to help individuals of all ages increase life expectancy and improve their quality of life” and “to eliminate health disparities among different segments of the population” (2).

Now a new study (3) has found that one way to help accomplish both goals may be through increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake in the U.S. population.

In the study, researchers identified 12 risk factors that have the potential to adversely affect quality of life, ranging from high blood sugar to high salt intake to low fruit/vegetable intake to alcohol and fatty acid intake. It projected how many deaths could be prevented if these risk factors were altered by using 2005 data on causes of death from the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Health (4) and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) (5).

Regarding substance abuse, the researchers found tobacco smoking to be responsible for an estimated 467,000 deaths (1 in 5 U.S. deaths). Alcohol use caused 90,000 deaths that ranged from road traffic and other injuries, violence, chronic liver disease, cancers, alcohol use disorders, and stroke. But it was stated that alcohol also helped prevent 26,000 deaths due to “moderate alcohol consumption” which they classified as up to 40 grams per day for men and 20 grams per day for women.

Among specific conditions, high blood pressure (which affects nearly 74 million Americans age 20 and older (6)) was responsible for 395,000 deaths (1 in 6 U.S. deaths) in 2005. Obesity and high blood glucose each caused up to 216,000 deaths (8%–9% of all deaths in adults) in 2005. Regarding exercise, they stated that 20 minutes of “moderate activity“ per day would help prevent 62,000 deaths per year.

But perhaps the biggest surprise was that omega-3 fatty acid deficiency contributed to as many as 96,000 deaths per year in 2005. Specifically, they stated that “omega-3 fatty acids seems to reduce [deaths from heart disease] at intakes up to 250 mg/day, but has relatively little additional mortality benefits at higher intakes” (7).

For the researches, “Smoking and high blood pressure, which both have effective interventions, are responsible for the largest number of deaths in the US. Other dietary, lifestyle, and metabolic risk factors for chronic diseases also cause a substantial number of deaths in the US.”

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

Reference:
1. “Healthy People 2010” website: www.healthypeople.gov/default.htm
2. www.healthypeople.gov/About/goals.htm
3. Danaei G. The Preventable Causes of Death in the United States: Comparative Risk Assessment of Dietary, Lifestyle, and Metabolic Risk Factors. PloS Med April 2009
4. NCHS Website: www.cdc.gov/nchs/
5. NHANES Website: www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes.htm
6. “High Blood Pressure Statistics” posted on www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4621
7. Mozaffarian D, Rimm EB (2006) Fish intake, contaminants, and human health: evaluating the risks and the benefits. JAMA 296: 1885–1899