BREAKING NEWS -Sydney, December 3, 2007

A new Omega-3 Index has been developed by German and US researchers

A new Omega-3 Index has been developed by German and US researchers to identify those most likely to suffer a heart attack, announced Professor Bill Harris from the University of South Dakota.

Addressing the Omega-3 Centre conference today, Professor Harris, the US developer of the new index, said the test measures levels of the most important Omega-3s for a healthy heart, EPA and DHA, in the lining of the blood cells. The test is not yet available in Australia.

“Research shows the lower your levels of omega-3 fatty acids are, the more likely you are to suffer from a heart attack later in life,” Professor Harris said.

“The Omega-3 Index will help doctors identify their most at-risk patients, and enable them to reduce the risk by increasing their patient’s intake of omega-3s to levels that have been scientifically shown to reduce death from heart attack.”

“The best part of this story is that if your Omega-3 Index score is too low, you can do something about it, unlike other risk facts such as age or genetics,” Professor Harris added.

Professor Harris is Director of the Nutrition and Metabolic Disease Research Center at the University of South Dakota, and co-author of the American Heart Association’s official guidelines on ‘fish consumption, fish oil, omega-3 fatty acids and heart disease’.

The Australian Omega-3 Centre invited Professor Harris to address their conference to raise awareness of the new test and encourage local health authorities to consider its use.