Omega-3 fatty acids from wild caught, deep sea fish such as salmon, mackerel and albacore tuna have for years been shown to help lower levels of heart disease and cardiac death. However, a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that patients with high omega-3 intake have relatively longer "telomeres," which are stretches of DNA whose length correlates with longevity.
Cardiologists from the University of California, San Francisco, measured telomere length over five years in 608 patients who had previous heart attacks and coronary-artery blockage. They found that people with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids in their white blood cells experienced significantly less shortening of telomeres over five years, as compared with patients with lower omega-3 levels. This demonstrates a potential new link between omega-3 fatty acids and the aging process. However, the study focused only on "marine" omega-3 found in fish, not the type found in vegetable sources like flax seed and walnuts.
This is yet another study confirming the importance of consistently consuming wild caught, deep sea fish in addition to supplementing with an omega-3 fish oil supplement.
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