The impact of marine N-3 PUFA on coronary heart disease and sudden cardiac death- review

Objective: After few reports about protective effect on coronary heart disease, the therapeutic use of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid aroused .Many studies and meta-analyses have reported that the risk of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) and Cardiovascular (CV) death  reduced with the intake of fish and n-3 PUFA. n-3 PUFA may also modulate autonomic control of the heart because it’s abundant in the brain and other nervous tissue as well as in cardiac tissue. This might explain the protection against sudden cardiac death (SCD) by n-3 PUFA. The pathogenesis of SCD depends upon autonomic nervous system. Heart rate variability (HRV) can be used as marker of autonomic control and low HRV is a predictor for SCD. The studies have demonstrated that supplementation with n-3 PUFA seems to increase HRV which could be explanation for  decreased SCD sometimes observed after omega-3 supplementation. We critically reviewed the effect of n-3 PUFA containing diet on coronary heart disease and heart rate variability.