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Our wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon offers special appeal to those—like many of us here at Vital Choice—who like their wild salmon firm and flavorful.

These sustainably harvested fish are a super-healthy source of protein, rich in long-chain omega-3 essential fatty acids, and potent natural antioxidants.

And sockeye is a nearly unrivalled food source of bone-saving, cancer-curbing vitamin D, with a whopping 1,100 IU per 6-oz serving, or nearly triple the US RDA.

Our flash-frozen portions come vacuum-sealed for superior quality and convenience. Certified Kosher by EarthK

If you haven't tried our Wild Red Sockeye Salmon you're in for a treat, because it tastes much fresher and firmer than standard supermarket brands.

The rich, red color of the meat and oil is unlike any you're likely to have had before. And minimal processing ensures that you'll get the maximum amount of nutrients naturally abundant in Sockeye Salmon: omega-3s, vitamin D, and astaxanthin (a potent orange-red antioxidant pigment).

Choose Skinless-Boneless Wild Red, or Traditional Style with skin and soft edible bones for extra flavor and ample calcium.

Both kinds are available with or without added salt ... and several varieties come in EZ-Open pull-tab tops.

“You are providing a wonderful health-giving service to the planet with your business. And it is a pleasure to bring this information to my audience. It is also a pleasure to snap open these little cans of salmon and have an instant healthy meal!”

-- Dr. Christiane Northrup

Sablefish is rarely seen in standard fish markets, but this buttery, flaky, white fish boasts its own rich texture and mind-blowing flavor ... and even more omega-3s than wild Salmon!

In addition to our certified Earth Kosher Sablefish, we feature golden Oven-Ready Smoked Sablefish: scrumptious, steaks infused with delicate alder wood smoke flavor, which cook fully from frozen in just a few minutes.

Women are significantly more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, compared with men.

But very few studies focus on gender differences in the brain’s mood-regulating system.

While some of the same factors contribute to depression in both sexes, women are subject to unique biological, life-cycle, hormonal and psycho-social influences.

The cyclical rise and fall of estrogen and other hormones may affect the brain chemistry associated with depression and anxiety.

This may be why some women are at increased risk for depression and/or anxiety during the transition into menopause, while others suffer a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) called premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).

Now, researchers from Sweden’s respected Karolinska Institute report that they may have discovered one reason why rates of depression and chronic anxiety differ between men and women.

Their findings reveal distinctions in each gender’s brains, related to regulation of serotonin, which is the neurotransmitter associated with maintenance of good mood.

Prozac-type anti-depressant drugs – called “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors” (SSRIs) – work by reducing the rate at which serotonin is re-absorbed by the neurons (brain cells) that secrete it, thereby leaving more serotonin available. 

Swedes find sex-based difference in serotonin regulation 

Doctoral candidate Hristina Jovanovic and her colleagues at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute used a PET scanner to examine the brains of women and men.

Their results reveal that women have more of the most common serotonin receptors than men, and possess more serotonin receptors in the brain’s hippocampus region (Jovanovic H et al. 2008).

As well as being vital to memory formation, the hippocampus is  part of the brain’s “limbic system”, which is associated with primitive emotional states. 

The hippocampus actually shrinks in people with severe depressions, or who suffer from excess stress.  (This hippocampal shrinkage can be reversed and perhaps prevented in people with depression and bipolar disorder, with effective treatment.)

Interestingly, the hippocampus is also rich in estrogen and progesterone receptors, so the unusually high number of serotonin receptors in a woman’s hippocampus could be connected to the need to deal with hormone-related mood fluctuations. Clearly, we need to know more about this part of the brain.

They also found that women have lower levels of the protein that transports serotonin back into the nerve cells that secrete it: the very same protein (5-HTT) that the most common SSRI-type antidepressants are designed to block.

According to team leader Anna-Lena Nordström, M.D., Ph.D., “We don’t know exactly what this means, but the results can help us understand why the occurrence of depression differs between the sexes and why men and women sometimes respond differently to treatment with antidepressant drugs.” (Karolinska Institute 2008)

Serotonin system may differ in women with severe PMS

The Karolinska group also found differences between the serotonin system in healthy women, compared with women who suffer from serious premenstrual mental symptoms (Jovanovic H 2008; Jovanovic H et al. 2006).

These findings indicate that the serotonin system in women who suffer from severe PMS may not respond as flexibly to ...

One of the great mysteries of nutrition science has been the “French Paradox”.

That is, the French enjoy low rates of heart disease even though their diets contain fairly large proportions of saturated fat from meats and cheese.

Saturated fat tends to raise cholesterol levels, but as we discussed last issue, the idea that cholesterol causes cardiovascular disease is a gross oversimplification that's well on its way to obsolescence. (See “Cholesterol Fiasco Undermines Accepted Theory”.)

Another reason for the French Paradox could be their love of vegetables and red wine, which are rich in antioxidants that seem to enhance artery health.

During the last decade, researchers have made a number of startling discoveries about vitamin D.

These include evidence that increasing dietary intake of the “sunshine and seafood” vitamin above average American levels may help prevent high blood pressure, fibromyalgia, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis and common cancers.

Low levels of vitamin D correlate with greater calcification of coronary arteries (Watson KE et al. 1997) and increased risk of high blood pressure (Forman JP et al. 2007).

And when it came to protecting cholesterol from oxidation – a key goal of preventive heart health – vitamin D was found more effective than vitamin E in an animal experiment (Sardar S et al. 1997).

As we reported last month, researchers who examined diet and blood sample data collected from 15,088 Americans found that those with the lowest blood vitamin D levels had dramatically higher rates of four key heart-risk factors (Martins D et al. 2007; see “Vitamin D Linked to Lower Rates of Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Risks, and Death”).

Correlations between low levels of vitamin D and increased heart risks appear again in a new analysis of data from participants in the Framingham Offspring Study: an offshoot of the landmark Framingham Heart Study.

Results link low vitamin D levels to higher heart risks

The new analysis was conducted by a team of doctors and statisticians from Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston University, and the USDA Aging Research Center at Tufts University (Wang TJ et al. 2008).

The volunteers’ average age was 59, a little more than half of the 1,739 participants were women, and all were Caucasians. None of the volunteers had any heart problems at the start of the five-year study and the researchers used blood samples to measure blood levels of vitamin D.

Average adult vitamin D blood levels in America range from 20-56 ng/mL, but levels above 30 ng/mL are considered the minimum for bone health, and experts recommend a target of 80 ng/mL to ensure optimal health.

Only 10 percent of the participants in the Framingham Offspring Study had vitamin D blood levels above 30 ng/mL, while 28 percent had levels lower than 15 ng/mL.

Over the five year course of the study, 120 participants suffered an adverse cardiovascular event (heart attack, stroke, etc.), and participants with vitamin D levels below 15 ng/mL were 62 percent more likely to experience these life-threatening events, compared with people with vitamin D levels above 15 ng/mL.

And people with low vitamin D levels and high blood pressure (hypertension) were 113 percent more likely to suffer an adverse heart event than those with normal blood pressure and higher vitamin D levels.

As lead author Thomas Wang M.D., noted, “Vitamin D receptors have a broad tissue distribution that includes vascular smooth muscle and endothelium, the inner lining of the body's vessels. Our data raise the possibility that treating vitamin D deficiency, via supplementation or lifestyle measures, could reduce cardiovascular risk.”

Dr. Wang went on to make an important point: “What hasn't been proven yet is that vitamin D deficiency actually causes increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This would require a large randomized trial to show whether correcting the vitamin D deficiency would result in a reduction in cardiovascular risk.”

However, his team’s report noted several compelling correlations found in previous investigations (Wang TJ et al. 2008):

• “Administration of dietary vitamin D or UV-B treatment has been shown to lower blood pressure, restore insulin sensitivity and lower cholesterol.”
•  “Research suggests that low levels of vitamin D may contribute to or be a cause of syndrome X with associated hypertension, obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Vitamin D regulates vitamin-D-binding proteins and some calcium-binding proteins, which are responsible for carrying calcium to the ‘right location’ and protecting cells from damage by free calcium. Thus, high dietary levels of calcium, when D is insufficient, may contribute to calcification of the arteries, joints, kidney and perhaps even the brain.”
• “Many researchers have postulated that vitamin D deficiency leads to the deposition of calcium in the arteries and hence atherosclerosis, noting that northern countries have higher levels of cardiovascular disease and that more heart attacks occur in winter months.”
• [Vitamin D is required for metabolism of calcium.] “Scottish researchers found that calcium levels in the hair inversely correlated with arterial calcium—the more calcium or plaque in the arteries, the less calcium in the hair. Ninety percent of men experiencing myocardial infarction [heart attack] had low hair calcium. When vitamin D was administered, the amount of calcium in the beard went up and this rise continued as long as vitamin D was consumed. Almost immediately after stopping supplementation, however, beard calcium fell to pre-supplement levels.”

Vitamin D insufficiency is the norm in northern regions

Researchers have been pressing the Institute of Medicine to raise the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin D based on fast-growing evidence that higher intakes could protect against osteoporosis and certain cancers.

Wintertime sunshine levels in northern regions are so weak that the body makes no vitamin D at all, leading to estimates that more than half of the population in northerly temperate zones ...