We all want a healthy heart, and taking your omega-3 is a large factor in maintaining that healthy heart. But here are some additional ways to keep that healthy heart ticking.

1. If you are a smoker, quitting is the best thing you can do to keep that heart healthy. Period.

2. Everyone must watch what they eat and make sure that their waistline doesn't get too large. To ensure this you should keep an eye on your food consumption and exercise regularly.

3. To ensure you and your body stays healthy, one must have regular exercise. Even if it doesn't last too long, daily movement helps keep a body right.

4. Cholesterol is a great factor in keeping a healthy heart. To maintain a good cholesterol level and balance, one should consume more healthy fats, like omega-3 fatty acids, and quit smoking because smoking lowers a person's good cholesterol.

5. Lastly, blood pressure is closely related to having a healthy heart. When you have a healthy blood pressure the risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke decreases dramatically.

Techinically, omega-3 fatty acids are a family of unsaturated fatty acids that have in common a carbon–carbon double bond. These fatty acids are essential fatty acids and play an important role in the life cycle of cardiac cells.

Well, now that you know what they are chemically, I'm sure it'd be more helpful for you to know what they are and where they can be found, in lamen's terms.

Essential fatty acids play an important role in humans' metabolic processes and, therefore, should be an important part of your daily intake. Other than getting them in pill form, you can also find them naturally in many great tasting foods like salmon, walnuts and olives. Other sources of omega 3 fatty acids are found in shellfish, flaxseed, canola oil, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and leafy vegetables.

Even the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the "thumbs up" to omega-3 fatty acids. On Sept. 8, 2004, they gave the "qualified health claim" status to two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids, the eicosapentaenoic acid and the docosahexaenoic acid. In this claim, they also stated that these acids were shown to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. Having the U.S. Food and Drug Administration give claim to the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids gives an extra boost of support to those of you who are making sure you are getting all of your omega-3 fatty acids.