I thought we had been told that fish oil supplements don't work. It seems that they do, a little:
"This meta-analysis provides the most up-to-date evidence regarding the effects of omega-3 supplementation on risk of multiple CVD outcomes. We found significant protective effects of daily omega-3 supplementation against most CVD outcome risks and the associations appeared to be in a dose-response manner," said first author Yang Hu, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School.
While observational studies have shown an association between fish consumption and lower heart disease risk, results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have been inconsistent. Two reviews published last year did not find clear evidence for benefit.
In this new analysis, the researchers did an updated meta-analysis that included three recently completed large-scale trials, which increased the sample size by 64%. The total population analyzed by Hu and colleagues included more than 120,000 adults in 13 randomized trials worldwide. The analysis included the VITAL trial, the largest randomized trial of omega-3s to date.
The findings showed that people who took daily omega-3 fish oil supplements, compared with those who took a placebo, lowered their risk for most CVD outcomes except stroke, including an 8% reduced risk for heart attack and coronary heart disease (CHD) death. The association was particularly evident at higher doses of omega-3 fish oil supplementation. This finding may suggest that marine omega-3 supplementation dosage above the 840 mg/day used in most randomized clinical trials may provide greater reductions in CVD risk.
".
sciencedaily.com/releases/2...
The source paper is here: ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161...
My comment: If that is an 8% reduction in relative (not absolute) risk, I am not sure that it is worth writing home about. I can't find the figure of 8% in the source paper and it will take me some work to try to deduce how meaningful the reduced rates are that are mentioned in it. However, the source paper does say:
"Despite the modest effect sizes for some of the CVD outcomes, the use of marine omega‐3 supplementation may still help prevent large absolute numbers of CVD events, given the high incidence rates of CVD worldwide."
