More Bad News for Omega-3s: No Protection for Heart Patients

August 29, 2010 1:57 pm 15 comments

For years now, the cardiovascular benefits of omega-3 fatty acids have been disputed, with champions of the fatty acids arguing that they reduce blood pressure and stave of heart events, and critics saying pretty much what researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands said this week at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Stockholm: there is no evidence that low doses of omega-3s prevent heart attacks. BusinessWeek reports that researchers focused on 4,800 people, all of whom had experienced a heart attack in the decade
leading up to the study, and all of whom were taking blood pressure medications,
anti-clotting drugs and statins. The patients were told to eat one of four types of margarines: one
supplemented with omega-3 fatty acids; one supplemented with the
plant-derived ALA; one supplemented with both omega-3 fatty acids and
ALA; and one with no supplements. BusinessWeek reports that after three years, almost 14 percent of the heart attack patients had experienced
another “major cardiovascular event.” None of the low-dose supplements seemed to stave off such events in
most of the patients.

Read more in BusinessWeek.

15 Comments

  • You have got to be kidding me! No wonder the study had these results. Are you people that ignorant about good food. Of course these patients are going to relaps, I’m surprised it wasn’t a greater percentage. Anyone who ingest’s margarine is asking for a Cardiovascular problem. They may as well melt down and eat the yellow plastic of their choice! Of course, as I have stated before, the health system in our society has way too much money to be made than to start teaching how to eat right and reverse it all now. Unbelievable!!!

  • If you belive this stand on your head and count backwards from 100 before you speak! One day its the greatest stuff in the world and the next time its bad for you!I wonder who paid for this report?,bayer?,johnson and johnson? I’ll just bet its some big company we all know. Thanks for your time and as always may God Bless,if you will let Him. ( The Good Steward Bill C.)

  • Gosh, with all that’s available on the subject of good food, and every place the info can be found, you mean that some of us are still listening to ad’s, and commercials? I thought by now everybody knew? I see I may have to set up my own Web Site, where I can make sure that the correct info gets out. I can’t stand it when people can’t weed thru the hipe, and even worse when they don’t care about the difference. HINT If you read or hear it in an “ad”, it’s not true! Wake up People!!

  • With all the info out there today about good food, and every place it can be found, you mean to tell me that people are still relying on advertisements and sales ad’s for the know?
    I really thought that by now everyone knew! I can’t stand it when people don’t know good food from the bad food, and even worse when they don’t care there’s a difference! Good Grief!! I may have to set up a Web Site just for that purpose. To get the truth out about what we should eat and what we shouldn’t.

  • This may be because the putative value of fish in the diet (Mediterranean diet)is actually the LACK of meat in the diet.
    In a study deconstructing the health value of the components of the Med. diet it was found that “[t]he contribution of each of the diet components to lower mortality were: moderate consumption of alcohol (23.5% of the effect), low consumption of meat (16.6%), high consumption of vegetables (16.2%), high consumption of fruits and nuts (11.2%), high monounsaturated-to-saturated lipid ratio (10.6%), and high consumption of legumes (9.7%).
    Eating lots of cereal products and few dairy products contributed to only 5% of the effect, and consumption of fish was associated with a nonsignificant increase in mortality.”
    Weird, moderate alcohol was the greatest contributor.
    SOURCE, see: http://www.theheart.org/article/982093.do

  • The quest for optimal health is fairly simple. Eat right, and get excercise. But the single reason poor health is accomplished is eating wrong. There are a few absolute “do not’s” when it comes to choosing the food you eat. I am constantly seeing Healthcare pro’s telling, and encouraging people to DO the DO NOT’S. Our bodies can be healed by the food we eat, or it can be destroyed by the food we eat. In this particular case I find it near criminal for a patient who is already clogged up with cardiovascular desease to be given margarine of any kind. The omega-3′s are essential. One of the worse attempts made at creating another bad, processed product, to replace an ok one, was the butter verse’s margarine scam! IDIOTS! People, you have to educate yourselves, and stop buying into the false and misleading guidance you are getting from Pro’s that only know what they are taught by the industries that are there to sell the junk! And trust me, we don’t need another study to tell the truth. Studies on this subject only mislead and muttle the truth. More on this to come…. I promise

  • All good comments! Consider that this study was done on people who were already compromised and had already damaged their blood vessels. Furthermore, what was the proven bioavailability of the O 3′s in the products tested.

  • Consumer Giant Unilever did one on omega-3 margarines and it showed no help.I’m like you Duge they are IDIOTS! Why did’nt the do one on fish oil omega-s fatty acids,then they would have seen a difference!NO they throw this margarine in their to make it look like omega-3 fish oil does’nt work.So your right Duge its misleading TO THE PUBLIC!

  • Yes, these studies are not reliable, nor serve any real useful purpose except someone made alot of money, and someone paid alot of money to have them done! Listen people, you can make good food bad, but you cannot make bad food good, trust me on this. I’m telling you, most all of the “no fat”, “low fat” hipe is just that, HIPE!
    Eat right, and you will get everything your body needs. Eat wrong, and, well, just look at the epidemic of disease that wasn’t so prevalent not long ago, but has made it’s way even into the very young now. High Blood Pressure, high Cholesterol, Heart desease, Obesity, Diabetes, and of course cancer. These used to be desease’s of the old, but not anymore. What has happened? Have our bodies begun to mutate? NO! It’s our food supply! We’ve lost sight of what good food is. And I’m mad as hell that nobody seems to care much, or even know much about this in the healthcare Industry. Our Children don’t stand a chance for a healthy life because of what is being done people. Who is going to stand up and protect them? Every one of the disease’s I’ve mentioned here are either reversible, or out right preventable, and without a single Drug! All it takes is “GOOD FOOD”, and a rethinking of our lifestyle which must include excercise. I will contend with anyone on this!

  • Dave said:
    Mr,Doug! You hit the nail right on the head. Good food,
    excersise and add lots of pure water with sensible
    calorie intake.

  • This is indeed bad news. Not bad news about Omega-3 fatty acids, but bad news reporting. Any news reporter or news organization that would have the audacity to report as true such an obviously skewed research report has no business being in the news industry. The same is true with the so-called scientists that ran such a study. Either they were total ignorant about basic health issues and how to apply the scientific method or they were paid to doctor the research. In either case, their credibility is more than highly suspect, it is destroyed.

  • I agree 100%
    What is more frustrating than the money spent, reasearch time wasted, honor and credibility of the researchers shot, and the already compromised health of these study Patients pushed further into the wrong direction, as if any one of these issues wasn’t enough, and why I am so mad as hell and completely passionate about the subject of “food & health” (as if we don’t all see this by now) Is the fact that some ignorant (no shame in this, you dont know till you know) person, knowing no better will conclude that there is no reason to add anything to my “margarine”, and keep eating that junk! I have the answer to the Health System crisis, which will take years to reverse. Is anyone interested? We’re going to put alot of people out of business. this list is growing. Or better yet, we will give them an opportuinity to re-train. How ’bout we start, instead of a “Tea Party”, a “Health Party”. LOL hahahahaa

  • What is considered “low” dosage on a daily basis??? How many times a day did each person use at least one tablespoon (a serving size)of margarine?? What’s the brand name of the margarine and how many miligrams of omega 3 did it contain? All margarine is not created equal and thus serving size and content vary. Article is very misleading without specifics.

  • Margarine is bad for you!!! Omega 3 is good. dont eat margarine, eat healthy whole foods and healthy sources of omega 3s. come on people know where your information is coming from!!! who’s study was this?
    fess up.

  • i personally do not believe the study; which on its own merits does not seem very well done. i started taking lovaza two years ago and had my trigliserides drop from 400 to 150 in three months time. goes to show you; you can;t believe every thing on the internet!

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