Study Says Omega-3s Do Nothing For Your Heart

September 12, 2012 8:09 am 3 comments

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Art Jahnke

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Remember all of those claims about how good omega-3 fatty acids are for your heart? Forget them, or at least think about forgetting them. New research just published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that the widely-touted fatty acids found in fish oil and other foods do not lower risk factors for heart attack or stroke, sudden death, or cardiac arrest. The bad news, based on a review of 20 studies involving nearly 70,000 patients, found that, in researcher-speak, “omega-3s are not statistically significantly associated with major cardiovascular outcomes across various patient populations.” In other words, people who ate lots of omega-3s were found to have the same risk of heart disease and stroke as people who almost none. Don’t want to believe it? Read a JAMA press release about the study here.

3 Comments

Boz

September 12, 2012
5:16 pm

Fish Oil = Snake Oil

Reply
- bk
  
  September 13, 2012
  10:08 am
  
  So this article gives the impression that just because they can’t prove this one “natural” item definitively doesn’t help with heart problems it’s a waste of money.
  Name one thing natural or drug wise that does? This natural(meaning no negative side effects), unlike all drugs that have negative side effects and are basically band aids not preventative at all, Does provide positive benefits and articles like this appear to simply be misinformation agendas that the Giant pharm. companies pervasively do and budget huge amounts of their monies towards.
  
  Reply
Peter

September 18, 2012
10:50 am

The article is not clear whether only supplementation (I presume this means taking the pill) is not effective or both supplementation and naturally occurring consumption (as in eating the fish). Can you shed some light on that?

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