Fish Oil Does Nada For Your Heart

Yikes! According to Anahad O’Connor in the New York Times, about ten percent of Americans take fish oil regularly, and most of them think it’s good for their heart. Oops. As O’Connor reports, the vast majority of clinical trials involving fish oil have found no evidence that it does anything to lower the risk of heart attack and stroke. And they looked hard. Between 2005 to 2012, at least two dozen studies looked at whether fish oil could prevent cardiovascular events in people who had a history of heart disease or strong risk factors for it, like high cholesterol, hypertension or Type 2 diabetes. What did they find? The envelope please… O’Connor reports that all but two studies found that compared with a placebo, fish oil showed no benefit.