Another Disappointing Study For Fish Oil Supplements

Another large study has failed to find any benefits  for  fish oil supplements. The Italian Risk and Prevention Study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, enrolled 12,513 people who had not had a myocardial infarction but had evidence of atherosclerosis or had multiple cardiovascular risk factors. The patients were randomized to either a fish oil supplement (1 gram daily of n-3 fatty acids) or placebo.

After 5 years of followup, the primary endpoint– the time to death from cardiovascular causes or admission to the hospital for cardiovascular causes– had occurred in 11.7% of the fish oil group versus 11.9% of the placebo group (adjusted hazard ratio 0.97, CI 0.88-1.08, p=0.58). There were no significant differences in any of the prespecified secondary endpoints.

Click here to read the full post on Forbes, including comments from James Stein and Dariush Mozaffarian

A typical softgel

Comments

  1. 1 gm of fish oil a day —why bother –IMHO It takes at least 3 gms a day to have any significant effect on ones lipid profile

  2. Exactly Gary. Another disappointing day for science journalism.

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  1. […] fish, not supplements. Another study examines fish oil and finds it useless for any of the studied cardiovascular endpoints. On the positive side of dietary interventions, a study that examines monounsaturated-rich […]

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