Posted on 05/17/2021 12:54:15 PM PDT by Red Badger
Doctors often recommend Omega-3s to help patients lower their cholesterol and improve heart health. Those Omega-3s can come from fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, or supplements that often contain a combination of the acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
Now, new research from the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City finds that higher EPA blood levels alone lowered the risk of major cardiac events and death in patients, while DHA blunted the cardiovascular benefits of EPA. Higher DHA levels at any level of EPA, worsened health outcomes.
Results of the Intermountain study, which examined nearly 1,000 patients over a 10-year-period, will be presented virtually at the 2021 American College of Cardiology’s Scientific Session on Monday, May 17.
“The advice to take Omega-3s for the good of your heart is pervasive, but previous studies have shown that science doesn’t really back this up for every single omega-3,” said Viet T. Le, MPAS, PA, researcher and cardiovascular physician assistant at the Intermountain Heart Institute and principal investigator of the study. “Our findings show that not all Omega-3s are alike, and that EPA and DHA combined together, as they often are in supplements, may void the benefits that patients and their doctors hope to achieve.”
In this study, Intermountain researchers used the INSPIRE registry, an Intermountain Healthcare database started in 1993 that has more than 35,000 blood samples from nearly 25,000 patients.
Through INSPIRE, researchers identified 987 patients who underwent their first documented coronary angiographic study at Intermountain Healthcare between 1994 and 2012. From those blood samples, the circulating levels of EPA and DHA in their blood was measured. Researchers then tracked those patients for 10 years, looking for major cardiac adverse events, which included heart attack, stroke, heart failure requiring hospitalization or death.
They found that patients with the highest levels of EPA had reduced risk of major heart events. When evaluating how EPA and DHA affect one another, they found that higher DHA blunts the benefit of EPA. In particular, they also found that those patients with higher levels of DHA than EPA, were more at risk for heart problems.
Le said that these results raise further concerns about the use of combined EPA/DHA, particularly through supplements.
“Based on these and other findings, we can still tell our patients to eat Omega-3 rich foods, but we should not be recommending them in pill form as supplements or even as combined (EPA + DHA) prescription products,” he said. “Our data adds further strength to the findings of the recent REDUCE-IT (2018) study that EPA-only prescription products reduce heart disease events.”
Meeting: American College of Cardiology 2021
Other members of the research team include: Stacey Knight; Kirk Knowlton; Raymond McCubrey; Jeramie D. Watrous; Mahan Najhawan; Khoi Dao; Tami Bair, Benjamin Horne; J. Brent Muhlestein; Donald Lappe; Madisyn Taylor; John Nelson; John Carlquist; Mohit Jain; and Jeffrey Anderson.
A healthy diet, 20 minutes of sun every day is better than supplements
Who gains from this and who loses?
I’m calling B.S. on this study! This is probably funded by Big Pharma or allies that are losing money on their cholesterol lowering drugs to fish oil.
I have more faith in fish oil than the pharmaceuticals. Trust me I know quite a few people in that industry... They are not that bright.
Bingo!
I take 600mg of Omega-3 every day......................
Flaxseed oil has more omega 3 than fish extracts.
There’s actually an FDA approved prescription drug made of a specific type of fish oil, called Vascepa. It has both EPA and DHA but I would have to research to know the proportions.
It’s easy enough to get fish oil supplements without DHA. Mine have a balance of EPA and DHA. The lower DHA variety is lower in cost. I don’t know that there’s an conspiracy here.
I eat fish or chicken every day, red meat maybe one or two times a month. Plus I take 600 mg Of Omega-3 each day and a multi-vitamin and 5000 IU of D3........................
I’ve never been able to tolerate cholesterol meds. Even the non statin ones
Last one made me feel like I fell off the roof and fell on my back across the woodpile
Been trying to adjust my diet, but have been bombarded with advice from others pushing natural supplements
Confusing, to say the least
Supplements, name brand ones, are like chicken soup. Couldn’t hurt...................
Correction. Vascepa is only EPA, has no DHA.
“A healthy diet, 20 minutes of sun every day is better than supplements”
You got that right!! The human body (or any body) is a very complex organ. As someone who ate supplements for 30 years, watched my diet and excercised every day, I ended up with cancer.
The only thing the supplements will do for you is dramatically reduce the size of your bank account.
My doctor does recommend a few, but I listen to him — not some unregulated supplement company. He helped save my life.
They do not make money when you are healthy.
You very naive if you think they are looking out for you.
Stuff comes from China; could be 20-5wt motor oil in those. Who really knows?
There is also a non-prescription EPA-only supplement called omegavia. It’s 500 mg per (small) capsule...4-8/day to get the 2-4 grams of EPA shown in the studies to reduce cardiac events.
Found this on amazon.
I was looking for an EPA only. Thanks.
This can't be. This new study says you should be dead. /s
You’re welcome. I became aware of it when reading comments from docs in response to an article on MedScape about fish oils. I’ve been ordering from Amazon for the past few years.
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