Nov.11,2018

RESULTS ARE IN…….DON’T HAVE A HEART ATTACK

Stella Rucilez Nov. 11,18

Fish oil and vitamin D. Long thought to be insurance against development of cancer and heart disease, these two supplements have been scientifically studied at the government’s National Institutes of Health. Results are in.

According to Dr. Lawrence Fine, chief of the clinical application and prevention branch of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, neither supplement lowers the incidence of heart disease or cancer. But don’t clean out the medicine chest yet. No serious side effects including bleeding, high blood calcium levels or gastrointestinal symptoms were associated with either vitamin D or fish oil

First, let’s qualify the results with some facts. 26,000 individuals, healthy and over 50 years old with no history of cancer or heart disease, divided into groups consumed set combinations of supplements and placebos (inert, non-non-therapeutic substances used to gauge outcomes accurately). They were monitored for five years.

At the close of the study, while researchers were not able to find evidence that either supplement kept major disease from eventually occurring, a tremendous positive effect of taking fish oil and an extract of fish oil, has taken a lower standing in the findings.

Dr. JoAnn Manson led the fish oil study and found a 28% reduction in myocardial infarction (heart attack) for individuals who were not regular fish consumers. In the group that included Americans of color, a 77% decline in the RISK of heart attack was compared to the group that consumed only placebos. Dr. Manson, head of the preventative medicine division of Boston’s Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, believes this is a “dramatic reduction.” findings indicate a 28% drop in heart attacks following regular use of fish oil is “statistically significant,” says Dr. Manson.

And the greatest news of all: a high degree of risk reduction was discovered to occur when an extract of fish oil, icosapent ethyl, was regularly consumed. This study was concurrent with the original and stunningly, patients taking the extract realized a 25% reduction in overall heart disease complications including stroke, heart attack, chest pains and resulted in fewer surgical procedures.

“We are reporting a remarkable degree of risk reduction,” says cardiologist Dr. Deepak Bhatt, also of the Boston facility. His study was funded by the Amarin Corporation that has developed the extract under the brand name Vascepa. Following the study, the company will look to the FDA to approve a broader use of the extract which has only been available to those with high triglycerides to date.

Bibliography: Patti Neighmond writing for NPR

New England Journal of Medicine, study released on-line 10/10/18