Fish oil supplements are known for his or her cardiovascular advantages, but should healthy people take them? Researchers now suspect that the impact of fish oil supplements on disease progression differs between healthy individuals and people with pre-existing heart problems.
While fish oil supplements may slow disease progression and reduce the chance of death in individuals with a history of heart problems, they could increase the chance of first-time heart disease and stroke in healthy individuals, a researcher says study published in BMJ Medicine.
The research team got here to those findings after evaluating the associations between taking fish oil supplements in people without heart problems and the rates of recent cases of atrial fibrillation, heart attack, stroke, heart failure and death.
Based on a database of 415,737 people from a UK biobank study, researchers estimated the role of those supplements within the progression of heart problems from good heart health to atrial fibrillation to heart attacks and death.
Participants were surveyed between 2006 and 2010 to acquire information on their dietary intake of fatty and non-fatty fish and fish oil supplements. Their health records were followed until the tip of March 2021 or death, whichever got here first.
Of all participants, a 3rd reported using fish oil supplements commonly. After a median follow-up of 12 years, 18,367 participants developed atrial fibrillation, 22,636 had a heart attack, stroke or heart failure, and 22,140 died.
In people without heart problems at the beginning of the study, regular use of fish oil supplements increased the chance of atrial fibrillation by 13% and the chance of stroke by 5%. Nonetheless, amongst those that had baseline heart problems, regular use of fish oil supplements was related to a 15% lower risk of progressing from atrial fibrillation to a heart attack and a 9% lower risk of heart failure to progress to death.
“When taking fish oil supplements commonly, the chance of transitioning from good health to heart attack, stroke or heart failure was 6% higher in women and 6% higher in non-smokers. And the protective effect of those supplements within the transition from good health to death was higher in men (7% lower risk) and in older participants (11% lower risk). Press release stated.
The study has certain limitations. It didn’t take note of the dosage or composition of the fish oil supplements. And since a lot of the participants were white, the outcomes will not be generalizable to other ethnic groups.
