Do Fish Oil Supplements Impact Cardiovascular Health?
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:
- Data on fish oil supplements, and their role in cardiovascular disease, are controversial
- Chen et al. (BMJ Medicine, 2024) examined the effects of fish oil supplements on the clinical course of cardiovascular disease across disease states
METHODS:
- Prospective cohort study
- UK Biobank study
- Participants
- Adults aged 40 to 69
- Exposures
- Fish oil supplements
- Stage of cardiovascular disease
- Healthy (primary stage) | Atrial fibrillation (secondary stage) | Major cardiovascular events (tertiary stage) | Death
- Primary outcomes
- Incident cases of atrial fibrillation | Major adverse cardiovascular events | Death
RESULTS:
- Healthy starting population: 415,737
- Median follow-up 11.9 years
- Progressed to
- Atrial fibrillation: 18,367 | Major cardiovascular events: 22,636 | Death: 22,140
- For healthy participants, fish oil was associated with a greater incidence of atrial fibrillation and stroke
- Atrial fibrillation: Hazard Ratio HR) 1.13 (95% CI, 1.10 to 1.17)
- Stroke: HR 1.05 (95% CI, 1.00 to 1.11)
- For patients with a diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, regular use of fish oil was beneficial in reducing transitions from
- Atrial fibrillation to major cardiovascular events: HR 0.92 (95% CI, 0.87 to 0.98)
- Atrial fibrillation to myocardial infarction: HR 0.85 (95% CI, 0.76 to 0.96)
- Heart failure to death: HR 0.91 (95% CI, 0.84 to 0.99)
CONCLUSION:
- In the general healthy population, regular use of fish oil supplements may increase the risk of atrial fibrillation and stroke
- For those with cardiovascular disease, fish oil supplements may be beneficial at reducing the risk of transitioning to worse cardiovascular states
- The authors state
When we divided major adverse cardiovascular events into three individual diseases (ie, heart failure, stroke, and myocardial infarction), we found associations that could suggest a mildly harmful effect between regular use of fish oil supplements and transitions from a healthy cardiovascular state to stroke, whereas potential beneficial associations were found between regular use of fish oil supplements and transitions from atrial fibrillation to myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation to death, and heart failure to death
Learn More – Primary Sources:
Regular use of fish oil supplements and course of cardiovascular diseases: prospective cohort study
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