Omega-3 no protection against heart attack or strokes, say scientists

According to a large and comprehensive review, the long-held belief that omega-3’s protect us from heart attack, stroke or early death, is wrong. While it is true that small amounts of omega-3 fatty acids are essential for our health, the review by the respected Cochrane Collaboration, which involved more than 112,000 people, says there is no evidence that the supplements do any good.

“Omega-3 fats are found in certain foods – most famously in oily fish such as salmon and cod liver oil, which contain the long chain fats called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Nuts and seeds, and in particular walnuts and rapeseed oil, contain another sort of omega-3, called alphalinolenic acid (ALA).” ¹

A couple of early trials in the late 80’s and early 90’s found positive results with omega-3 supplementation but not one trial since has shown the same result and yet we’ve kept repeating the same thing- as we so often do.

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Cochrane lead author, Dr. Lee Hooper from the University of East Anglia said, “We can be confident in the findings of this review which go against the popular belief that long-chain omega-3 supplements protect the heart. This large systematic review included information from many thousands of people over long periods. Despite all this information, we don’t see protective effects.”²

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Researchers examined 79 randomized trials of omega-3 fats, consisting of men and women, some healthy and others with existing illnesses, from North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. For those studies, some people were asked to eat their usual diet while others supplemented with extra omega-3 fats (in the form of a daily capsule) for at least a year. There were also a few trials that examined the effects of eating extra oily fish and others where participants were asked to consume more ALA (the form derived from plants) added to their margarine or given to them in walnuts. (Eating “more ALA from supplemented margarine or walnuts did convey a small benefit.”³ But only very small.)