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New Study on Fish and Your Heart
New Study on Fish and Your Heart
New York Times Syndicate
GlobalEnglish Summary: Beginner
Many people eat fish for their health. They believe that fish can help the heart. Oily fish, like salmon, have special fats. These are omega 3 fats. Now there is a new study. This study has some doubts about omega 3 fats. Maybe they are not so helpful. Omega 3 fats may not help prevent heart disease. But they are probably very good for people after a heart attack. Scientists want to do some very large studies about this question.
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GlobalEnglish Summary: Intermediate
A new report on the omega 3 fats found in oily fish and their effect on heart health appeared in the March 25 British Medical Journal. This report is a summary of the findings from 89 different studies. Lee Hooper, the lead author of the report, concludes that the picture is "mixed," with no clear conclusion that eating fish prevents heart disease. Two major studies did show a benefit, but the most recent large study did not. American experts agree that it is unclear if omega 3 fats help prevent heart disease, but they add that there is clear proof that omega 3 consumption helps people who already have heart disease. Hooper says, "At the moment we just aren't sure, so we should be cautious."
How healthy is your diet? You can talk about it in one of our online classrooms. Or you can post a message in the GlobalEnglish Magazine Discussion Center.
News Article: Advanced
New York Times Syndicate - March 24, 2006
The belief that the omega 3 fats found in oily fish can help prevent heart disease is far from proven, a new British study contends.
U.S. experts agree with that statement but also stress that people without heart disease will suffer no harm from consuming fish and quite possibly could do themselves some good. And there's clear proof that omega 3 consumption helps people who already have had heart attacks or other cardiac problems, they added.
The report, published in the March 25 British Medical Journal, summarized findings from 89 studies aimed at assessing the effects of omega 3 consumption from fish or supplements on total mortality, heart problems, strokes and cancer.
The picture is "mixed," concludes Lee Hooper, a lecturer in research synthesis and nutrition at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and lead author of the report. Two major studies did show a benefit, but the most recent large study did not, she says.
One problem in interpreting the findings is that most of the trials included people who already had cardiac problems such as heart attacks or angina. Putting all the studies together produced conclusions that could be described as equivocal, Hooper says.
"If you put the results all together, for every 100 deaths in the control group (those who didn't get omega 3), you see 87 deaths in those who took supplements," she says. "But that could be as low as 74 and as high as 102; our best guess is 87."
What's needed to determine the true preventive benefits of omega 3 consumption are more and larger trials, Hooper says. "At the moment we just aren't sure, so we should be cautious," she says.
That is pretty much the conclusion reached by an expert panel assembled in June 2004 by the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
"In terms of primary prevention, we still don't have the answer, and the conclusion of the panel was that additional studies were needed before making recommendations to the general public," says Dr. Eliseo Guallar, associate professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a member of the panel.
Those studies, which would be expensive, haven't been started yet, Guallar says. "And even if they were done, we wouldn't know the results for five, six, seven years from today," he says.
There's no question about the value of the omega 3 in fish oil for people with existing heart problems, Guallar says. One study of people who suffered heart attacks showed that taking 850 milligrams of fish oil a day substantially reduced their risk of sudden death, he says.
But while fish oils are "most promising for primary prevention" in people without heart disease, "we still don't know for sure," he says. Still, he endorses the American Heart Association's recommendation of eating at least two fish meals a week.
The heart association also recommends consumption of plants such as soybeans, canola and flaxseed, which contain a different version of omega 3 oils.
Alice R. Lichtenstein, professor of public health and family medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and vice chair of the heart association's nutrition committee, isn't so sure about the plant part of the recommendation. It's not certain that the omega 3 in plants has the same benefits as the fishy kind, she says.
And even when it comes to fish consumption, "the jury is still out," Lichtenstein says. Nevertheless, eating fish is a good idea, in part because it keeps that much fatty meat out of the diet, she says, adding that "the secondary benefit of what you don't eat supports moderate fish consumption."
But be careful about what kind of fish you eat, Lichtenstein says. Not all fish are rich in omega 3, and some commercial fish products are fried, which takes away a lot of the benefit.
Mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, albacore tuna and salmon are good sources of omega 3, according to the heart association.
©2006 HealthDay News
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2006-04-25 21:57:23
