So this just proves that supplements likely don't contain the pure ingredients they list. As this earlier study found no use for Omega-3 supplementation.
Supplements have no guarantee of
purity. What do you expect when the fucking stupidity of the US Congress
passes the Dietary Supplement Health and
Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA): (DSHEA) defined dietary supplements as a
category of food, which put
them under different regulations than drugs.
Two
major studies released Saturday provide evidence that medications
derived from fish oil are effective in protecting people from fatal
heart attacks, strokes and other forms of cardiovascular disease.
The
large, multiyear research efforts tested different formulations and
quantities of drugs made with Omega-3 fatty acids on two groups of
people: one that suffered from cardiovascular disease or diabetes and
another that represented the general population. Both studies found that
people who took the drugs every day enjoyed protection against some
heart and circulatory problems compared with those given a placebo.
In
a look at another commonly consumed supplement, vitamin D, researchers
found no effect on heart disease but saw a link to a decline in cancer
deaths over time.
The research was released
Saturday at the American Heart Association’s 2018 Scientific Sessions in
Chicago and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
About
43 million people in the United States take statins to
lower LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol, and the drugs are credited with
reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. But heart disease
remains the leading killer of Americans. In recent years, a long, steady
decrease in heart disease deaths has slowed. So researchers are seeking
other ways to combat cardiovascular disease beyond known protective
factors such as changes in diet, exercise and smoking habits.
One
of the studies unveiled Saturday, named by the acronym REDUCE-IT,
determined that people with cardiovascular disease who were already
taking statins stood less chance of serious heart issues when they were
also given two grams of the drug Vascepa (icosapent ethyl) twice a day.
The
drug is a purified version of a fish-oil component that targets
triglycerides, another type of fat in the blood. Elevated triglycerides
can harden or thicken arteries, potentially leading to strokes and heart
attacks. People who took the drug were compared with those who were
given a placebo. The study involved more than 8,000 people.
Deepak
L. Bhatt, executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs
at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who led the study, said the
results could change the practice of cardiology in the same way that the
introduction of statins did more than 30 years ago.
“Honestly,
I’ve been doing clinical trials for a long time. And I’ve not been
involved in a trial that has this much potential to improve the lives of
perhaps tens of millions of people,” Bhatt said.
In 2007,
a large study in Japan determined
that the same component of fish oil used in the REDUCE-IT study showed
promise in protecting against cardiovascular problems. But that research
did not compare the substance against a placebo, and was complicated by
the large amount of fish in the typical Japanese diet.
The
other fish-oil study released Saturday, called VITAL, looked at the
effect of a different formulation of Omega-3 fatty acids in a drug
called Lovaza. Researchers followed nearly 26,000 people for a median of
more than five years. The results suggested that people given the drug
were 28 percent less likely to suffer heart attacks than those given a
placebo, and 8 percent less likely to have a variety of cardiovascular
events. The effect was even more pronounced among African Americans, but
the lead researcher said the results need further study before they can
be relied upon.
People who ate fewer than 1.5
servings of fish weekly saw a drop in the number of heart attacks
suffered when they increased their consumption of Omega-3s by taking the
drug. The study did not find a decline in strokes.
JoAnne
Manson, chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, who led the study, said it “further supports . . . the
benefits of Omega-3 in heart health.”
Manson
called the results “promising signals” about fish-oil consumption, but
said they are not conclusive enough to compel people to begin taking the
drug or fish-oil supplements. The study also showed that the medication
is safe enough that people already taking fish oil have no reason to
stop, she said in an interview.
People in the
study were given 840 milligrams of the key fatty acids in fish oil each
day, less than is found in a typical serving of salmon.
“We
would encourage starting with more fish in the diet and having at least
two servings a week,” Manson said. “One advantage of doing it through
the diet . . . is that fish can replace red meat, saturated fat and
processed food.”
Lovaza is manufactured by GSK, but is available in generic form. The study was sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
The VITAL study also looked at vitamin D, which is
often recommended to improve bone health in older women and for overall
health in other people. It found that the vitamin had no effect on heart
attacks or strokes and did not affect the incidence of cancer.
But
vitamin D consumption may have some role in reducing the number of
deaths from cancer two or more years later, the research showed. Manson
suggested that vitamin D may help prevent cancers from metastasizing or
becoming more invasive. But she said that idea needs more research.
She
said people already taking modest amounts vitamin D, especially on the
advice of doctors, have no reason to stop. But she warned against taking
huge doses of the vitamin, such as 5,000 or 10,000 international units a
day, unless a clinician recommends it, because the safety of that
practice is not known.
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