Fish oil benefits5/28/2023 If you’re consuming walnuts and flaxseeds every day, you may be consuming significant omega-3 fatty acids. Second, assess your current walnut and flaxseed intake.You are likely consuming significant – and optimal – amounts of omega-3 fatty acids if you’re eating fish (3-1/2 to 4-ounce servings, 2 to 3 times a week), especially fish high in omega-3 content like salmon, sardines, herring, and trout. First, assess your current fish intake.To determine if your daily omega-3 intake is sufficient, the Pritikin Program recommends the following: Rifai is Regional Medical Director of Metabolic Health & Weight Management at Henry Ford Health System in Michigan and member of the Pritikin Scientific Advisory Board. However, there is a lack of evidence that omega-3 fish oil supplements prevent cardiovascular diseases in the general population.īottom Line: “Most of us are better off eating modest amounts of whole foods rich in omega-3 fats than popping fish oil pills,” states Dr. Patients with heart failure may also benefit from supplementation with omega-3 fish oil.ģ. Omega-3 fish oil supplements may be reasonable for patients who have had a heart attack.Ģ. The American Heart Association recently weighed in 4 on the question: “Do fish oil pills work?” Reviewing all randomized clinical trials that evaluated fish oils’ effects on cardiovascular disease, the AHA Science Advisory arrived at the following three conclusions:ġ. That said, an eating plan like Pritikin, which recommends a healthy dose of omega-3 fatty acids naturally occurring in food, might have significant benefits for people who are not on aggressive pharmaceutical treatment. The drugs are already delivering the benefits the fish oil would have provided. So it could be that adding fish oil pills to an already aggressive drug therapy is, well, redundant. But these drugs, ranging from anti-platelets to statins to ACE inhibitors, tend to work along the same biological pathways that omega-3s do, that is, decreasing lipids, blood clotting, and inflammation. It’s also important to realize that most of the studies in these meta-analyses showing that fish oil pills did not prevent heart problems were completed in the past two decades, a time when management of heart disease had improved tremendously because of new drug strategies. If you are already on prescription drug therapy, taking fish oil supplements may be redundant. Randomized clinical trials are needed to better establish optimal ranges of omega-3 intake for protection against Afib. But it was observational, which means it could pinpoint links between Afib and omega-3 intake, but not cause and effect. It followed more than 57,000 people from Denmark. The people in this study with the lowest risk of Afib were those consuming roughly the same amount of omega-3s found in the Pritikin Eating Plan’s guidelines of two to three servings of fish a week. Too much of anything is more likely to occur with pills, not food. Having Afib means you’re at greater risk of strokes and heart attacks.Ī 2014 study 3 found that people with the highest intakes of omega-3s (as well as the lowest intakes) had the highest rates of Afib. One concern is increased risk of atrial fibrillation, or Afib. We don’t know for sure because the science, as yet, has not been done. We do know that too much omega-3 can cause blood thinning. Might the same be true of omega-3 supplements for people already well nourished with omega-3s? Possibly. “Research has found, for example, that supplements of vitamins A and E (two vitamins that most Americans are not deficient in) can be harmful,” notes Gomer. The flip side, as past studies have found, is the dangers of over-supplementation. Unfortunately, we do not know the pre-study omega-3 status of the subjects in the meta-analysis. “Good data indicate that there does appear to be a protective effect of eating food, like salmon and sardines, that are rich in omega-3s, but the verdict is still out on the benefits of fish oil capsules, especially among people with no history of heart disease,” summarizes Kimberly Gomer, MS, RD, Director of Nutrition Research at the Pritikin Longevity Center.Īdds Kimberly Gomer, Director of Nutrition at Pritikin, “When reviewing this latest meta-analysis, we first need to ask: Were the omega-3 supplements that the subjects swallowed correcting a deficiency? Or were the pills simply added on top of an already adequate intake of omega-3-rich foods? As is the case with most nutrients, a supplement would most likely be beneficial only if people were deficient in the nutrient.” Good data indicate that there does appear to be a protective effect of eating food, like salmon and sardines, that are rich in omega-3s, but the verdict is still out on the benefits of fish oil capsules.
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