Fish oil and heart disease
November 9th, 2001
It had been known for some time that fish oils help prevent heart disease. More recently a new class of cholesterol-lowering “statin” drugs were also shown to help prevent heart disease. However, these two products were never compared. A recent review article published in the Archives of Internal Medicine (Oct. 2001;161(18):2185-92) looked at a number of existing clinical trials on fish oil and concluded that they “demonstrated reductions in risk that compare favorably with those seen in landmark secondary prevention trials with lipid-lowering drugs.”
The article proposes that fish oils may work by preventing arrhythmias, lowering blood lipids and preventing clot formation.
