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Healthy adults who take fish oil supplements could be at greater risk of suffering heart attack or stroke for the first time, study finds
Healthy adults who take fish oil supplements could be at greater risk of suffering heart trouble for the first time, a study suggests.
As a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids, fish oil is often recommended as a dietary preventive to ward off the development of cardiovascular disease. It is also credited with various other beneficial effects such as easing joint pain.
But new research suggests taking the popular supplement could in fact increase the chances of heart disease and stroke in healthy adults, while reducing the risk in those with a history of disease.
The study - which involved more than 415,000 Britons - looked at the associations between fish oil supplements and new cases of atrial fibrillation, heart attack, stroke and heart failure and death.
They assessed the potential of these supplements on the risk of progressing from good heart health, classed, to the secondary stage of atrial fibrillation, third stage major cardiovascular events such as a heart attack and death.
Healthy adults who take fish oil supplements could be at greater risk of suffering heart trouble for the first time, a study suggests (Stock Photo)
The study - which involved more than 415,000 Britons - looked at the associations between fish oil supplements and new cases of atrial fibrillation, heart attack, stroke and heart failure and death (Stock Photo)
Nearly a third - 130,365 - of the participants, aged 40-69, said they regularly used fish oil supplements, including a high number of older and White people, and women.
Alcohol intake and the ratio of oily to non-oily fish eaten were also higher, while the proportions of current smokers and those living in deprived areas were lower.
During an average follow-up of 12 years, 18,367 developed the abnormal heart rhythm disturbance atrial fibrillation, 22,636 had a heart attack or stroke or developed heart failure, and 22,140 died - 14,902 without atrial fibrillation or heart disease.
Of those who progressed from good heart health to atrial fibrillation, 3085 developed heart failure, 1180 had a stroke, and 1415 a heart attack.
Some 2436 of those with heart failure died, alongside 2088 who suffered stroke, and 2098 following a heart attack, according to findings published in BMJ Medicine.
Regularly use of fish oil supplements had different roles in cardiovascular health, disease progression, and death, the findings indicated.
Those who regularly used them with no signs of disease had a 13 per cent higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation and a five per cent greater risk of stroke.
But among those who had cardiovascular disease at the start, regular use of fish oil supplements reduced the risk of progressing from atrial fibrillation to a heart attack by 15 per cent and from heart failure to death by nine per cent.
The risk of transitioning from good health to heart attack, stroke or heart failure was six per cent higher in women. It was also six per cent higher in non-smokers among fish oil takers.
Meanwhile, the protective effect of these supplements on the transition from good health to death was greater in men (seven per cent lower risk) and older participants (11 per cent lower risk).
Alcohol intake and the ratio of oily to non-oily fish eaten were also higher, while the proportions of current smokers and those living in deprived areas were lower (Stock Photo)
Led by Sun Yat-Sen University, China, researchers admit limitations to the study including that dosage and formulation of fish oil was not recorded, which experts suggest could be key to the results.
Nevertheless, they conclude: 'Regular use of fish oil supplements might have different roles in the progression of cardiovascular disease.
'Further studies are needed to determine the precise mechanisms for the development and prognosis of cardiovascular disease events with regular use of fish oil supplements.' It is not the first study to make such conclusions with a Cochrane review of research in 2018 comparing 79 trials finding it made 'little or no difference to risk of cardiovascular events, coronary heart deaths, coronary heart disease events, stroke or heart irregularities'.