A recent major article in the New England Journal of Medicine has once again raised the question of whether there any benefit in taking fish oil to prevent heart disease.
This was a very large study with over 12,000 patients followed over five years. One group received fish oil supplements and one group received placebo.
The conclusion of this massive study was: “In a large general–practice cohort of patients with multiple cardiovascular risk factors, daily treatment with n-3 (fish oil) fatty acids did not reduce cardiovascular mortality and morbidity.”
Wow! What a shocking conclusion after all these years!
A very prestigious cardiologist Eric Toprol, M.D., from Scripps clinic in La Jolla California, who is also the editor-in-chief of the heart.org has posted a video blog HERE, where he reviews this study. I urge you to watch it.
A quote from the video is “I have an awful lot of patients who come to me on fish oil, and I implore them to stop taking it. The present study, with its efficacious dose, arms physicians with data to tell patients who have not had an MI (heart attack) and who don’t have heart failure, that n-3 fatty acid supplementation with fish oil is not effective.” Dr. Topol called fish a “no go”, and he noted that if the supplement had no effect in such a high risk patient population as in this study, it’s hard to imagine fish oil will provide any benefit in lower risk subjects.
He continued on to say “Fish oil does nothing. We can’t continue to argue that we didn’t give the right dose or the right preparation. It’s a nada effect”.
So what should we do about the Oil question?
My recommendation to the majority of my patients is to use Parent Essential Oils (PEOs). We use these oils very actively at the clinic and I invite you to ask me about them at your next office visit.
PEO’s are plant derived and there is a tremendous amount of evidence on how they protect us again Heart Disease, Cancer and Diabetes.
A new book called The PEO Solution is coming out in November 2013 that will review all the data in a layman’s language. You can get information on the book HERE. You can read chapter 7 of the book HERE.
About Dr. Soram Khalsa
As an MD, Dr Soram specializes in Integrative Medicine combining diet, nutrition, acupuncture, herbs and nutrition. Visit Dr Soram’s Healthy Living Store where you’ll find high-quality nutritional supplements:
