Fish oil been recommended by cardiologists for several decades as an additional way to help prevent and treat heart disease. Health organizations have even recommended to patients to ask their physician if fish oil supplements would be helpful to their heart health.
It is one of the most common supplements that brand new patients tell me they are already taking.
Fish oil has become a major industry, and we now consume over 100 tons of fish oil per year. It has become a multi-billion dollar business.
One company has taken a fish oil supplement and gotten FDA approval to sell it at a price that is estimated to be seven times the price of fish oil sold at a health food store. This is because it is now a prescription drug.
Recently, several studies have been done showing that fish oil does not provide benefit to people with heart disease.
Eric Topol M.D., who is Scripps Health Chief Academic Officer, has built an international reputation for his groundbreaking research and expertise, in cardiology.
After the most recent study about fish oil and heart health was published Dr. Topol filmed this video which you can watch at this site.
He reviewed this study with over 11,000 participants. His conclusion was that “I don’t know about you, but I have an awful lot of patients who come to me on fish oil and I try to implore them to stop taking it.”. “Fish oil does nothing and we cannot continue to argue about “the right dose” or “the right preparation”.
To his website he subsequently added a caveat that this study did not look at the role of fish oil in patients with high triglycerides. He points out that for that select group of patients that fish oil may very well have a benefit.
I would agree with that and it is clear that high-dose fish oils do have the ability to reduce high triglycerides. This might have some benefit in preventing heart disease then.
My colleague and friend Michael Greger, M.D. has done a video where he reviews the major journal articles that look at the benefit of fish oil in people with heart disease.
I urge you to watch it below. He concludes as well that there is NO benefit of fish oil in protection against heart disease.
If you are my patient please feel free to bring this up and talk with me about fish oil in our next appointment. For my readers who are not my patients, please take this latest information about the lack of benefit of fish oil, in protecting against heart disease.
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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:
