Heart health: Not all omega-3s are equal

At the time of their scan, 41% had obesity, and 42% had severe coronary artery disease.Over the next 10 years, 31.5% of all the patients had a major adverse cardiovascular event, which the team defined as all-cause death, heart attack, stroke, or heart failure.The researchers discovered that people with the highest levels of EPA in their blood at the time of their first scan were less likely to experience a major cardiovascular event.However, rising levels of DHA appeared to blunt the beneficial effects of EPA.Those with more DHA than EPA in their blood had an increased risk of heart problems compared with those with higher levels of EPA.These associations remained after accounting for preexisting illnesses, namely severe coronary artery disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and heart failure.“Based on these and other findings, we can still tell our patients to eat omega-3 rich foods, but we should not be recommending them in pill form as supplements or even as combined (EPA + DHA) prescription products,” concludes Le.Le told Medical News Today that the available data from the INSPIRE registry did not allow the researchers to determine whether people were getting their omega-3s from their diet, supplements, or a combination of both.However, he pointed out that two randomized clinical trials have found heart benefits for EPA-only supplements, whereas four have shown no benefits from combinations of EPA and DHA.He noted that these trials involved pharmacy-grade supplements, whereas “off-the-shelf” omega-3 products are unlikely to meet such high standards of purity.