Fish oil, arrhythmias, and death
Last Updated Aug 2007
There has been a flurry of interest in a recent report in JAMA that has linked
increased arrhythmias in people who have implanted cardioconverters --
defibrillators (ICDs) -- who are taking fish oil. The prescription drugs used to
treat arrhythmias often cause as many drug-induced deaths as they prevent due to
the increased arrhythmias they produce. As a result, there has been a surge in the
number of ICDs that are surgically implanted. These devices do reduce the
mortality rate in patients from about 25 percent per year to about 2 percent per
year. But the medical community is always looking for even better ways to reduce
mortality, especially sudden cardiac death. For example, in the GISSI study taking
only one gram of EPA and DHA reduced total mortality by 10 percent, cardiovascular
mortality by 20 percent and sudden cardiac death by 45 percent. It is studies
like this that cause fish oil to generate such a great interest in the
cardiovascular community for the very simple reason -- you are less likely to die
if take fish oil. If the article in JAMA is actually read (which is rarely done by
the media), you find a very interesting piece of data: People who took the fish
oil instead of the olive oil control had a 60 percent reduction in total mortality.
In this study, even though the ICD was activated more often (meaning the patients
had more arrhythmias), there was less mortality! How could this be? Obviously,
the fish oil was protecting the patients against death as it did in the GISSI study
and numerous other studies over the years. Also overlooked by the press in this
JAMA study was that 6 percent those taking the olive oil only had to be
hospitalized for neurological conditions during the two-year study, whereas ZERO
percent of those taking fish oil were hospitalized for neurological conditions. So
I guess this is the bottom line from this study: If you want to live longer and not
be hospitalized for neurological problems, then take your fish oil