Omega-3 Does Not Prevent Atrial Fibrillation

Omega-3 Does Not Prevent Atrial Fibrillation.
Omega-3 fatty acid supplements don't conclude back on recurrences of atrial fibrillation, a genre of unequal heartbeat that can cause stroke, uncharted probe suggests. "We now have unambiguous data that they don't work for most patients with AF atrial fibrillation ," said Dr Peter R Kowey, guidance writer of a bookwork appearing in the Dec 1, 2010 pour of the Journal of the American Medical Association that is also scheduled to be presented Monday at the American Heart Association's annual junction in Chicago. "Although we can't bounce the plausibility of efficacy in sicker AF patients, it would be hardbitten to believe that it would profession in that population and not in healthier patients vimax. So for realistic purposes, yes, this is the end of the line in AF".

This study, the largest of its kind, looked at patients with AF who were otherwise healthy. "We cannot foretell there is any convincing reveal of a function for omega-3 in the prevention of atrial fibrillation," added Dr Ranjit Suri, captain of the Electrophysiology Service and Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who was not labyrinthine with the trial. The contemplation was funded by GlaxoSmithKline.

Omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in fatty fish such as salmon and albacore tuna, had showed some be in the cards in preventing sensitivity sickness in earlier trials. Of the whole 663 outpatient participants, 542 had paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, which appears a moment and resolves on its own, and 121 had undeviating atrial fibrillation, which needs treatment.

Participants were randomized to be told either a placebo or 8 grams of omega-3 supplements quotidian for the cardinal week, followed by 4 grams a epoch for the surviving 23 weeks of the trial. The doses employed in the contemplate are available only by prescription and are "higher than doses in days gone by published in studies," said Dr Robert Block, a cardiologist and helpmate professor of community and inhibitive medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

At the end of six months, 46 percent of those in the placebo faction and 52 percent of those taking omega-3 supplements prepared recurrences. The numbers of paroxysmal AF patients in the placebo and curing groups who had AF recurrences were about match (48 percent and 52 percent, respectively), the investigators found.

In patients with unwavering AF, more patients in the omega-3 arm had recurrences than in the placebo series (50 percent and 33 percent, respectively). But experts haven't ruled out a attainable impersonation for omega-3 in other types of patients, such as those with generosity failure. "Our evidence do not convey to other cardiac indications," said Kowey, who is president of the Main Line Health Heart Center and a professor of pharmaceutical and clinical pharmacology at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

So "There has been conflicting material there as well and a unscarred lack for reliable studies similar to ours in those indications. Omega-3 may be caring in patients with dear triglycerides and bad overall cholesterol profiles or colonize prone to electric storms in the heartlessness who are at risk of sudden death". Block recommends that patients with cardiovascular c murrain eat two servings of suave fish weekly, or three over-the-counter omega-3 capsules a day full report. In those with no cardiovascular disease, "there is no field ultimate benefit," but they still might also want to breakfast fish regularly.