Fish Oil Can Help Congestive Heart Failure

Here is a new published study showing that taking fish oil can reduce the risk of death in patients with heart failure. An Italian study showing the benefits of fish oil was just published in the Lancet (a prestigious medical journal). This study also showed that heart patients who take fish oil are less likely to be hospitalized.

For all of you heart patients taking health supplements, it looks like you should add fish oil to your list of supplements (if you haven't already).

This 4 year study was a double blind one in which some patients received fish oil capsules while the other patients received "dummy" capsules.

The results show that those given the fish oil were 9% less likely to die during that 4 year period. The difference went from 9% to 14% when researchers examined the 5,000 patients who took the capsules once a day as directed (I think this means some patients didn't take their medicine as directed). The number of those admitted to hospital for arrhythmias fell by 28% during the same period.

Luigi Tavazzi of the National Association of Hospital Cardiologists (Italy) said ''Our study shows that the long-term administration of one gram per day of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid was effective in reducing both all-cause mortality and admissions to hospital for cardiovascular reasons.

''This is the first study of omega-3 in patients with heart failure, an area which is not rich in new drugs. This is a modest effect but it is on top of recommended therapies. It's safe, simple and cheap''. A variety of health benefits have been claimed for omega 3, which occurs naturally in cod liver oil and fish such as salmon and mackerel.

Safe, simple and cheap? That sounds good to me.

Many heart failure patients who come to Bangkok to receive VesCell adult stem cell treatment already take health supplements such as fish oil as it has long been believed to provide health benefits. This new study just confirms that belief.