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posted by Fnord666 on Monday November 12 2018, @09:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-about-snake-oil? dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Vitamin D And Fish Oil Supplements Disappoint In Long-Awaited Study Results

Many people routinely take nutritional supplements such as vitamin D and fish oil in the hopes of staving off major killers like cancer and heart disease.

But the evidence about the possible benefits of the supplements has been mixed.

Now, long-awaited government-funded research has produced some of the clearest evidence yet about the usefulness of taking the supplements. And the results — published in two papers — are disappointing.

"Both trials were negative," says Dr. Lawrence Fine, chief of the clinical application and prevention branch of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health, which funded the studies.

"Overall, they showed that neither fish oil nor vitamin D actually lowered the incidence of heart disease or cancer," Fine says.

The results were presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in Chicago and released online Saturday by the New England Journal of Medicine. One paper focused on vitamin D supplementation and the other focused on fish oil.

The trials involved nearly 26,000 healthy adults age 50 and older with no history of cancer or heart disease who took part in the VITAL research project. Twenty percent of the participants were African-American.

Some of the participants took either 1 gram of fish oil — which contains omega-3 fatty acids — plus 2,000 international units of vitamin D daily. Others consumed the same dose of vitamin D plus a placebo, while others ingested the same dose of fish oil plus a placebo. The last group took two placebos. After more than five years, researchers were unable to find any overall benefit.

While the overall results were disappointing, there appeared to be a beneficial effect when it came to one aspect of heart disease and fish oil: heart attacks.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 12 2018, @12:56PM (4 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 12 2018, @12:56PM (#760889)

    Why didnt they do a dose response? Its not like they were low on subjects and 1g of fish oil is less than the recommended dose.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Monday November 12 2018, @03:03PM (3 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 12 2018, @03:03PM (#760922) Journal

    I take 6g per day, for the last 20 years. As I read TFA, I was thinking of giving it up until I read:

    While the overall results were disappointing, there appeared to be a beneficial effect when it came to one aspect of heart disease and fish oil: heart attacks.

    and

    taking fish oil lowered the risk of heart attack by about 28 percent, which is a "statistically significant" finding, says Dr. JoAnn Manson

    Hey, that's more than enough reason for me to just keep taking it as part of my routine.

    Those who appeared to benefit the most were people who didn't ordinarily eat much fish in their day-to-day diet

    Even more good news. I don't like seafood. But lots of Taco Johns or Taco Bellyache.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Monday November 12 2018, @05:11PM (2 children)

      by richtopia (3160) on Monday November 12 2018, @05:11PM (#760968) Homepage Journal

      Yea, a significant decrease in heart attacks is nothing to be scoffed at. It looks like Vitamin D did nothing, but fish oil seems like an easy supplement to keep in your diet.

      • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday November 12 2018, @05:25PM (1 child)

        by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 12 2018, @05:25PM (#760973) Journal

        IIUC Vitamin D is more associated with bone health. Why they tested those particular diseases against those particular regimens at those particular doses is a bit of a mystery to me, but if it gets properly indexed and is replicable it's still useful information.

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        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 12 2018, @05:44PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 12 2018, @05:44PM (#760981)

          i've been taking supplements of various kinds for 15 yrs(?) or so and i don't remember hearing that vitamin d or fish oil is supposed to help protect against cancer or heart problems, at least not as the main point of those supplements. i take d3 to help with the immune system, especially during winter and i've taken fish oil for brain health. this study sounds like anti supplement propaganda. like they want to report something negative so they test against unrelated shit. i bet my milk thistle doesn't help my appendix either...