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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: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday November 12 2018, @05:54PM (2 children)

    by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Monday November 12 2018, @05:54PM (#760985)

    1 gram of fish oil. there are 4-6 grams of fish oil in the average can of water packed tuna.

    2000 IU of vitamin D.You get the same amount of vitamin D if you get 20-30 minutes of sun 3 times a week.

    All the other studies I've ever heard of that showed a benefit had much higher doses involved so I'm going to take this recent study with a very large pinch of salt.

    my .$02

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  • (Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Monday November 12 2018, @09:05PM

    by Dr Spin (5239) on Monday November 12 2018, @09:05PM (#761044)

    You get the same amount of vitamin D if you get 20-30 minutes of sun 3 times a week.

    I live in the UK - I would drink several international units of whisky in the unlikely event of 20-30 minutes of Sun 3 times a week.

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  • (Score: 1) by Stardaemon on Tuesday November 13 2018, @02:11PM

    by Stardaemon (4294) on Tuesday November 13 2018, @02:11PM (#761289)

    Depends on how high in the sky the sun is.

    If you are far north or far south, you will not be able to get enough sunlight for vitamin D synthesis during the dark part of the year.

    In Sweden for instance, you pretty much need supplements from end of September to late April in order to not get a deficiency.