Evidence about the effect of fish oils on heart health has been contradictory, but researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine believe they can finally and definitively say that they have a modest positive benefit.
They took another look at 19 previously published studies that involved 45,637 participants, nearly 8,000 of whom suffered a first heart attack while they were taking part in one of the studies, and 2,781 of these were fatal.
Those who had a non-fatal attack seemed to have higher levels of omega-3s, the researchers found; overall, the higher levels meant the person was 10 per cent less likely to suffer a fatal attack.
Fatty fish, such as salmon, trout, anchovies, sardines and herring, are good sources of omega-3s, and plant-based sources include walnuts, flaxseed oil and canola oil.
(Source: JAMA Internal Medicine, 2016; doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.2925)
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