Cingles Info

Fish oil supplements help promote regular heartbeat
10/04/02 - Fish oil supplements could help prevent the risk of sudden death,
according to new research from Italy. Fish oil supplements have already been
shown to help reduce the risk of strokes or heart attack, but this is the
first time that they have been implicated in maintaining a regular
heartbeat.
Dr Roberto Marchioli of Consorzio Mario Negri Sud in Italy, the lead author
of the study, said that the effects of fish oil could be seen as early as
three months after beginning supplementation. "The risk of death, and sudden
death, is higher in the first months after a heart attack. It is exactly in
this period that the effect on sudden death was noted."
Marchioli started from the hypothesis that adding n-3 polyunsaturated fatty
acids (PUFAs) - commonly found in fish and fish oil - to a healthy diet
could lower the risk of fatal arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat that in
severe cases can lead to cardiac arrest.
His team looked at 11,323 patients who had suffered a heart attack within
the previous three, all of whom had received the same medical care and all
of whom had healthy, Mediterranean diets - rich in fruit, vegetables, olive
oil and fish.
A random group of patients were also given one gram of fish oil supplements
per day.
Over a three-and-a-half year period, some 1,031 of the subjects died,
according to Marchioli, but the data showed that those patients receiving
the fish oil supplements had a 41 per cent lower risk of death from any
cause after just three months of treatment.
After four months, these patients also appeared to be at a significantly
reduced risk of sudden cardiac death, while by the end of the study period
they were 45 per cent less likely to die suddenly from a heart-related
cause.
"This study is important because there is no really effective therapy for
arrhythmias," said Alexander Leaf, professor of clinical medicine at Harvard
Medical School, writing in an editorial accompanying the study, published in
the 9 April issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart
Association.
Leaf suggested that fatty acids might play a part in regulating the
electrical activity of heart muscle cells - a process responsible for the
heart rhythm. He added that taking the supplements while eating a
Mediterranean diet could enhance the beneficial effects of the fish oil in
decreasing the risk of sudden death.
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