A study published in the latest issue of JAMA, has claims that the consumption of fish oil doesn?t protect against abnormal heart beats.
Patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) did not have a significantly lower risk of serious abnormal heart rhythms or death by consuming fish oil supplements, which was earlier thought to have a protective effect.
The trial on the effect of fish oil on abnormal heart rhythm in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators yielded inconclusive results, suggesting that intake of fish oil was not associated with a reduction in cardiovascular deaths.
The Study on Omega-3 Fatty acids present in fishes and ventricular Arrhythmia was conducted at 26 cardiology clinics across Europe and included 546 patients with ICDs.
Patients were randomly assigned to have 2 grams/day of fish oil in capsules for a period of 356 days, and the results showed that patients in the ICD group did not improve even after consuming the fish oil.
“In this large randomized trial we did not find evidence of strong protective effect of intake of omega-3 PUFAs from fish oil against ventricular arrhythmia in patients with ICDs. In contrast to others, we did not find that fish oil may have proarrhythmic properties,? the authors said.