December 3, 2024, Sioux Falls, SD: A new study published this week in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings shows that people who have higher omega-3 levels are significantly less likely to suffer or die from heart failure (HF).
To examine the relationship between omega-3 fatty acids and risk for congestive HF, researchers analyzed data from nearly 272,000 adults in the UK Biobank. They used Cox proportional hazards models to predict incident HF in those without baseline HF and total and cardiovascular (CV) mortality in those with baseline HF, all as a function of baseline plasma omega-3 levels.
They found that people with the highest plasma omega-3 fatty acid levels (top 20%) were 21% less likely to develop HF over the 13.7 years of follow-up compared to people with the lowest levels (bottom 20%). What’s more, just looking at the 1239 people with a diagnosis of HF at enrollment, those in the top 20% of plasma omega-3 levels were 50% less likely to die from any cause during follow-up compared with those in the bottom 20%.
According to researchers, this is new and powerful evidence — but not proof since this was an observational study, not a randomized controlled trial (RCT) — that maintaining a high omega-3 level (which is driven by higher intakes from oily fish like salmon and sardines or omega-3 supplements) is heart-healthy.
Over the past three decades, numerous RCTs have thoroughly examined omega-3 fatty acids as a preventive measure for CV events among the general population without HF. A comprehensive meta-analysis of these RCTs comprising approximately 150,000 patients found that being randomized to omega-3 reduced risk of myocardial infarction (MI) by 13% and fatal MI by 35%.
Additionally, a very recent meta-analysis of approximately 30,000 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) reported that being randomized to omega-3 reduced risk of all-cause mortality by 10%, CV mortality by 18%, MI by 23%, sudden cardiac death by 33%, and hospitalization for HF or unstable angina by 25%.
The authors further stated in their paper that meta-analyses, which aggregate data from high-quality RCTs, offer the most robust form of evidence to inform clinical guidelines. And given that CHD and MI constitute primary risk factors for HF, it follows that reducing the incidence of coronary events may concurrently confer a protective effect against HF.
“This new study by Jawad and colleagues provides powerful evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are protective against the development of heart failure, which is one of the most common causes of hospitalization in the US today,” commented William S. Harris, PhD, senior investigator of this study, and President of the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI). “The medical profession needs to take seriously the long-term potential of these simple nutrients to address one of our major health challenges.”
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Study link: Mayo Clinic Proceedings, December 2024
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OmegaQuant is an independent, CLIA-certified lab that offers nutritional status testing to researchers, clinicians and the public. OmegaQuant performs analysis in Sioux Falls, SD, for commercial and academic research collaborators, and for consumers interested in monitoring their nutritional status in both blood and breast milk. Its goal is to offer the highest quality fatty acid analytical services to researchers and to provide simple tests of nutritional status to consumers, with the ultimate purpose of advancing the science and use of certain nutrients to improve health. Internationally, OmegaQuant works with lab partners based in Australia and the UK. In the UK, it has a partnership with the University of Stirling, based in the Scotland, to help process blood samples from Europe. Learn more @ www.omegaquant.com
About FARI:
FARI was established in 2020 as a non-profit foundation that brings together nutrition scientists and biostatistical experts with strong publication records and expertise in fatty acids to accelerate discovery of the relationship between fatty acids, especially omega-3s, and health. FARI is currently the only organization focused directly on discovering and publishing research evaluating the health effects of individual fatty acids. Learn more @ www.faresinst.org