Fish Oil>Statins.

Told you to toss your statins, kiddies.

Fish Oil Outperforms Statin in Heart Failure Study.

According to this new study, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, a fish oil supplement containing 1 gram of Omega 3 fatty acids (EPA, DHA) slightly outperformed the statin Crestor in preventing death from heart disease. Most of the regular readers of this blog won’t be surprised by the study findings, nor will they be surprised by the reactions from medical professionals:

“The result doesn’t mean that a statin should not be prescribed for someone with heart failure and high cholesterol, Fonarow said. “There were no safety concerns,” he said. “The drug was well tolerated. It indicates that heart failure, in and of itself, should not be reason to start a patient on a statin.”"

Well, it stands to reason, if the heart disease isn’t the reason to start a patient on a statin, then what is? High cholesterol? And what does the high cholesterol supposedly lead to? A heart…nevermind.

It’s certainly a different take than what the co-chair of the study’s steering committee had to say:

“Speaking to the media, Tognoni said that the prescription of rosuvastatin or any statin to patients with heart failure should not be considered because the use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs does not translate into any clinically meaningful benefit for heart-failure patients.” (emphasis mine)

It’s instructive to note that similar results were found in two prior studies, JELIS and an earlier version of GISSI. However, those studies weren’t double-blind, placebo studies, meaning that the results could have been biased. Not so with the GISSI-HF trial.

What’s also encouraging?  That these results were seen in folks who already had a cardiac event, were ostensibly doing all they could to prevent another cardiac event, and were taking a reasonable dosage of fish oil (1 gram a day isn’t that much -  Dr. John Berardi recommends upwards of 6-12 grams per day!).

Bottom line: Keep taking fish oil (at least, those of you who aren’t allergic to seafood), and stay away from the statins.

The final word has to belong to Dr. Philip Poole-Wilson, who also commented about GISSI-HF:

“When the trial was designed, some even expressed concern that it was unethical to randomize heart-failure patients to placebo because they were so confident of the benefit of statin therapy in this patient population. The results, he said, ultimately should humble researchers, especially as they serve as reminder that medical decisions should be guided “by science, and not strongly held opinion.”” (emphasis mine)

Hear, hear.