WEDNESDAY, May 22, 2024 (HealthDay News) — The role of regular use of fish oil supplements varies for people with and without cardiovascular disease, according to a study published online May 21 in BMJ Medicine.

Ge Chen, Dr.P.H., from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China, and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study to examine the effects of fish oil supplements on the clinical course of cardiovascular disease in 415,737 participants, aged 40 to 69 years, enrolled in the U.K. Biobank study.

During follow-up, the researchers identified 18,367 patients with incident atrial fibrillation, 22,636 with major adverse cardiovascular events, and 22,140 deaths. There were different roles observed for regular use of fish oil supplements in the transitions from healthy status to atrial fibrillation, to major adverse cardiovascular events, and then to death. The hazard ratios were 1.13 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.10 to 1.17) and 1.05 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.00 to 1.11) for the transition from healthy status to atrial fibrillation and from healthy status to stroke, respectively, among people without cardiovascular disease. For those with a diagnosis of known cardiovascular disease, regular use of fish oil supplements was beneficial, with a reduced risk for transitions from atrial fibrillation to major adverse cardiovascular events, atrial fibrillation to myocardial infarction, and from heart failure to death (hazard ratios [95 percent confidence intervals], 0.92 [0.87 to 0.98], 0.85 [0.76 to 0.96], and 0.91 [0.84 to 0.99], respectively).

“This large-scale prospective study of a U.K. cohort suggested that regular use of fish oil supplements might have differential roles in the course of cardiovascular diseases,” the authors write.

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