In the British Medical Journal Online [October 30, 2012], Dr Chowdhury reports the finding of the meta-analysis related to stroke risk and fish oil supplements versus eating fish. For those who think health comes in a bottle, the results were disappointing.
It is not uncommon to see that adding fish oil capsules to a community of people that eat a lot of fish servings, such as in the Mediterranean or in Japan, has little beneficial effect. Adding fish oil supplements to those who do not eat fish frequently seems to pack more benefit.
Eat Fish: The punchline of this BMJ study? Compared to eating one serving or less, two to four servings of fish servings per week is associated with a 6% reduction of risk of stroke. Get to five servings and the risk is reduced by 12%!
Fish oil supplements: The benefit of fish oil pills appears to be small, but may be meaningful especially for those who eat one fish serving or less weekly.
Maine Metabolism recommendation. Take a simple fish oil supplement if you are not a frequent fish eater. But don’t stop there. Choose fish as a frequent addition to your weekly diet. Try convenient cold-water fish servings like sardines, herring, or canned wild salmon.
BMJ2012;345:e7219
