A recent study in the Journal Pediatrics should call into question all the nonsense that was touted as science in the recent JAMA metanalysis that panned the effects of fish oil in heart disease. That article is now 3 months old and still being cited and published around the world as definitive.
It was definitive in its complete lack of knowledge about the doses required for effect. They used only studies that dosed below 2 grams a day except for the one study that used 2.5 grams a day. That study was, by the way, the only positive result included in the analysis. Surprise Surprise fish oil at really low doses does not work.
Then again neither do statins and no one is doing studies with 2 or 5 mg a day of lovastatin.
My conclusion is that this was deliberately misleading by the authors and I would bet they are being paid by Big Pharma.
Now let me tell you something else I have learned from experience.
The government does not care about right or wrong or your personal rights once they have you in their sights. If they spend money and time on you personally you are going to pay somehow. Money, reputation, freedom… it doesn’t matter- you are going to pay right or wrong.
Still there is too much wrong out there to ignore and plenty of right that does not get any attention.
So today I am going to sum up the article in pediatrics for you and then you can read it if you like.
The study compared Omega 3 fish oil with olive oil.
Fish oil worked olive oil didn’t in spite of the Dean Ornish crowd. You can by the way find similar studies on olive oil versus fish oil on Pub Med. Olive oil falls far short versus fish oil in the health department. Simple reason: Olive oil is primarily a MUFA (mono unsaturated fat) Fish oil is a PUFA (poly unsaturated fat).
Children supplemented with an appropriate dose of fish oil at birth for 2.5 and 5 years showed all kinds of improvements including: lower waist circumference (basically a body fat measurement) and much lower insulin secretion (considering the diabetes epidemic this is important!).
The final conclusion was that these benefits were carried through into adolescents and could have major benefits in adulthood.
I suspect they are right!
If you have a child and want to give them my fish oil simply carefully puncture the capsule and squeeze the contents onto a favorite food such as apple sauce and there you go!
Your kids will thank you for it down the road!
Dr Dave