Dietary supplements with fish oil and vitamin D do not protect against heart disease

Food supplements work on heart disease?

There have been more and more conflicting statements in recent years about the effects of taking dietary supplements containing vitamin D or fish oil on cancers or heart problems. Researchers have now found that dietary supplements with vitamin D or fish oil do not seem to have a positive impact on the risk of cancer or heart problems.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have found in their current research that dietary supplements containing vitamin D or fish oil do not protect against cancer or heart disease. The physicians published the results of their study in the English language journal "New England Journal of Medicine".

Dietary supplements with fish oil and vitamin D do not seem to protect against cancer and heart problems. (Image: Unclesam / fotolia.com)

Dietary supplements are very popular

The new clinical study on dietary supplements and cancer or heart problems included nearly 26,000 subjects. The researchers defined severe heart problems as a combined rate of heart attacks, strokes and cardiac death. The doctors were keen to know what nutritional supplements can really do, as they are hugely popular with many patients. For example, a 2017 study found that 26 percent of Americans who were already 60 years or older take vitamin D supplements. Of these, 22 percent take omega-3 supplements.

Vitamin D did not affect the risk of cancer

The new study found that patients' vitamin D levels have no impact on cancer risk or serious heart problems. In this regard, there is no reason that people should perform routine blood tests for vitamin D levels, the experts claim. Even people who started the study with a clear vitamin D deficiency had no benefit from taking the supplements, which provided 2,000 international units daily. This amount corresponds to one or two of the vitamin D pills normally sold in stores.

Vitamin D testing is big business in the US

Vitamin D testing for commercial laboratories has become a huge business, researchers say. Doctors in the US commissioned more than 10 million patient vitamin D tests in 2016. This represents an increase of 547 percent since 2007. The cost was $ 365 million. If there is no justification for these tests, they should not be done anymore, scientists say.

Ingestion did not cause any unwanted side effects

However, the physicians also explained that they could not find any serious side effects when taking fish oil or vitamin D supplements. If you are already taking fish oil or vitamin D, the results do not give a clear reason to stop, say the experts. It could be possible that even taking it leads to other benefits. When the researchers looked at the effects of heart attacks, they found that fish oil seemed to reduce the likelihood of heart attack by 28 percent. As for vitamin D, it seemed to reduce the number of cancer deaths by 25 percent, but not the number of diagnoses. However, dividing the data into smaller segments, with fewer patients in each group, can lead to unreliable results, say the physicians. The links between fish oil and heart attack and vitamin D and cancer death may be due to a coincidence, the authors continue.

Vitamin D protects the bones

The experts agree that vitamin D is important for bone health. However, the researchers did not look at the effects on the bones in the current study. Instead, they looked at areas where the benefits of vitamin D could not be clearly demonstrated, such as cancer and heart disease. Although preliminary studies have shown that vitamin D can prevent heart disease and cancer, stringent studies have not confirmed these results.

Further data will be published

Scientists plan to publish evaluations on the impact of supplements on other health care areas in the coming months, such as diabetes, memory, mental functioning, autoimmune diseases, respiratory infections, and depression.

How to protect yourself against cancer and heart disease

People should continue to focus on known factors to reduce cancer and heart disease. Make sure you have a healthy diet, exercise, and exercise. Stop smoking, avoid high blood pressure, and take statins if you are at an increased risk. (As)