Study reveals fish oil supplements may help healing after heart attack

Heart attack patients who had fish oil supplements for six months showed improved heart function and less scarring, researchers report.

According to senior author Dr Raymond Kwong it was not yet known precisely how the large amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in these supplements might have helped the healing process, but the results were encouraging.

Kwong is director of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

In the study, 360 heart attack survivors were followed for six months, with half of them  taking 4 grams of omega-3 fatty acid supplements daily for six months, while the other half were given placebo pills.

Doctors typically prescribed 1 to 2 grams of omega-3 fatty acid supplements a day if a patient had high triglyceride levels (a type of blood fat), Kwong added.

MRIs of the heart revealed that there was a 6-per cent improvement in both heart function and scarring in undamaged parts of the organ among patients who took 4 grams of omega-3 fatty acids daily.

"What we need to study going forward is whether higher doses of omega-3 can reduce mortality rates. Can we do better than produce 6 percent heart improvement and 6 percent less scarring?" Kwong asked.

However, in two trials of fish oil for MI survivors, the results had been conflicting, Kwong told Reuters Health by phone.

In one trial the supplements did reduce the risk of death shortly after MI, but no benefit was seen in the other. In the trials patients were administered one gram of the supplement per day.

The patients in the study had received lifestyle counseling and were monitored by doctors to make sure their drug regimens did not interact adversely with additional fish oil or placebo pills.