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This 1 food increases A-Fib risks by at least 25%
Matt Cook here, and if you’ve been following me and my work for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard me talk about vegetable oils…
…I’m not a fan…
…and you may have heard from me that vegetable oils are bad for your heart.
Well, vegetable oils happen to belong to a larger class of fats called PUFAs, which also include fish oils.
Yet fish oils are still considered healthy – particularly for the heart or inflammatory conditions.
But the reality is that they can be just as damaging for the heart as vegetable oils are!
Fish oils are a multibillion dollar industry – perhaps the most popular supplement in the world.
But only recently have researchers begun to really analyze the link between fish oils and cardiovascular problems.
The results from human studies are quite clear.
Fish oils probably cause atrial fibrillation and the higher the dose, the greater the risk
This analysis of human, randomized controlled trials was carried out at Geneva University Hospital in Switzerland. The findings were published in the journal Circulation.
There have been reports from numerous, high-quality human trials that fish oil supplementation is associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation.
But the reports have been largely ignored – because it is accepted common knowledge that fish oil is good for the heart.
“Some large-scale randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of fish oils and cardiovascular outcomes have reported increased risks of atrial fibrillation.”
Just recently, some analysts decided to look deeper into these findings.
They decided to look at some of the best human research available on the topic – to combine the data from all of these studies and see what they say.
The researchers looked for high quality randomized controlled trials carried out between 2012 and 2020.
They limited their analysis to studies with at least 500 people and follow-up of at least 1 year.
They excluded short-term studies and studies which were done with people who already had recurring atrial fibrillation.
The final analysis included 7 previously conducted high-quality studies.
Over 80,000 people were included in the studies. The split research into 2 different groups.
The researchers separately analyzed those taking more than 1g of fish oil per day, and those taking less than 1g of fish oil per day.
The average follow-up period of the included participants was almost 5 years.
The researchers found a clear increase in atrial fibrillation in people taking fish oil.
Overall, atrial fibrillation was increased by 25% in people taking this common supplement.
“In the analysis, the use of fish oil supplements was associated with a 25% increased risk of atrial fibrillation.”
Not only was there a strong relationship between fish oil supplementation in atrial fibrillation, it seems to be dose dependent.
People taking less than 1g of fish oil per day had an average of 12% increased risk of atrial fibrillation.
“Hazard ratio for atrial fibrillation was 1.12 for those taking 1g or less per day.”
There is an almost 50% increase in cases of atrial fibrillation in people taking more than 1 g of fish oil per day.
“In an analysis stratified by dose, the hazard ratio was greatest in trials taking more than 1 g per day – increase of 49% in atrial fibrillation.”
The researchers then performed another analysis to see what the risk of every additional gram of fish oil was.
Every gram of fish oil increases the risk of atrial fibrillation by 11%.
“Risk of atrial fibrillation increased by 11% per 1 g increase in fish oil.”
It’s great that many people are now getting the message about the dangers of vegetable oils…
…but fish oils pose very similar risks too – and they’re widely perceived as “heart healthy”.
The best research clearly shows a significant increase in the risk of atrial fibrillation from fish oil supplements.
“In randomized controlled trials, fish oil supplements were associated with an increased risk of atrial fibrillation. The risk is increased in trials testing more than 1 g per day.”
Fish oils suppress healthy metabolism and the immune system.
These are 2 mechanisms by which fish oils could be expected to cause cardiovascular damage and increase the risk of atrial fibrillation.
