Article- Lancet and Fish Oil

Findings published online in The Lancet on Sunday reported that scientists in Munich say fish-oil supplements may work slightly better than rosuvastatin, also known as Crestor, a popular cholesterol-reducing drug to help patients with chronic heart failure. Italian researchers gave nearly 3,500 patients a daily omega-3 pill, a prescription-formulation pill derived from fish oils; a similar number of patients took placebos. Doctors said people should get the same benefits from taking cheaper options like fish-oil supplements, or just eating more oily fish like salmon. Over the course of four years, 1,981 patients taking the fish-oil pills died or were hospitalized because of heart failure. Of the placebo patients 2,053 died or were hospitalized for heart failure. In a parallel study, the same team of Italian doctors gave 2,285 patients rosuvastatin, and gave placebo pills to 2,289 people. The doctors found little difference in heart-failure rates between the two groups. Comparing the results from both studies, the researchers concluded that fish oil is slightly more effective than the drug because the oil performed better against a placebo than did the drug. (The Lancet, published online, DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61239-8)