- Omega 3 fatty acids had their moment in the news yesterday .
- The headline , omega 3's have no effect in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
- I believe they were referring to the ORIGIN study. This was a large study, 12,537 people with high risk for cardio vascular disease who had impaired fasting glucose , impaired glucose tolerance ,or recent onset of type 2 diabetes.
- The ORIGIN Trial Investigators. N-3 fatty acids and cardiovascular outcomes in patients with dysglycemia. N Engl J Med. 2012; Jun 11. Epub ahead of print.
- End points
- Primary end points cardiovascular death , secondary end points
- Secondary end points , nonfatal heart attack or stroke ,all cause mortality or arrhythmic death
- The purpose was to answer 2 questions
- #1 Question -
- To investigate wether insulin replacement with Glargine ( Lantus insulin ) and
- maintaining a fasting glucose below 95mg/dl (5.3 mm/l) would reduce the risk
- of cardiovascular disease.
- Answer -
- No , there was no significant reduction in cardiovascular outcome in
- the insulin group
- The rest of the story
- There was no increase in the risk of developing cancer.
- There was a decrease in the progression to type 2 diabetes with
- maintaining a normal fasting glucose.
- # 2 Question
- To evaluate cardiovascular risk in patients taking 1 capsule containing
- 900 mg of omega 3 fatty acid
- Answer - there was no reduction in cardiovascular risk over the 6.2 years of
- the study.
- The rest of the story and comment
- baseline Triglycerides 152 mg/dl
- LDL cholesterol 112 mg/dl
- The treatment group had a 23.5 mg/dl decrease in triglycerides
- compared to a 9% decrease in the placebo group.
- and no significant decrease in LDL or increase in HDL. They did
- demonstrate that a small dose has a small effect on lipids.
- .
Comment.
The good news in the rest of this story is that early aggressive correction
of glucose can slow the progression of type 2 diabetes .
The finding of no increase in the risk of cancer in patients using glargine
(Lantus )relieves some of the early concerns about glargine and cancer.
Omega 3 fatty acids are effective for reducing abnormally elevated
triglyceride. The average baseline triglyceride level in the study was 152
mg/dl( normal < 150 mg/dl ) .
This was a research study, in patients with no clinical indication for using
omega 3 fatty acids , and they successfully demonstrated that there was
no benefit in taking low dose ( < 1 gram ) of omega -3 - fatty acid.
The therapeutic dose for elevated triglycerides is 4 to 6 grams of fatty
acids EPA and DHA. Most of the patients would not have received
omega -3 -Fatty acid in their doctors office and would have instead
received a recommendation to adjust their statins to correct their LDL
cholesterol to < 70 mg/dl.
omega -3 -Fatty acid in their doctors office and would have instead
received a recommendation to adjust their statins to correct their LDL
cholesterol to < 70 mg/dl.
I have attached some of my previous blogs for your review on this topic.
Have fun , Be Smart and read the details
David calder,MD
Have fun , Be Smart and read the details
David calder,MD
No comments:
Post a Comment
Your comments and questions are appreciated. David Calder,MD