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A Supplement Didn't Help with Heart Patients

Patients with heart disease are at greater risk of dying if they are depressed. And both depression and heart disease are characterized, among other things, by low levels of omega-3 fatty acids.

So scientists wondered whether heart patients with depression might benefit from a dose of omega-3s in their antidepressant medicine. In a clinical trial, two groups of heart patients taking the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft) were randomly assigned to receive a supplement of either omega-3s or a corn oil placebo.

The results were “very disappointing,” said Robert M. Carney, a psychiatry professor at the Washington University School of Medicine and the lead author of a study on the trial, which appeared Oct. 21 in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr. Carney said there was “absolutely no difference” in remission of depression among the 59 patients who took omega-3s along with the drug for 10 weeks and the 56 given the placebo.

Studies evaluating the effects of omega-3s on depression have had mixed results, he said, adding, “The evidence isn’t strong enough to make any recommendations in my opinion, for people with or without heart disease.”

Just another mark against supplements and meat with "extra" omega 3s. Save your money.

Not only that, Omega 3 eggs taste like fish.

I took an omega 3 supplement for a long time before ZC, it never made one iota of difference to me except the $49 a month I was spending.

I had just bought a new bottle before starting ZC and it is still in my fridge. I wish I hadn't had opened it or I could have taken it back.


Funny how the depression just magically disappeared within a couple of weeks of ZC and no O-3 supplements. And I was VLC for months and months prior to that.

These types of headlines get reported but don't draw much attention. People only want to talk about it when they can somehow spin the results to show a benefit. When the study shows no benefit, no one wants to talk about it.

Well said Taubes when describing these types of people, "they are in a science that functions much like a religion."

(11-03-2009 07:17 PM)Margot Wrote: [ -> ]Not only that, Omega 3 eggs taste like fish.

Not to me. I used to buy the 18-pack of omega-3 eggs at Costco and although I dislike eggs, they were delicious.

I took an omega 3 supplement for a long time before ZC, it never made one iota of difference to me except the $49 a month I was spending.

I had an automatic monthly re-order from Amazon for krill oil capsules (around $30 a month). I did this because of Dr. Eades' recommendation. I stopped the order many months ago and I'm still very much alive and thriving.

I had just bought a new bottle before starting ZC and it is still in my fridge. I wish I hadn't had opened it or I could have taken it back.

Ditto. I gave mine to a clerk at Costco who looked as if she needed all the help she could get. Anorectic and weary looking.