According to a study published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, there is no evidence that omega-3 fatty acid supplementation (a dosage of one gram per day) reduces adverse cardiovascular events in type 2 diabetics or pre-diabetics. Researchers behind the study, titled “n–3 Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients with Dysglycemia,” did not study the effect of an omega-rich diet.

The Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) weighed in and offered its take on the study. For starters, GOED said, “The totality of the publicly available scientific evidence demonstrates a cardiovascular benefit of EPA and DHA in healthy populations, as well as in the majority of populations with pre-existing cardiovascular ailments.”
 
What’s more, “The list of long-chain omega-3 recommendations from professional organizations and government bodies continues to grow because the cardiovascular benefits associated with EPA and DHA are so compelling,” GOED said.
 
To support its opposition to the study outcome, GOED questioned if the trial was “adequately powered” to detect differences between treatment and placebo groups, pointing to subgroup analyses in previous studies that had demonstrated cardiovascular (CV) benefits in diabetic subjects.
 
“Compared to past studies demonstrating CV benefits of the long-chain O-3s, subjects in the current trial [also] received better treatment with statins, antithrombotics and antihypertensive medications. Such treatment makes it less likely to be able to detect a benefit of the long-chain O-3s,” GOED stated.
 
The Organization also questioned the study’s omega-3 dosage and duration of the dosage period. “840 mg EPA + DHA may have been too low a dose to demonstrate any significant CV benefit(s),” GOED said. “[And] the supplementation period may have been too short to demonstrate any significant CV benefit(s).
 
“While there was a significant reduction in triglycerides in the O-3 supplemented group compared to the placebo group, corroborating O-3’s ability to lower triglycerides, it is curious that there were no other significant between-group differences in the levels of other lipid fractions, plasma glucose levels, glycated hemoglobin levels, blood pressure, or heart rate,” GOED added, and pointed out  that low O-3 PUFA intakes account for 72,000-96,000 deaths per year from CVD in the United States alone.”