Heart failure, which is characterized by a long-term, chronic shortage of blood to the heart, is the leading cause of hospitalization among older adults in the U.S.
And it’s particularly lethal.
However, according to new research, one simple supplement reduces your risk of hospitalization due to heart failure. It also significantly lowers your risk of suffering a heart attack. And the best part? It costs less than $1 a day!
I’ll tell you all about that powerful supplement in a moment. But first, let’s back up to examine the continuing problems with the mainstream solutions to heart disease…
Invasive mainstream approaches fail to make a difference
As I reported yesterday, a huge, government-funded study recently found that two costly and invasive procedures—stents and coronary bypass surgeries—so often performed on heart disease patients are completely useless. Sometimes even deadly!
The fact is, even five decades ago, when these torturous procedures first emerged, there was never any real evidence that they actually worked. But cardiologists plowed ahead, continuing to perform them, despite this lack of evidence.
Then, a dozen years ago, a big study definitively demonstrated that they do not work for people with heart disease—even for people with the most severe kind! Yet they’re still commonly performed.
Meanwhile, in recent years, there’s been a fake medical news campaign trying to discredit a potent dietary supplement that really does work wonders for heart disease.
Thankfully, we now have conclusive, scientific evidence that this dollar-a-day supplement prevents heart attack, heart failure, hospitalizations, and even death! Let’s take a look…
Taking even a low dose of fish oil dramatically reduced heart attack risk
For this new analysis, researchers took a fresh look at data originally gathered in a major, well-designed clinical trial called VITAL.
That original trial involved nearly 26,000 adults, ages 50 and older, who were initially free of heart problems. The researchers randomly divided the participants into three groups, where they received:
- 1 gram (1,000 mg) of high-quality fish oil daily
- 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily
- A placebo daily
It turns out, over the next five years, the fish oil group was far less likely to suffer a heart attack during the following years. In fact, they had an impressive 28 percent lower risk of heart attack compared to the placebo group.
Plus, the effect was even stronger among those whose diets were low in fish…they had a 40 percent reduced risk of heart attack after taking a high-quality fish oil supplement!
No matter how you slice it, these results from VITAL are truly remarkable, especially considering the low dosage of fish oil used. (I recommend a much higher amount daily of both fish oil and vitamin D, as I’ll explain in a moment.)
New analysis examines the effect of fish oil on hospitalizations
For the new 2020 analysis of the VITAL data, researchers looked at the effect of fish oil supplements on the risk of being hospitalized for heart failure.
As you may know, heart failure is distinct from a heart attack. Often, it stems from damage caused by a heart attack to the heart muscle. However, it usually involves a chronic decline in the ability of the heart to pump blood throughout the body.
Overall, the new analysis found that people who took fish oil were less likely to be hospitalized due to heart failure. In fact, they had a 14 percent lower risk of repeat hospitalizations. (When researchers looked at only first time hospitalizations, there were too few to detect an effect).
Of course, neither finding comes as much of a surprise to me, as fish oil is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which help lower blood triglycerides (blood fats), reduce chronic inflammation and blood clotting, and stabilize heartbeats.
Set realistic goals, aim for disease prevention, and supplement!
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends people eat fish twice a week (especially fatty fish like albacore tuna, mackerel, sardines and wild-caught salmon). But studies show very few Americans actually achieve that target.
Which is why I always recommend taking a high-quality fish oil supplement. However, the AHA issued an advisory in 2017 that it’s only “reasonable” for doctors to prescribe fish oil supplements to patients with heart failure.
How utterly disappointing!
Why not just prescribe fish oil from the get-go, before their patients develop heart failure?! Then there would be fewer heart attacks and less heart failure in the first place!
Sadly, most mainstream doctors like to wait until there is actual disease to do anything.
The good news is, you don’t have to wait for the do-nothing, “keystone docs” to get their acts together. Rather, you can start eating more fish and seafood and supplementing with fish oil!
As I mentioned, the participants in the VITAL study took just 1,000 mg daily. But that’s far less than the optimal amount needed, as I disclose in the June 2018 issue of my monthly Insiders’ Cures newsletter (“Why I’m upping my recommendations for this ‘controversial’ supplement”). My recommendations are based on the most-current science and your actual weekly fish consumption. So if you haven’t already, become a subscriber and start your smart supplementation of fish oil today!
And to learn about other safe, effective, and natural approaches to preventing—and even reversing—heart disease without the use of statins or any harmful drugs, check out my Heart Attack Prevention and Repair Protocol. To learn more about this online learning tool, or to enroll today, click here now!
Source:
“Supplementation with Vitamin D and/or Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Incidence of Heart Failure Hospitalization: VITAL-Heart Failure.” Circulation, November 11, 2019. doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.044645