The broader significance is that fish oil was considered one of the most well supported supplements out there. Others like turmeric are less evidenced but maybe promising, and there's stuff like colloidal silver which is homeopathy nonsense. If fish oil does nothing for large swaths of the population, what do we really know about the efficacy of any supplements?
Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
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Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#72This headline is quite misleading (and arguably very biased toward white readers). It describes a marked improvement in outcomes for African American study participants. So perhaps NPR views this as "disappointing" but the headline suggests broadly that everyone should stop taking those supplements, when in fact the results are far more nuanced. HN's absurd title policy is using a clickbait (and misleading) title cho…
Without reading the article, if you're dark skinned you need to be really aware of your vitamin D levels when living away from a tropical sun. Just like super white people need to be careful about sun screen when away from northern European climates.
The article only mentioned benefits for African Americans for fish oil not vitamin d, and related to heart health not (skin) cancer... and as the other commenter pointed out even the data on that was flimsy and not the main focus of the study.
Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
The absurd part isn't the convention of being true to the source's headline — which is good, generally — but the dogged persistence in keeping bad and misleading headlines, with extremely rare exception.
This is not a case of misleading headline. The study endpoints were not met. It is negative.
Agreed. This is turning out to bettet represent commenters preference for controversy and superiority over other comments/submissions than any expose of social media sites or HN's preference for negativity.
Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#74This headline is quite misleading (and arguably very biased toward white readers). It describes a marked improvement in outcomes for African American study participants. So perhaps NPR views this as "disappointing" but the headline suggests broadly that everyone should stop taking those supplements, when in fact the results are far more nuanced. HN's absurd title policy is using a clickbait (and misleading) title cho…
HN's policy is just the opposite. It would be good to know what the guidelines are before calling them absurd!
"Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait."
Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#75"At this point, if one is thinking about supplementation, either omega-3s or vitamin D, talking to your physician or healthcare provider is the next step" Does anyone actually talk to their doctor before taking a vitamin? What information could they possibly provide
They could inform you how much 30 minutes of their time and the facility fees truly cost. ;-) If you're quite serious about it you could maybe draw blood and see if you're deficient in any particular vitamins.
Just ask them at your annual checkup for ghod's sake. it's free then.
Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#76So wait, what is disappointing about this: "Taking fish oil lowered the risk of heart attack by about 28 percent, which is a "statistically significant" finding, says Dr. JoAnn Manson, who is chief of the division of preventive medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She led the research." and "African-Americans in the study experienced a 77 percent lower risk of heart attack when compared to placebo,…
The fact fish oil and vitamin d have been touted for couple decades as helping prevent cancer? I remember both my parents taking both regularly growing up in the 90s and they both separately mentioned cancer prevention as the big reasons.
Isn't a risk reduction the same as helping prevent?
Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#77So wait, what is disappointing about this: "Taking fish oil lowered the risk of heart attack by about 28 percent, which is a "statistically significant" finding, says Dr. JoAnn Manson, who is chief of the division of preventive medicine at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She led the research." and "African-Americans in the study experienced a 77 percent lower risk of heart attack when compared to placebo,…
The fact fish oil and vitamin d have been touted for couple decades as helping prevent cancer? I remember both my parents taking both regularly growing up in the 90s and they both separately mentioned cancer prevention as the big reasons.
I’m a big believer in fish oil. In my late 30s I experienced a consistent feeling of unwell ness and what I describe as “brain fog” so badly and consistently I went to the dr about it. Turned I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Dr wanted me to modify my diet and if it didn’t improve he wanted to put me on statins(!)
Fish has never been part of my diet. Started using fish oil, eating Cheerios, vitamins and some excercise. Started makeung a point to include seafood 2 times a week. Long story short, 6 months later all my numbers were in line.
The most striking thing I recalled from this was the fish oil, brain fog went away, I felt a great deal more mental acuity.
Fast forward to today; that was all 8 years ago, in the interim I stopped all that and the brain fog and unwell ness are back. I started fish oil again, and the effect was immediate. I even remarked to my wife how much better I felt.
That’s all anecdotal, and probably placebo effect anyway, ymmv.
Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#78"At this point, if one is thinking about supplementation, either omega-3s or vitamin D, talking to your physician or healthcare provider is the next step" Does anyone actually talk to their doctor before taking a vitamin? What information could they possibly provide
I have a terrific new naturopathic doctor who actually cares about my health and will run blood panels frequently and let me know what lifestyle changes and supplements would help me. I never knew before that I was deficient in zinc. Before her though, most of my doctors were of the bland "if you aren't in extreme pain then it's not a problem" camp.
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Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#79Study linked was not the biggest cardiovascular health news of today-- This was: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1812792 A single purified component of fish oil - EPA, did lead to a 25% relative risk reduction on top of statin treatment. This is a huge result with off the charts p values.
Importantly the results were only positive for those:
> Among patients with elevated triglyceride levels
Much like low dose aspirin its possible this is a bad idea for the average person unless you are already showing signs of heart disease.
Re: Long-Awaited Study Results on Vitamin D and Fish Oil Supplements
#80"At this point, if one is thinking about supplementation, either omega-3s or vitamin D, talking to your physician or healthcare provider is the next step" Does anyone actually talk to their doctor before taking a vitamin? What information could they possibly provide
My doctor's excellent on the topic. She pays a lot of attention to studies on supplements and has made recommendations and answered questions for me. The key information she provides is: Given my health history, is this likely to be useful to me? With a side of: Are there unexpected risks for me?