October 29, 2018 – EPA

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04 — 1.5MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Anchor lead: An industry conducted trial is raising hopes about a fish oil product, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Results from an industry-sponsored clinical trial of a concentrated fish oil product seems to show impressive reductions in cardiovascular events. The manufacturer of the product, called Vascepa, has already released results even though no publication or peer review has taken place, nor has the complete data set been released. Michael Blaha, a preventive cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, explains what’s known.

Blaha:  This product, which is a purified EPA product, it not quite like a fish oil supplement, but it’s a component of fish oil purified at high doses, did lead to a remarkable 25% reduction in cardiovascular disease events, in patients that were at high risk with high triglycerides. We need to wait for the official data to really adjudicate these claims, and it is unusual for the company to present this data in a press release. It’s gotten the scientific community and the medical community very, very excited.  :27

Blaha looks forward to more complete revelations at the American Heart Association meeting, and says for now, don’t up your fish oil supplement consumption. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.