Executive Summary

Harvard researchers find no association between fish oil supplementation and risk of ischemic stroke in men, although they observe a 43% lower risk of the disease in those "who consumed [dietary] fish once per month or more compared with those who ate fish less often." In Dec. 25 JAMA, Ka He, MD, et al., explain that "the number of men taking fish oil supplements was small" - only about 27% of the 43,671 participants included in the prospective study - which could have precluded an effect. He et al. examined the relationship between fish intake and stroke in the Health Professional Follow-up Study, a cohort of men who periodically completed dietary measurements during 12 years of follow-up. After stratifying the study population according to aspirin use or vitamin E intake, researchers found the "overall inverse association between fish intake and risk of ischemic stroke...was not materially modified by use" of either therapy...