Omega-3s Dont Help Crohns
Reported April 14, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — Omega-3 fatty acids, like the ones found in fatty fish like salmon and sardines, have an anti-inflammatory effect. But the findings of a new, large scale study shows they have no benefit in treating the inflammatory bowl disorder Crohns disease.
A significant amount of time and money is spent annually on alternative therapies such as omega-3 fatty acids without strong evidence that they are beneficial to patients with inflammatory bowl disease, Brian Feagan, M.D., Robarts Clinical Trials director, was quoted as saying. Dr. Feagan led the international study done at Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada.
The belief that omega-3 fatty acids are effective against inflammatory bowl disease may have started with a relatively small Italian research study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1996. That study said the omega-3s were beneficial in preventing Crohns disease relapses.
Dr. Feagans study, involving two large-scale trials, was 10 times the size of the Italian study and included Crohns disease patients from Europe, Israel, Canada and the United States. Both trials showed omega-3 fatty acids did nothing to prevent a relapse of Crohns, but the patients who took them did have significantly lower concentrations of triglycerides, which lowered their risk for heart disease.
Small single center clinical trials often overestimate the true effects of treatment, said Dr. Feagan. Thats why its important to conduct large scale randomized, multi-center studies in order to confirm preliminary results.
Dr. Faegan advises Crohns suffers to focus on prescription medications.
SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2008;299:1690-1697