Omega-3 supplementation
mg/day EPA+DHA
Capsules or food doses of the marine fats EPA and DHA, from fish oil or algae. Grocery users of fish oil already look healthier on average, so shopping habits are not the claim.
Cardiometabolic trials assign purified EPA, mixed EPA plus DHA, or a margarine dose and count heart events or triglycerides. Depression trials use EPA-heavy oils against a seed-oil placebo. A promotion or job outcome hung on who buys fish oil is almost always a healthy-user pattern, not a causal arrow from the bottle.
Also called fish oil, DHA, EPA.
Connected relationships
Randomized trial · Contested
Omega-3 supplementation→Major cardiovascular events
Higher Omega-3 supplementation moves Major cardiovascular events only in some conditions. Read the mechanism.
Assigned 4 g a day of icosapent ethyl cut a five-part ischemic composite in 8179 statin-treated adults with high triglycerides (Bhatt 2019, hazard ratio 0.75); the same dose of mixed EPA plus DHA carboxylic acids did not in 13,078 similar adults (Nicholls 2020, 0.99), and about 400 mg of EPA-DHA in margarine did not after a heart attack (Kromhout 2010).
Randomized trial · Contested
Omega-3 supplementation→Depression
Higher Omega-3 supplementation moves Depression only in some conditions. Read the mechanism.
Lespérance 2011 found that 1,200 mg a day of EPA-heavy fish oil versus sunflower oil missed the primary Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology contrast among 432 Canadian outpatients in a major depressive episode (adjusted difference 1.32, -0.20 to 2.84); a planned no-anxiety slice moved, and two later pilots of 60 and 61 people do not settle the sign.
Observational · High confidence
Omega-3 supplementation→Employment status
A rise in Omega-3 supplementation does not identify a change in Employment status.
Fish-oil buyers are not a random sample of the labor force.
Cases
Sources
- DL Bhatt et al. (2019). Cardiovascular Risk Reduction with Icosapent Ethyl for Hypertriglyceridemia.
- SJ Nicholls et al. (2021). Effect of High-Dose Omega-3 Fatty Acids vs Corn Oil on Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients at High Cardiovascular Risk: The STRENGTH Randomized Clinical Trial.
- D Kromhout et al. (2010). n-3 fatty acids and cardiovascular events after myocardial infarction.
- F Lespérance et al. (2011). The efficacy of omega-3 supplementation for major depression: a randomized controlled trial.
- SK Wu et al. (2024). The Efficacy of Omega-3 Fatty Acids as the Monotherapy for Depression: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Study.
- D Mischoulon et al. (2022). Omega-3 Fatty Acids for Major Depressive Disorder With High Inflammation: A Randomized Dose-Finding Clinical Trial.
- W. H. Shrank et al. (2011). Healthy user and related biases in observational studies of preventive interventions: a primer for physicians