Is it true the Omega vitamins do nothing to help prevent heart problems?

Omega-3 are not vitamins, but are essential fatty acids. Whether or not the dietary supplements are beneficial is controversial.

It is important to note that dietary supplements and vitamins are not regulated, so what is actually in the pill may well not be what is on the label. In general, the best way to get nutrition is through natural, minimally processed food sources.

I suspect you’re referring to the greek paper that looked at numerous previous studies (1). It’s an aggregate analysis study (which have their own set of issues) that focused on severe outcomes (heart attack, stroke, death). So far as I know they didn’t find any thing refuting Omega-3’s ability to lower triglyceride levels, which is considered good, and is backed by NIH (2) The FDA also provides supportive backing to some fish oil claims (3). What seems to fall out of this is Omega-3’s are good for you, maybe just not the magic pill they’ve been hyped to be. Eat more fish and ”...if they really want to be sure they’re getting omega-3s, there’s no harm to taking fish oil, and it certainly might help.” (4; also this reference has another link to an NBC clip referring to the study.)

Only study link I could find was behind a JAMA paywall (5).

The study I read about (in the general mainstream media, so I am getting it third hand) was about the efficacy of fish oil, not Omega fatty acids in general. There was no discussion regarding flax seed or chia seed.

As with any dietary supplement, if you have a deficiency, it might help, but with a well balanced, healthy diet, most people do not need them.

What @hearkat said.

It isn’t unusual for studies to conflict. It also is not unusual for many people to believe something, and later for science to disprive it, or not be able to confirm the popular belief. We saw this with vitamin C when claims were made it fights the common cold, but the study that supposedly proved this could never be repeated, meaning they never got the same result again of showing a significant improvement among vitamin C megadosers. Another is soy helping with menopause symptoms. Studies show it doesn’t help, but people still believe it does. There was a large study regarding fiber and colon cancer, and contradicting older studies it showed no affect to consume more fiber to keep colon cancer away. Oatmeal claims to lower cholesterol, but with further inspection pretty much any of the whole grain cereals will lead to lower cholesterol. I persinally don’t believe it has anything to do with the grain, I think it has to do with a no cholesterol breakfast vs a cholesterol breakfast, but I am not a doctor or medical researcher.

As far as vitamins and minerals, I am a big believer in testing. Test your blood levels, see if you are dificient. The deficiencies I hear the most are vitamin D, vitamin B12, and for women iron. If omega fatty acids are supposed to help cholesterol ratios and lipids, get a test. Test while not taking the supplement, and then test after and see if there is improvement. It might help you as an individual. Supposedly eating trans fats are worse than eating butter for cholesterol blood levels, but for me taking in cholesterol leads to higher cholesterol numbers for me period. Butter raises my cholesterol.