Are fish oil pills scientifically proven to be beneficial for the heart?

So far, no.

Source

Fatty fish can help with stroke prevention if you can find untainted fish and safe fishing methods.

An excerpt from the article:

“Evidence does not support a beneficial role for omega-3 fatty acid supplementation in preventing cardiovascular disease (including myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death) or stroke.

Fish oil supplementation has not been shown to benefit revascularization or arrythmia and has no effect on heart failure admission rates. Eating a diet high in fish that contain long chain omega-3 fatty acids does appear to decrease the risk of stroke.”

Okay but this is WebMD for omega 3 fish oil supplements. Findings show omega-3 fish oil may help to:

Lower blood pressure
Reduce triglycerides
Slow the development of plaque in the arteries
Reduce the chance of abnormal heart rhythm
Reduce the likelihood of heart attack and stroke
Lessen the chance of sudden cardiac death in people with heart disease

@gailcalled Wiki quotes about medical issues is not a good as a medical source.

I’m not going to weigh on this too heavily since I don’t really know the evidence too well, but @gailcalled‘s evidence is actually better then yours, @Tropical_Willie. It relies on a number of good meta-studies, which means studies that take into account large numbers of previous studies. In particular, the evidence in relation to cardiovascular disease and heart attack, it relies on two works published last year in the Journal of the American Medical Association, while WebMD’s sources are all at least five or six years old, and not as comprehensive. The AMA statement used by WebMD is over a decade old.

Which is not to say it’s wrong. It’s obviously a contentious subject and more studies seem warranted. But dismissing evidence as ‘just wikipedia’ is not really valid, any more then saying ‘it’s wiki, so it must be true’.

So, i guess after I’ve looked over things briefly, I’d say the evidence for eating omega-3 heavy fish is pretty solid, and supplements probably won’t hurt at least (as long as you stay to recommended doses, naturally).

If you’re wondering, the specifics results of those two were:

”Omega-3 supplementation was not significantly associated with all-cause mortality, cardiac death, sudden death, MI, or stroke. The observed effect was not associated with study-specific or population-specific characteristics, and the majority of the large studies in the field agree with the results of our work.”

And

”Our meta-analysis showed insufficient evidence of a secondary preventive effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplements against overall cardiovascular events. Likewise, we found no beneficial effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplements on other cardiovascular events, such as sudden cardiac death, myocardial infarction (fatal or nonfatal), angina and unstable angina, congestive heart failure, and transient ischemic attack and stroke, or on all-cause mortality.”

I believe the beneficial effects of Omega-3 fatty acids as best observed when life-long diets from the start of life seems to be associated with lower cardiovascular risk. Once high risk factors have created the cumulative harm, supplementatation may only slow the progression of existing disease.

You already have two answers up about. I believe the jury is still out on the matter but it couldn’t hurt. I wonder about the studies. One, what was the individuals history. I have a cousin who eats well and takes care of himself and has horrible cholesterol. Reason is his family history. His whole family suffers from it. So without a strict diet and exercise program to go with good eating his cholesterol jumps through the roof. So the pills may work but maybe not as fast.
Now if the cholesterol is because of poor eating and exercise habits than changing your diet and adding supplements will probably help out in the long run. It is better than doing nothing.

I take Omega 3 pills (not even religiously) and my good cholesterol is always about 60. I eat fish and love salmon but I eat that maybe once or twice a month. I cook with olive oil but that is maybe 2 times a week. My husband never has his good cholesterol high and he eats all those things more than I do but he doesn’t take the Omega 3 pills.

The cousin I spoke of is on my husbands side of the family. His family was raised on fish and cholesterol haunts more than half his family.
My side of the family. We eat ok, but even our crap eaters have don’t have such a bad history of cholesterol.
My point is it couldn’t hurt and genetics plays a larger role. Just don’t rely on it to be your only source for lowering your cholesterol.