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  • Letter to the Editor
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Letter

Letter

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 58, page 1557 (2004)Cite this article

In 1989, Burr et al (1989) reported the first randomised clinical trial of 2 y to prevent reinfarction with fish oil (Diet and Reinfarction Trial: DART). They succeeded in reducing all-cause and coronary artery disease (CAD) mortality by 28 and 33%, respectively (crude data) by encouraging to eat two portions of fatty fish per week. However, a follow-up study of DART did not detect any substantial long-term survival benefit (Ness et al, 2002). Another recently published paper (Burr et al, 2003) reported that there is no benefit from eating fish for patients with stable angina and there may even be harmful effects of consuming fish oil capsules. These two reports seemed to some researchers a serious challenge to the idea that CAD patients and high-risk subjects should be prescribed fish or fish oil (Marckmann, 2003). In this letter, I would like to introduce another possible viewpoint of the report by Ness et al, setting aside the angina study (Burr et al, 2003).

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References

  • Burr ML, Fehily AM, Gilbert JF, Rogers S, Holliday RM, Sweetnam PM, Elwood PC & Deadman NM (1989): Effects of changes in fat, fish, and fibre intakes on death and myocardial reinfarction: diet and reinfarction trial (DART). Lancet 2, 757–761.

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  • Burr ML, Ashfield-Watt PAL, Dunstan FDJ, Fehily AM, Breay P, Ashton T, Zotos PC, Haboubi NAA & Elwood PC (2003): Lack of benefit of dietary advice to men with angina: results of a controlled trial. Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 57, 193–200.

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  • Marckmann P (2003): Fishing for heart protection. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 78, 1–2.

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  • Ness AR, Hughes J, Elwood PC, Whitley E, Smith GD & Burr ML (2002): The long-term effect of dietary advice in men with coronary disease: follow-up of the Diet and Reinfarction trial (DART). Eur. J. Clin. Nutr. 56, 512–518.

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  1. Division of Clinical Application, Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Natural Medicine, Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University, Toyama-shi, Toyama, 930-0194, Japan

    T Hamazaki

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  1. T Hamazaki
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Hamazaki, T. Letter. Eur J Clin Nutr 58, 1557 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602009

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