Dr. Alvaro Alonso, who is a professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health who was not even involved in this study, made very positive comments about the findings;
“These are meaningful reductions in risk,” according to Health News.
What this reduction translates to in reality for people is that a 30 percent reduction would mean that instead of 25 people in every 100 people developing a heart arrhythmia, instead only approximately 17 out of the 100 would develop the condition.
DHA Responsible For Positive Results
Dr. Mozaffarian’s research group also pointed out that the high DHA was responsible for the positive results, whilst the EPA and DPA tested for was not linked to reducing the risk.
Alonso believes that this study isn’t enough to prove eating fish is directly responsible for lowering the rate of atrial fibrillation and feels that the fatty acids in fish could work potentially by helping to stabilize the excitability of heart muscle cells, as DHA is highly concentrated in heart muscle cell membranes.
Whatever the reasons for fish oil lowering the risk for people developing an irregular heartbeat, the results should warrant further studies into the effects fish oils have to promote heart health.
As if left untreated, atrial fibrillation can eventually lead to stroke and heart failure when a person reaches their 80’s.