Recent data indicates that while fish oil supplements may be beneficial to some patients with cardiovascular disease, they may have adverse effect on other cardiac patients.

"Fish oils can have complex and varied effects on the heart," says Jenkins, a U of T Professor of Medicine who runs the clinical nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael's Hospital. "These effects include blocking cardiac ion channels, reducing fibrosis in response to mechanical stress, decreasing blood coagulation, and possibly altering immune function."

The meta-analysis reveals that studies in different patient populations with different pathophysiologies and therapeutic regimens have all produced divergent results. However, more recent data suggests that particular caution should be exercised when analyzing data from certain subgroups, such as men with stable angina. The same may also be true for patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators who have a history of ventricular tachycardia and who are not taking antiarrhythmic medications.

The authors of the study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, that more studies are required before a blanket health claim can be made of fish oils on their heart health benefits.

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