Coronary heart disease (CHD) accounting for half of all cardiovascular deaths in the U.S. isn’t breaking news. The ability of EPA and DHA omega-3s to significantly statistically reduce the risk of CHD among high-risk populations is.

According to a comprehensive new meta-analysis published by the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, EPA and DHA omega-3s reduced CHD risk by 16 percent in patients with high triglycerides and 14 percent in those patients with high LDL cholesterol.

According to Dominik Alexander, PhD, MSPH, lead author and principal epidemiologist for EpidStat, the analysis, which compared results from prospective cohort studies to those from randomized control trials, provided a more comprehensive understanding of the types of interventions that work in real-life dietary scenarios.  

The study reviewed 18 randomized control trials and 16 prospective cohort studies with 93,000 and 732,000 subjects, respectively. It examined outcomes such as myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death and coronary death.

"There are important public health implications related to reducing the risk of coronary heart disease, and therefore we are encouraged by the results of this comprehensive analysis," said Harry Rice, vice president of regulatory and scientific affairs for the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED), which funded the study. "It's also important that the observed risk reductions were even stronger in patient populations with elevated triglycerides and LDL cholesterol levels, two risk factors that affect more than one quarter of the American population."

Results confirm that increasing omega-3s is a healthy lifestyle intervention that can contribute to reductions in CHD risk.

“Increasing omega-3 intakes is basically just improving the quality of one's diet slightly, like reducing the amount of sodium or increasing your dietary fiber,” said Adam Ismail, executive director of GOED. “It is a simple, inexpensive and achievable change that most consumers need to make to optimize their health."