Journal Name:
Amer. J. Clin. Nutr.
Article Title:
Alpha-linolenic acid and fish oil n3 fatty acids and cardiovascular disease risk. Letter to the editor.
Date Written:
2007
Volume:
85
Number:
0
Page:
920
Author(s):
Vos, E.; Jenkins, D.J.A.; Cunnane, S.C.
Article:
In this letter to the editor, Vos and co-workers make several arguments for the beneficial role that alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) can have in human health. First, through support from several papers, they support the cardiovascular merits of ALA and effectively argue that trials designed to examine the cardiovascular effects of ALA have not been done to everyone’s satisfaction. First, the MRFIT study showed that, as a percentage of energy intake and in g/d, ALA was significantly negatively associated with cardiovascular, cancer, and all-cause mortality. Second, acute, short-term experiments showed that ALA has antiarrhythmic effects and reduces platelet aggregation, and both effects could plausibly contribute significantly toward reduction of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. Third, for all its possible confounders, the Lyon study was a randomized controlled secondary prevention trial that, supported by a blood fatty acid analysis, clearly implicated ALA in risk reduction of cardiovascular disease and death. Hence, these diverse examples are consistent with cardiovascular benefits of ALA. They can in no way substitute for placebo-controlled RCTs, but they show that grounds exist for well-controlled trials to assess whether ALA reduces the risk of cardiovascular death. Vos et al. argue that a systematic review examining cardiovascular effects of ALA is necessary and that additional ALA trials are overdue considering the strength of the existing evidence for its beneficial effects in CVD and the seriousness of the disease.
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