Fish oil advised for heart health
People should eat two to four portions of oily fish a week
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Wednesday, 23, May 2007 09:29
Doctors should advise patients to eat oily fish or take a daily dose of omega 3 supplements to prevent heart attacks, guidelines have recommended today.
Advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) has been issued which takes into account developments since its last guidelines on heart health were set out in 2001.
Included in the 'lifestyle' recommendations are for patients to be encouraged to give up smoking, be physically active for 20 to 30 minutes a day and to consume a Mediterranean-style diet.
Research into omega 3 and heart health has suggested that death rates from heart attacks are lowered and cardiovascular function improved.
As such Nice recommends that patients consume at least two to four portions of oily fish per week, and if this is not possible, then at least 1g of omega 3 supplements could be taken daily.
Other foods to be encouraged as part of a more Mediterranean-style diet include bread, fruit, vegetables and fish, while meat should be eaten less.
Nice has also set out new advice around cardiac rehabilitation services and recommends that patients should be considered for a cardiological assessment to identify those that may benefit from heart surgery.
Dr Gill Leng, Nice implementation systems director, said that the advice will help to ensure a "coherent and consistent approach amongst clinicians of all disciplines and places of practice".
"Its overall aim is to provide the growing number of people who now survive a heart attack with the good quality systematic care that is essential to improving long term outcomes and quality of life," she added.
Commenting on the guidelines, Steve Shaffelburg, policy manager at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said that they are "welcome" but warned that "we have been here before".
"We have already seen many gvernment documents and clinical guidelines which stress the importance of cardiac rehabilitation for all eligible patients, but it still remains a 'Cinderella service', with 60 per cent of heart patients who need rehabilitation still not getting access," he said.
"The BHF hopes that these guidelines are not the latest in a long list of broken promises. We will work closely with Nice, health professionals and, most importantly, heart patients to ensure that they are implemented locally and cardiac rehabilitation meets the physical, psychological and social needs of all eligible patients."