Omega-3 vetzuren veel effectiever dan defibrillators.*
Uit een Amerikaans onderzoek blijkt dat omega-3 vetzuren wel acht keer effectiever kunnen zijn dan defibrillators in het voorkomen van doodgaan door een hartstilstand. Omega-3 vetzuren zijn zelfs nog bijna twee keer effectiever dan een geïmplanteerde pacemaker. Uit eerdere studies was al duidelijk geworden dat zowel omega-3 vetzuren als defibrillators effectief kunnen zijn bij het voorkomen van doodgaan door een hartstilstand. In dit onderzoek hebben wetenschappers aan de hand van een uitgebreide computersimulatie naar de effecten van zowel omega-3 als defibrillators. Ondanks dat een defibrillator mensenlevens kan redden zijn omega-3 vetzuren, vooral voor mensen die al eerder hartproblemen gehad hebben, veel belangrijker.
Fish
Fatty Acids May Prevent More Sudden Deaths Than Defibrillators
Omega-3
fatty acids may prevent more sudden deaths than automated external
defibrillators in homes and public places or implanted defibrillators, according
to the results of a new study.
Researchers compared these preventive strategies in a computer-simulated
community of 100,000 people that resembled the population of Olmsted County,
Minn., in 2000. By raising omega-3 fatty acids levels among the cyber-Olmsted
citizens, Thomas Kottke, M.D., and colleagues were able to lower overall death
rates in the simulated population by 6.4 percent.
By contrast, automated external defibrillators or AEDs reduced death rates by
0.8 percent, and implanted defibrillators (ICDs) reduced deaths by 3.3 percent,
found the researchers led by Kottke, a cardiologist at the Heart Center, Regions
Hospital in St. Paul, Minn.
People can raise their omega-3 levels by eating fish or taking supplements.
The study, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine, showed that raising omega-3 fatty acids “would have about eight
times the impact of distributing AEDs and two times the impact of implanting
ICDs,” Kottke said.
Three-quarters of the reduction in deaths from increased omega-3 fatty acid
levels would come from raising omega-3s among the healthy portion of the
population, according to the researchers.
Although previous studies have shown that omega-3 fatty acids and defibrillators
can prevent sudden cardiac deaths, it is difficult to compare their
effectiveness across a population, the researchers say.
For instance, people who suffer from a cardiac condition can be prescribed a
series of different treatments and may follow their doctors' orders to different
degrees. To keep these types of variables under control, Kottke and colleagues
developed the computer simulation, which combined realistic data on patient
health and treatments with unrealistic conditions such as 100 percent patient
compliance with doctors' prescriptions.
“Despite the fact that AEDs do
save lives, they are unlikely to ever have a substantial impact on rates of
sudden death,” Kottke said, explaining that a whole chain of events - from
speedy application of the device to surviving in the hospital - has to occur to
save a person with an AED.
Other studies suggest that proper AED training may also make a difference in how
safely the devices would be used if they were as widely available as in the
simulation. A recent study by Mary Ann Peberdy, M.D., of the Virginia
Commonwealth University Health System and colleagues found very few harmful
incidents related to AED use by training lay volunteers.
“There were no inappropriate shocks and no failures to shock when indicated,”
Peberdy said of the study, which included more than a thousand public facilities
and residences in the United States and Canada. “AEDs have an exceptionally
high safety profile when used by trained lay responders,” she added.
Kottke and colleagues also note the comparative costs of omega-3 versus
defibrillator treatment. For example, a population similar to the simulation
could raise their omega-3 levels with daily supplements for $5.8 million a year.
“If however, a large proportion of the community ate fish high in omega-3
content rather than other meat, much of the cost would be offset,” Kottke said.
Equipping every household in a similar population with an AED would cost $201
million, the researchers estimate. However, their analysis shows that equipping
first responders such as paramedics and firefighters with AEDs for a comparable
population would be “relatively inexpensive,” costing only $195,000, Kottke
said.
The study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and
the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research.
Kottke, TE, et al. (2006)
Preventing sudden death with n-3 (omega-3) fatty acids and defibrillators. Am J
Prev Med 31(4), 2006.
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United States
(Sept.
2006) (Opm. De drie belangrijkste omega-3
vetzuren zijn ALA, EPA en DHA, meer over vetzuren
en vis)