Cod Capsules Cut Cardiac Complications🐟

“Lavender oil cured my mother’s uncle’s neighbour's dog’s friend’s cancer! I swear, Doc!”

Yeeep, sure thin,g Mrs Jones.

I know for a fact you’ve faced this kind of bogey medicine before, haven't you?

You probably just screamed internally, nodding along to fast-forward this unskippable cutscene. Or maybe you argued back. I don't judge.¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Suffering through impassioned speeches about apple cider vinegar, St John’s Wart (get that man some bazuka cream STAT) or homoeopathic rubbish is a depressing rite of passage.

But what if it’s not all snake oil? What if some of it is actually … fish oil?

…

Don’t look at me like that. It’s not total carp, I promise.

Hear me out. I am so for eel rn.

The aptly named ♓ PISCES ♓ trial published in this week set out to investigate if fish oil might actually be of real benefit in lowering cardiovascular risk amongst patients undergoing regular haemodialysis:

Fish oil went head-to-head with corn oil placebo in 1,228 adults on maintenance haemodialysis across Canada and Australia.

Groups? 610 team fish, 618 team corn.
Dosage? Four 1g capsules per day

Follow-up? Over 3.5 years.

“LET MINNOW WHAT THEY FOUND!” I hear you yelling at your screen.

Well, since you begged for it😏:

Serious cardiovascular events were 0.31 (fish oil) vs 0.61 (placebo) per 1,000 patient days (HR 0.57)

Plus fewer major events overall: 20.8% (fish oil ) vs 33.7% (placebo).

Forget Big Pharma, Big Fish is here to stay

But PISCES isn’t perfect. In fact, most Pisces I know are far from it … (all shade intended)

Haemodialysis patients only → results don’t generalise to CKD patients not on dialysis, peritoneal dialysis patients, or the general public

Relatively low statin use (<60%) → not a fully optimised modern cardiology population

Corn oil placebo isn’t biologically inert → may have its own metabolic effects

Still, it’s a cheap, simple intervention that meaningfully reduces catastrophic cardiovascular events in a high-risk patient population. Oil that in a day’s work.

So maybe Mrs Jones can hang onto her lavender oil for now. Just squeeze a bit of fish in there, too.

And remember, in a world of essential oils, snake oils, and crude oils, it’s time to THINK FISH.

Fin