Omega 3 Fatty acids from fish or fish-oil supplements, but not alpha-linolenic acid, benefit cardiovascular disease outcomes in primary and secondary-prevention studies
Sometimes I think we get to a point where additional studies seem to be a waste of resources and we ought to just accept a fact and move on (i.e. breast feeding is good for babies, cigarette smoking is bad for us…). We are definitely there with fish oil. And of course, adding in omega 3 and monounsaturated fatty acids into your diet as much as possible is going to be a good thing on almost every chronic disease because they have an anti-inflammatory action.
This review does not find the same benefits from ALA (found in higher levels in flax), but we have always known the human conversion from ALA to EPA is pretty low. But, in ALA’s defense, we have see positive effects of this fatty acid on other aspects of our health as well.