Fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids have many benefits. They can help reduce blood pressure, blood clothing, suppress inflammation, and relieve depression. A number of credible scientific studies have shown that fish oil can reduce triglyceride levels.

Some studies suggest that fish oil benefits could extend to protection against the development of heart disease and attention deficit disorder.

With all these benefits, it seems logical to deduce, that the doctors in the United States are tripping over themselves to prescribe fish oil. In fact they do – - in Europe.

According to the New York Times:

Every patient in the cardiac care unit at the San Filippo Neri Hospital who survives a heart attack goes home with a prescription for purified fish oil, or omega-3 fatty acids.

“It is clearly recommended in international guidelines,” said Dr. Massimo Santini, the hospital’s chief of cardiology, who added that it would be considered tantamount to malpractice in Italy to omit the drug.

This so-called drug is known as Omacor. In essence, it is pharmaceutical grade fish oil, which anyone can buy in the United States. Since 2004, Omacor was approved in virtually all European countries, but not in the United States.

There is got to be a good reason for this, right? After all, FDA would never approve anything with terrible side effects. And they would never allow other drugs, with even worst side effect, to be used “off label“.

I guess Omacor did not pass stringent FDA requirements that are designed to protect American public from potentially dangerous and ineffective drugs. In reality, Omacor did show impressive results in trials. It did not pass because of a technicality.

In my opinion, the real issue here, is the fact that pharmaceutical companies have little interest in getting fish oil approved by FDA. Why? According to the same article:

[...] in the United States, heart attack victims[...]are routinely offered more expensive and invasive treatments, like pills to lower cholesterol or implantable defibrillators.

In other words, they will lose a very lucrative business. You can buy 2 to 3 months supply of pharmaceutical grade fish oil for about $30, in comparison, the lowest dosage of Lipitor (10mg, 90 tablets) is over $200.

As for implantable defibrillators, there are different kinds, but the cheapest one is around $10,000. Add to that the cost of the procedure itself, and the total price seems to be [shudder] around fifty thousand dollars.