The unique ingredient reducing the risk of heart attacks

Heart attacks claim 21 Australian lives every day and sent 60,000 people to hospital last year.

Now a new US study has found that a component of fish oil can drastically reduce the risk.

For those with a family history of cardiovascular disease, lowering the risk of heart attack and stroke is vital.

Heart patient Philip Smith said “anything that can reduce those risks would be amazing.”

A breakthrough has come in the form of a prescription medication derived from fish.

Called Vascepa, it contains a purified form of Omega 3 fatty acid – as opposed to normal fish oil supplements which have much lower concentrations.

“I think it’s the biggest development in cardiovascular prevention since statins were introduced,” Harvard Medical School’s Dr Deepak Bhatt said.

The Vascepa trial involved more than 8000 high-risk patients, who had already suffered a cardiovascular event and were taking statins to lower cholesterol.

It showed those taking Vascepa had 25 per cent lower risk of heart attack and stroke, while the risk of death dropped 20 per cent.

“One of the ways this medication may have worked is to reduce a fatty substance in the blood called triglycerides,” The Heart Foundation’s Cia Connell said.

“The full mechanism of how this drug worked is unknown at the moment.”

Vascepa has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and is already being prescribed for heart attack and stroke patients there.

Australian approval is expected within two to three years.

“It gives me hope that in the future if I can’t prevent a heart attack I might be able to prevent a second one,” Mr Smith said.