A new Frost & Sullivan report put numbers on what omega-3 supplementation could mean for heart health and healthcare budgets in Europe and the UK, and the figures caught my attention.

By Dr. Paul Hrkal, ND · 5 min read

Why I looked at omega-3 healthcare cost savings

A study came across my desk recently that I was very interested in, because it looks at how omega-3 supplementation may affect not just health outcomes but also the cost of healthcare. I look at research studies all the time, but I don't often get to look at omega-3 healthcare cost savings: the impact on actual healthcare costs, which, as you're going to see, run into the billions of dollars.

This report, by Frost & Sullivan, looked specifically at the European Union and Britain. It examined supplementing with omega-3s and two other natural substances, phytosterols and beta-glucans, all three of which are targeted at reducing cardiovascular risk and markers such as cholesterol and triglycerides. What's so intriguing is that it goes into a lot of detail about how taking these supplements could benefit health and also save money by reducing healthcare costs. So let's dive in.

What cardiovascular disease costs Europe

Based on the report, the cost of cardiovascular disease for the European Union, including the UK, is $307 billion. These are 2025 figures; the report itself was published this year, in 2026. That cost covers:

• Unpaid care by families
• Rehab
• Healthcare resources
• The effect of illness and premature death on productivity

Who the report focused on

Out of everyone who lives in Europe, the report looked specifically at 34 million adults who were eligible: people over 55 with elevated triglycerides.

Why triglycerides?

Triglycerides are one of the markers on your lipid panel that go up in relation to cardiovascular risk. They're related to insulin resistance, they're part of the fat family, and they're connected to what people are eating. Elevated triglycerides are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

What 1 gram of EPA and DHA a day could do

Then the authors looked at all the data and asked: what if we gave this group of adults 1,000 milligrams of EPA and DHA, the two main components of omega-3s? What kind of savings could we find?

We know from the research that EPA and DHA can lower triglycerides, and we want to lower triglycerides. But we also want to see what that actually does for cardiovascular events. The report assumed a 5% relative risk reduction at this dose: a 5% reduced relative risk of a major adverse coronary event. A change in a risk factor doesn't guarantee fewer heart attacks, but it does reduce the risk.

Where the 5% comes from

The paper includes an excerpt of the major clinical trials that have been done on omega-3 intervention: thousands of people, in multiple countries, all looking at reducing some sort of cardiovascular risk, with the key results on the right. I won't go through each one here; I've done that in another video. Basically, the relative risk reduction is how much the chance of a particular major coronary event decreases. That event is what MACE stands for: major adverse cardiovascular event.

I want you to look at the most recent study in that table, a meta-regression analysis of 15 trials and almost 150,000 people combined, with doses between 400 milligrams and 4 grams per day. It found a 5% relative risk reduction of a major adverse coronary event at 1 gram per day. That's where the report gets its data.

Just so we're all on the same page: the data from this meta-analysis shows a decreased risk for cardiovascular events, heart attacks, coronary heart disease, fatal heart attacks and cardiovascular mortality. So there's a benefit to supplementing with omega-3s.

These results are shown on what's called a forest plot. If a result sits on the left side of the central line, it means it's having a protective effect, so it's reducing the risk.

Most people aren't getting enough omega-3

We know that not enough people are getting omega-3s. It has been well studied: 80% of people worldwide have the lowest levels of omega-3, below 4% omega-3 in their red blood cells. To measure this, a sample of your blood cells is taken to see what percentage is omega-3. The lower that percentage, the higher the risk of a lot of adverse health effects, potentially including cognitive dysfunction, where the big one is dementia, and also coronary heart disease and adverse coronary events.

A study published in 2021 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings looked at some of these benefits: a 35% reduced risk of fatal myocardial infarction, 10% for coronary heart disease, 9% for coronary heart disease mortality and a 5% reduction in cardiovascular risk. That 5% is the big one. It's the figure the Frost & Sullivan report is predicated on.

What happens at higher doses

One additional point is very important to understand. At 1 gram, the benefit was a 5.8% relative risk reduction in cardiovascular disease events. But as the dosage goes up, the studies showed that at 2 grams it rises to 11% for cardiovascular disease events and 17% for reducing the risk of a heart attack. At 3 and 4 grams, that percentage continues to go up.

“what this is saying is not that more is necessarily better with an unlimited runway.”

It means there could be even better benefits at higher levels for these two particular outcomes. For each additional gram of EPA and DHA, it seems there's a 9% relative risk reduction in myocardial infarction, which is a heart attack, and a 5.8% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease events.

What are the actual savings?

So let's go back to the report. Now that we've established that omega-3s have a beneficial effect on a number of key cardiovascular outcomes that shorten lives and increase the burden on the healthcare system, what are the actual savings?

The report showed that at the base level of 1 gram of EPA and DHA combined, there was a net benefit to society in 2025 of over $32 billion, from $36.6 billion in overall savings. Getting that benefit would cost $4.1 billion in supplements, if the government were to give everyone in the group I described the right dosage. The report also estimated 140,000 avoided events per year.

Even partial uptake adds up

It's a very comprehensive report and worth looking up, because it breaks this down. The $32.5 billion in societal benefit is at 1 gram per day. But if only 30% of that population took part, again, people over 55 with elevated triglycerides, who are at higher risk of cardiovascular events, you would still get $9.7 billion in societal benefit, for 30% of that $4.1 billion cost. The benefit still outweighs the cost by far, even with 30% use.

Benefits by dose, and a look ahead to 2035

I really love the graphics in this report. They show the avoidable major adverse cardiovascular events at 1 gram for 2025. At 2 grams, that goes up to 1.1 million avoidable events per year, and at 3 grams it keeps going up. The charts also include phytosterols and beta-glucans, but looking just at omega-3, even at 2 grams you're getting an increased benefit. The authors also projected this out over the next 10 years, and for 2035 they show even bigger gross healthcare savings.

A strong economic case, not just a health case

You can see there's a strong economic case here, not just a health case, and I think it's really strong, given how broad the cardiovascular research on omega-3s is.

It's a very interesting way of looking at it. As a doctor, I'm very focused on getting my patients better, and it's sometimes difficult to take the big 30,000-foot view. But when you zoom out, you can look at it from a governmental perspective, and I think there's a case for economic benefit on top of the health benefit.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the economic benefits of supplementation.

Key takeaways

• A 2026 Frost & Sullivan report put the 2025 cost of cardiovascular disease in the EU and UK at $307 billion.
• It modelled 1 gram a day of EPA and DHA for 34 million adults over 55 with elevated triglycerides.
• Based on a meta-regression of 15 trials, it assumed a 5% lower relative risk of major cardiovascular events at that dose.
• The estimated net benefit to society was over $32 billion, for $4.1 billion in supplements.
• Even at 30% uptake, the benefit ($9.7 billion) still far outweighed the cost.