Feb 17, 20222 min read

Something Smells Fishy Around Here!

Fish are good for you from a health perspective. Of course this implies that you are not allergic to it.

Some of the benefits which have been observed are as follows:

Lipids – Fish oil consumption can lower serum triglyceride concentrations by 25 to 30 percent, an effect within the range of efficacy of other triglyceride-lowering drugs. Little triglyceride lowering is seen with dietary doses or low-dose EPA and DHA (<1 g/day) supplementation, whereas higher doses (3 to 4 g/day) appreciably lower triglyceride levels.

Blood pressure and systemic vascular resistance – Fish oil consumption can lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), including reductions in individuals with untreated hypertension.

Heart rate and heart rate variability - Fish oil appears to reduce heart rate (HR).

Atrial fibrillation – There is no significant effect of either low- or high-dose fish oil supplementation on prevention of recurrent atrial fibrillation. However, in patients with or at high risk of CVD, a higher risk of atrial fibrillation was observed in the treatment groups.

Cardiac function – Some evidence suggests that fish oil may have effects on various aspects of cardiac function.

Endothelial function – Several, though not all, randomized trials in humans have reported that fish oil consumption lowers circulating markers of endothelial dysfunction,.

Bleeding/platelet function – Clinically apparent effects of fish oil on bleeding are not evident at commonly used doses of up to 4 g/day. High doses of EPA (3 to 15 g/day) increase bleeding time, but this has not been associated with higher rates of clinical bleeding.

Inflammation – Fish oil is postulated to have potential antiinflammatory effects due to the role of EPA and DHA as precursors to specific eicosanoids and other inflammatory mediators.

Glucose and insulin – Although fish oil improves markers of the metabolic syndrome, these biomarker improvements have not been proven to produce significant clinical benefits in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Adiposity and body composition – Fish oil may alter body weight and body composition.

So how are we going to get the benefits?

Let's go Fishing!