[Should I also eat fish oils? A critical assessment of the use of fish oils in the prevention of ischemic heart disease].

The effect of a daily dietary supplement of 6 g fish oil (3.4 g eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid) on body weight, blood pressure, bleeding time and blood lipids was assessed in an open trial. The fish oil was taken for four weeks by nine 30-55 year-old individuals. An age- and sex-matched control group took equivalent amounts of safflower oil, which has an overall fatty acid composition similar to the tested fish oil. The fish oil supplement caused significant changes in body weight (median: +0.9 kg), systolic blood pressure (-10 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (-5 mmHg), and high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentration (+0.21 mmol/l), whereas serum triglycerides decreased insignificantly (-0.25 mmol/l). Low density lipoprotein (LDL) concentration were not affected. We observed no changes in the control group. In the discussion, it is underlined that fish oil supplementation may affect some risk markers of ischemic heart disease favourably. However, other important risk markers, including LDL cholesterol, are unaffected or unfavourably affected by fish oils. A more uni-directional reduction in risk can be attained by a change in dietary habits, which should be preferable to a fish oil supplement in the general population. Individuals who show critically low HDL/total cholesterol ratios, who are hypertriglyceridemic, or are mildly hypertensive may, however, benefit from a fish oil supplement of the amount tested here.