Posts Tagged ‘fish oil and cholesterol’

Remember Roseanne Rosanna Danna from Saturday Night Live?  You can almost hear her saying, “What’s all this talk I keep hearing about fish oil & cholesterol?

If you would stop giving the fish oil, they wouldn’t have problems with cholesterol!” Seriously, though, this is a hot topic in today’s health forums, and it is something you should pay attention to, if you, like many, have had that dreaded cholesterol reading that was off the charts.

You don’t really want to live on oatmeal the rest of your life, do you? Here’s what you should know . . . . Fish oil is high in omega 3 fatty acids, a nutritional element that increases the “good cholesterol” in your body while lowering triglycerides. Triglycerides are the chemical form of fat in your body. You will always have triglycerides, but too many of them can result in increased “bad” cholesterol, and lead to heart disease. So, the bottom line is that fish oil fights the bad stuff, increases the good stuff, and doesn’t taste like oatmeal!

You may have heard about the research concerning fish oil and cholesterol reduction, as well as the benefit for lowering total blood triglyceride levels.  But, there are dozens, possibly hundreds of different brands out there.  Are they all the same?  No, they are not all the same, because the DHA content is not the same.

DHA or Docosahexaenoic Acid is the longest of the long-chain fatty acids.  Not all species of fatty fish provide the same amount of DHA. Research has proven that DHA lowers the level of small dense cholesterol particles.  On a blood triglycerides report, those small particles are referred to as LDL.  It is LDL that is associated with heart disease, particularly with atherosclerosis. Read the rest of this entry »