Fish Oil Improves Blood Vessel Health in People with High Blood Pressure

by | Jul 1, 2008 | 2007, Blood Pressure, Cardiovascular Health, Circulatory Health, Stroke

Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. This study showcases the ability of fish oil to help improve blood vessel health and potentially help maintain healthy blood pressure levels.

As a worldwide epidemic (1) and the third-leading cause of disability in the U.S. (2) because of its role in precipitating heart disease (3) and kidney damage (4), high blood pressure affects an estimated 65 million Americans aged 20 years and older and increased by nearly 27% from 1992 to 2002, killing nearly 50,000 Americans in 2002 (5). It is also a significant contributor to metabolic syndrome (6), which is a cluster of risk factors for atherosclerosis, and type 2 diabetes, which affects an estimated 47 million Americans (7) and cost an estimated $50 billion to our healthcare in 2003 (8).

Increased artery stiffness is believed to be “an important predictor” of cardiovascular disease (9) and is accelerated by high blood pressure (10). While soy foods (11), soy nuts (12) and fiber (13) help maintain healthy blood pressure and supplements like pycnogenol (14) and beta glucan (15) can help deal with manifestations of high blood pressure, they’re role in decreasing artery stiffness has not been studied.

Now a new study (16) has built upon previous research (17, 18) and showcases the ability of fish oil to help improve blood vessel health and potentially help maintain healthy blood pressure levels.

In the study, 52 overweight patients with HBP were given either 3 grams per day of fish oil or placebo for 8 weeks. Patients had blood drawn every 2 weeks which measured for blood lipids, a hunger hormone called leptin, a measure of blood thickness called sVCAM-1, insulin, glucose and fatty acids. For artery stiffness a machine used in previous research (18) and measured blood pressure every 2 weeks through the end of the study.

While the researchers found no significant changes in the blood measurements between the fish oil and placebo group, they found that artery stiffness “improved greatly” in the fish oil group compared to the placebo group. Specifically, artery stiffness decreased by 21%. No changes in blood pressure were seen between the 2 groups.

When looking to explain fish oil’s significant effect on artery stiffness, the researcher suggested that fish oil may have changed the physical structure of the arteries in areas such as the elastic fibers, possibly increasing collagen in the arteries as well as positively affecting calcium deposits.

Although no benefits on blood pressure or blood measurements were seen, the researchers concluded that “Fish oil supplementation certainly would improve… arterial elasticity…in overweight hypertensive patients.”

Source: Wang, S., A. Q. Ma, S. W. Song, Q. H. Quan, X. F. Zhao, and X. H. Zheng. “Fish oil supplementation improves large arterial elasticity in overweight hypertensive patients.” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 62, no. 12 (2008): 1426-1431.

© 2008 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved

Posted July 1, 2008.

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