NOW Foods - Fish Oil Improves Blood Vessel Health in People with High Blood Pressure

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

By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, September 26, 2007, abstracted from “Fish oil supplementation improves large arterial elasticity in overweight hypertensive patients” printed online in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

As a worldwide epidemic¹ and the third-leading cause of disability in the U.S.² because of its role in precipitating heart disease³ 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 Americans⁷ and cost an estimated $50 billion to our healthcare in 2003.⁸

Increased artery stiffness is believed to be “an important predictor” of cardiovascular disease⁹ and is accelerated by high blood pressure.¹⁰ While soy foods,¹¹soy nuts¹² and fiber¹³ help maintain healthy blood pressure and supplements like pycnogenol¹⁴ and beta glucan¹⁵ can help deal with manifestations of high blood pressure, they’re role in decreasing artery stiffness has not been studied.

Now a new study¹⁶ has built upon previous research^{(17, 18)} and showcases the ability of fish oil to help improve blood vessel and 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 research¹⁸ 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.”

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

Reference:

¹ Casas JP. Homocysteine and stroke: evidence on a causal link from mendelian randomization. Lancet 2005; 365(9455): 224-232

² M Ezzati, AD Lopez, A Rodgers, S Vander Hoorn and CJ. Murray, Selected major risk factors and global and regional burden of disease. Lancet 360 (2002), pp. 1347–1360

³ J He and PK. Whelton, Epidemiology and prevention of hypertension. Med Clin North Am 81 (1997), pp. 1077–1097

⁴ PK. Whelton, Epidemiology of hypertension. Lancet 344 (1994), pp. 101–106

⁵ “High Blood Pressure Statistics” posted on the American Heart Association website

⁶ He K. Magnesium Intake and Incidence of Metabolic Syndrome Among Young Adults. Circulation 2006; 113(13): 1675-1682

⁷ Taegtmeyer H (2003). Epidemic obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Circulation 108, 1541–1545.

⁸ NCQA State of Health Care Quality Report

⁹ Laurent S, Boutouyrie P, Asmar R, Gautier I, Laloux B, Guize L et al. (2001a). Aortic stiffness is an independent predictor of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in hypertensive patients. Hypertension 37, 1236–1241.

¹⁰ Najjar SS, Scuteri A, Lakatta EG (2005). Arterial aging: is it an immutable cardiovascular risk factor? Hypertension 46, 454–462.

¹¹ Gong Yang. Longitudinal study of soy food intake and blood pressure among middle-aged and elderly Chinese women Am J Clin Nutr 2005 81: 1012-1017

¹² Welty FK. Effect of Soy Nuts on Blood Pressure and Lipid Levels in Hypertensive, Prehypertensive, and Normotensive Postmenopausal Women. Arch Int Med 2007; 167(10): 1060-1067

¹³ Whelton, SP. Effect of dietary fiber intake on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized, controlled clinical trials. J Hypertens. 2005 Mar;23(3):475-81

¹⁴ Fano F. Control of Edema in Hypertensive Subjects Treated With Calcium Antagonist (Nifedipine) or Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors With Pycnogenol Clin Appl Thromb Hemost 2006 12: 440-

¹⁵ Maki KC. Effects of consuming foods containing oat beta-glucan on blood pressure, carbohydrate metabolism and biomarkers of oxidative stress in men and women with elevated blood pressure. Eur J Clin Nutr advance online publication, December 6, 2006; doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602562

¹⁶ Wang S. Fish oil supplementation improves large arterial elasticity in overweight hypertensive patients. Eur J Clin Nutr advance online publication, September 5, 2007; doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602886

¹⁷ McVeigh GE, Brennan GM, Cohn JN, Finkelstein SM, Hayes RJ, Johnston GD (1994). Fish oil improves arterial compliance in non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Arterioscler Thromb 14, 1425–1429

¹⁸ Nestel PJ, Pomeroy SE, Sashara T, Yamashita T, Yu LL, Dart AM et al. (1997). Arterial compliance in obese subjects is improved with dietary plant n-3 fatty acid from flaxseed oil despite increased LDL oxidizability. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 17, 1163–1170

¹⁹ Duprez DA, De Buyzere ML, Rietzschel ER, Taes Y, Clement DL, Morgan D et al. (1998). Inverse relationship between aldosterone and large artery compliance in chronically treated heart failure patients. Eur Heart J 19, 1371–1376