LDL Cholesterol is Affected by Fish Oil

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Although it is not critical to understand all the specifics of the dynamics between fish oil and LDL cholesterol on your health, a little basic knowledge should be helpful to convince you to get regular amounts of fish oil. First you must understand that cholesterol is usually divided into two major classes. What is known as HDL cholesterol is generally good in that it is able to move easily to the liver to be processed out of the body. Contrarily, LDL cholestrol is considerably less dense than HDL cholesterol and will cling to the walls of the blood vessels narrowing them with plaque. Since today on average some seventy-five to eighty percent of the cholesterol in the human body is LDL cholesterol which contributes to plaque formation which can contribute significantly to the development of heart disease as well as atherosclerosis anything which can do to reduce those percentages should be advantages to ones health.

Synthetic Drugs or Fish Oil?

Keeping the LDL cholesterol low should be your major concern to diminish your heart disease risk. Generally speaking if the LDL cholesterol level is over 100 mg/dl it is wise to begin researching a way to reduce that level. Of course synthetic drugs made for this purpose may accomplish this but along with these medicines come the potential for side effects that could possible not be better than not taking the drugs at all. Of course determining whether these drugs are appropriate for you should happen only with the advice of your doctor.

However, these synthetic drugs have alternatives. Testing and history have shown that LDL cholesterol interacts with fish oil in such a way that it is facilitated in acting like HDL to assist the moving of excess cholesterol back to the liver for processing. Fish oil is high in Omega 3 fatty acids. The ability of LDL cholesterol developing plaque in the blood stream is reduced by these three fatty acids, DHA, EPA and ALA, capability to bond with it. The net result is that the combination of the fish oil and LDL cholesterol achieves the same results as the synthetic drugs but without the potentially harmful side effects.

Best Source of Fish Oil

The book seems to still be open on what the best source is for the Omega 3 fatty acids. Some say that you should eat tuna, salmon or other fish high in Omega 3 at least three times a week. Others feel that a quality pill processed by a reputable distributor is a viable alternative. The contoversy will probably go on for sometime but it is not about fish oil and LDL cholesterol but rather about how to take the fish oil.

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