Do Omega-3 Fatty Acids Help Prevent High Blood Pressure?

A study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2016, held November 12-16 in New Orleans, Louisiana, found that maintaining a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids could help healthy young adults prevent the onset of high blood pressure.

A team led by Mark G. Filipovic, MD, a researcher at the University of Zurich and Cantonal Hospital of Baden in Switzerland, studied 2036 young, healthy adults, measuring the amount of omega-3 fatty acids in participants' blood. The investigators recorded patients' blood pressureand divided them into 4 groups, ranging from the quarter with the highest amount of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood to the quarter with the lowest amount.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
RELATED CONTENT
Acute Hypertension: Hypertensive Urgency and Hypertensive Emergency
Millions of Adults Off Hypertension Medication 
________________________________________________________________________________________

Overall, the researchers found that adults in the highest quarter had roughly 4 mm Hg lower systolic blood pressure and 2 mm Hg lower diastolic blood pressure compared with those with the lowest omega-3 fatty acids levels. Higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood generally equated to lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure, according to the authors, who said this finding suggests that encouraging young patients to adopt a diet high in omega-3 foods could be an approach to preventing high blood pressure.

"Our study found young and healthy individuals with high omega-3 indexes having significantly lower blood pressure," said Dr Filipovic, who stresses that this was a cross-sectional study and not an intervention trial.

"Nevertheless, our findings indicate that a long-term low-dose increase in dietary omega-3 (or perhaps through supplements) may lead to a blood-pressure reduction," he said. "Omega-3s have beneficial effects on many aspects of cardiovascular disease. They are mostly found in fresh fish, but also in some plant oils, [such as] linseed oil. We recommend a Mediterranean diet, which includes many products full of omega-3."

—Mark McGraw

Reference:

Filipovic MG, Aeschbacher S, Reiner MF, et al. The omega-3 index is inversely associated with blood pressure in a large cohort of young healthy adults. Poster presented at: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2016; November 13, 2016; New Orleans, LA. Poster S2066. https://aha.apprisor.org/epsAbstractAHA.cfm?id=1. Accessed November 18, 2016.