Fish oil may counteract genetic leaning toward high cholesterol

New research from the department of genetics attends to the complex relationship between diet, cholesterol, and disease. While fish oil has long been associated with heart health benefits for some people, the question of whether it's right for everyone with high LDL cholesterol continue to be a point of contention – and the focus of new findings:

And a new study from the University of Georgia might encourage a new population to start looking into the supplements as well: people with a genetic predisposition to high cholesterol.

Using genetic data from more than 441,000 participants, the researchers calculated a score to predict the genetic likelihood of high levels of total cholesterol, high LDL cholesterol (which is often referred to as “bad” cholesterol), triglycerides and HDL cholesterol (or “good” cholesterol).

“Recent advances in genetic studies have allowed us to predict someone’s genetic risk of high cholesterol,” said Yitang Sun, a recent doctoral graduate from UGA’s Department of Genetics. “But the current prediction has room for improvement because it does not consider individual differences in lifestyles, such as taking fish oil supplements.”

The researchers found that participants who reported taking fish oil supplements have lower blood lipid levels than predicted, especially for total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

“Our study shows that considering lifestyles will improve genetic prediction,” said Kaixiong Ye, corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor of genetics in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. “Our findings also support that fish oil supplements may counteract the genetic predisposition to high cholesterol.”

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Image: Photo of fish oil supplements. (Getty Images)