Now I got the time to get back to you. I’ll try to answer all the questions to the best of my ability as there’s so much context I’ll have to provide.
DHA is one ingredient of the omega3 supplements you’re taking, it’s a polyunsaturated fatty acid stemming from fish. The other compound in fish oil is EPA. It is speculated that these two lower cardiovascular risk through a variety of mechanisms. What’s important is that it seems DHA is converted to EPA in the body while this does only happen the other way round if you give extreme doses of EPA.
Now it gets complicated. I stated DHA lowers LDL. That was not right. I had it wrong in my memory. Here’s how it actually is:
DHA has been found to have a greater effect at reducing TGs compared with EPA and this may be why DHA has been more consistently found to increase LDL particle size. In one study, despite DHA increasing LDL-C by 8% (p=0.019), there was a highly significant increase in LDL particle size (+0.25 nm, p=0.002) and a significant increase in large HDL2 (p=0.004), effects which are considered beneficial.
From:
Here’s a good conclusion on the two:
The beneficial effects of eicosapentaenoic acid on blood lipids
- Reduces triglycerides.
- Increases very low density lipoprotein (LDL) size.
- May reduce small-dense LDL.
The beneficial effects of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on blood lipids
- Reduces trigyceride levels.
- Increases very low-density lipoprotein (LDL) size.
- Reduces small-dense LDL.
- Increases large buoyant LDL.
- Increases high-density lipoprotein 2.
Benefits of docosahexaenoic acid versus eicosapentaenoic acid
- Greater triglyceride lowering.
- Greater increase in large buoyant low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and greater reduction in small-dense LDL.
- Greater rise in high density lipoprotein.
So DHA lowers Triglycerides (positive), it increases LDL and it increases HDL but (!) it does that through increasing particle size.
So it has beneficial effects on cardiovascular parameters. Why I wrote that DHA monitgerapy would be good is because I once read a study where this was the finding, but that seems outdated. So I’ll correct myself. It is beneficial to supplement with a combination of both, but the question is, for what?
Here’s a review paper that looks at all primary outcomes (these are outcomes like myocardial infarction etc. after a specific amount of time).
It’s a very nice review. The problem is that results for primary outcomes are very mixed. For cardiovascular health like blood pressure, myocardial infarction, artherosclerosis there seems to be a small positive effect. But as I said, some studies found nothing. That is most likely the case because the studies weren’t good:
Potential explanations for the discrepant results include underpowered studies with small samples and low event rates, participants with high background fish/seafood intakes, suboptimal EPA and DHA dosage, supplementation duration, age at study enrollment, length of follow-up, and concurrent standard of care for CVD treatment.
Especially the “underpowered” is often the case. So the studies weren’t likely to find something in the first place.
Now to your situation.
We already established that blood pressure plays an important role for the kidneys because they
- Regulate it
- Get compromised by it through artherosclerosis
Here a paper on point 2:
Experimental studies of omega-3 in atherosclerosis:
Dietary supplementation with omega-3-rich fish oil in atherosclerosis-prone mice leads to increased incorporation of DHA and EPA in the aorta and the heart, whereas the AA content is decreased. Despite somewhat variable results, the main conclusion, which emerges from the majority of the studies, is a beneficial effect of dietary omega-3 fatty acids on murine atherosclerosis.
Then unreal pointed out that inflammatory markers play a role on which these supplements have an effect:
The generation of 5-LO metabolites from EPA can hence be anticipated to act as an endogenous inhibitor of inflammation in atherosclerosis
Both from:
The effect on the kidneys seems to positive as well:
In sum, omega-3 fatty acid supplementation is associated with a significantly reduced risk of end-stage renal disease and delays the progression of this disease.
From:
So you see, I had to roll back a few things and I tried to give you some insight, not because omega 3s are that interesting but because these papers give you a starting point for example for inflammation.
My take is this now: take the fish oil. It helps with inflammation and artherosclerosis which are both bad for the kidneys.