Fish Oil HDL - Why Fish Oil Helps HDL and Protects Your Heart

If you have concerns about cholesterol and the effect it can have on your heart then the omega 3's found in fish oil could be what you are looking for. Not only can fish oil help in balancing cholesterol levels but it has other properties which help protect your heart too, in fact it is so potent that virtually every health organization around the world recommends eating oily fish as part of your diet to protect your heart. So, first let us look at fish oil HDL boosting to help our heart.

Cholesterol problems occur when you have too much LDL and not enough HDL in your blood, and if you have raised triglycerides too then this can lead to heart disease. The job of your HDL is to take the LDL back to the liver to be reprocessed and also to mop up triglycerides. There is a problem though when triglycerides are too high because this uses up more HDL and therefore LDL is left at a higher level than it should be, however this is where the fish oil comes into play because it actually helps to keep triglyceride levels down which therefore increases HDL levels.

In addition to that one of the side effects of LDL cholesterol is plaque build up on the artery walls, as well as fish oil HDL boosting properties, it also removes this plaque too, potentially removing the threat of clots and blocked arteries. Of course these clots can not only cause heart attacks, but they can also lead to strokes as well, so it is important we do everything we can to minimize the risk. We are not done there though, there is one other way fish oil can help protect the heart.

Due to the diet that a lot of us have nowadays, we are consuming a lot more omega 6 than we should, which causes inflammation and our blood to thicken. One of the essential fats found in oily fish is EPA, and this particular fat helps to thin the blood and keep it moving freely around our body. As a side note the other fat found is DHA and this has been proven to also help reduce inflammation in the body.

The sad fact is that heart disease is still one of the biggest killers, second only to cancer and that is down to us not getting enough of these essential fats in our bodies. However as well as increasing HDL and protecting the heart, the omega 3 from oily fish has a lot more health benefits for you. We have already touched on it helping to fight inflammation but in addition to that it also helps nourish the brain, assist with digestive disorders and also possibly help the body fight off certain cancers. In fact it has now been recognized that omega 3 deficiency is the 6th most common form of preventable death in the USA.