Cod-liver oil has been used as a household remedy for centuries and over the course of time scientific explanations for its properties have become available. The first extensive clinical tests of cod-liver oil seem to have been made by Samuel Kay, a physician at the Manchester Infirmary from 1752 to 1784. He gave doses of cod-liver oil to patients suffering from bone diseases and rheumatism and...

REPLY: We welcome the acknowledgment from members of the marine oil industry that further studies are necessary to establish the potential harm posed by consumption of oxidized fish oils during pregnancy. This will require dose-response studies in animals and the identification of the harmful compounds to accurately quantify the risk, which we had already planned to perform. However, a number o...

Compelling evidence exists for the cardioprotective benefits resulting from consumption of fatty acids from fish oils, EPA (20:5n-3) and DHA (22:6n-3). EPA and DHA alter membrane fluidity, interact with transcription factors such as PPAR and sterol regulatory element binding protein, and are substrates for enzymes including cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase and cytochrome P450. As a result, fish oil...

T here has been considerable interest recently in the potential of fish oils to prevent coronary artery disease. The article by Braden et al, "Dietary Fish Oil Accelerates the Response of Coronary Thrombolysis With Tissue Plasminogen Activator: Evidence for a Modest Platelet Inhibitory Effect In Vivo" in a recent issue of Circulation' is another in a series of rigorous studies on the effects of...

633 P eople in developed countries have been encouraged in recent years to increase their intakes of fatty fish by at least 2–3-fold. The goal is to consume adequate amounts of the long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for optimal health and prevention of major chronic diseases. Health agencies now recommend that the current a...

The present study reports results from two investigations to determine effects of a 6-week period of moderate n-3 fatty acid supplementation (2.7 g/d) on fasting and on postprandial triacylglycerol and metabolic hormone concentrations in response to standard test meals. In the first study postprandial responses were followed for 210 min after an early morning test meal challenge; in the second ...

Fish oils, rich in n-3 PUFA, give rise to an altered balance of eicosanoids involved in haemostatic regulation. Accordingly they lead to reduced platelet sensetivity to aggregating agents in vitro. Observational studies in man using cross-sectional studies, clinical studies and secondary prevention trials have shown that moderate intakes of fish oil reduces risk of death from coronary heart dis...

MEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS, found mainly in fish oils, are said to be beneficial in conditions from Alzheimer disease to Zellweger syndrome. Much of the evidence is circumstantial and indirect, so if and how to use them is still open to question. We do however have solid and compelling evidence that two longchain omega-3 fatty acids—eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)—help preven...

BACKGROUND Fish meal and fish oil are increasingly replaced by ingredients from terrestrial sources in the feeds for farmed salmonids due to expanding production and reduced availability of marine feed raw material. Fish oil that is rich in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is considered beneficial to human health in general and to prevent intestinal inflammation and carcinogenesis in particular....