Can deep-sea fish oil replace statins to lower blood lipids?

Can deep-sea fish oil replace statins to lower blood lipids? Cardiovascular experts refute rumors: absolutely not. 

Can’t deep-sea fish oil also lower blood fat? Why can’t it replace statins?

Let’s see a case: 

A 55-year-old patient was diagnosed with coronary heart disease 3 years ago. After long-term regular medical treatment, his condition has been stable.

However, half a year ago, a friend said that the side effects of taking medicine are too great, especially lipid-lowering drugs like statins, which can damage the liver, muscles, and increase blood sugar. You can avoid eating as much as possible. If you want to lower blood lipids, just eat fish oil. Imported deep-sea fish oil is particularly effective and can lower blood lipids without side effects.

So he stopped the statin and started taking fish oil, and he asked a friend to buy it for him from abroad. As a result, myocardial infarction occurred last night. We believe that the reason for his myocardial infarction is directly related to the discontinuation of statins.

Can’t deep-sea fish oil also lower blood fat? Why can’t it replace statins?

1. What is deep-sea fish oil?

Simply put, fish oil is the intake of EPA and DHA from fish, mainly marine fish oil. EPA and DHA are both unsaturated fatty acids (Omega-3), and their chemical names are eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 22 Carbon hexanoic acid (DHA). Theoretically, the EPA in fish oil can help high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) remove excess fat on the blood vessel wall, so fish oil can lower blood lipids.

However, it is currently recognized. For example, the US FDA recognizes fish oil containing 465 mg of EPA and 375 mg of DHA, which can lower triglycerides. In other words, fish oil can only reduce blood lipids such as triglycerides.

2. What can statins do?

Statins are a regular drug and a large class of drugs. Currently commonly used statins include atorvastatin, rosuvastatin, pitavastatin, simvastatin, fluvastatin, lovastatin and so on.

Statins have two effects:

1) Adjust blood lipids

It can lower the three bad blood lipids of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and triglycerides. At the same time, statins can increase the good blood lipid of high-density lipoprotein. Bad blood lipids can aggravate atherosclerosis, that is, increase vascular stenosis, increase vascular plaque, and lead to aggravation of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases; good blood lipids can delay and control the degree of atherosclerosis, prevent cardiovascular stenosis from aggravating, and prevent heart and brain Vascular disease.

2. Anti-inflammatory and stable plaque, preventing plaque rupture and thrombus formation

The second major effect of statins is anti-inflammatory and stabilizing plaques. The reason why plaques occur in our blood vessels is that, on the one hand, vascular wastes gradually accumulate, that is, there are too many bad blood lipids. The other main reason is inflammation; statins not only can It reduces scurvy and can resist inflammation. It can prevent the aggravation of atherosclerosis and prevent the aggravation of cardiovascular stenosis from two aspects.

Unstable plaque is easy to rupture, and thrombus is formed when the plaque ruptures. When thrombus is blocked in the cardiovascular system, it is myocardial infarction, and when it is blocked in the cerebral blood vessel, it is cerebral infarction. Statins can stabilize plaques, not only prevent plaques from becoming larger, but also shrink a small part of plaques. More importantly, statins can prevent plaques from rupturing, thereby preventing thrombosis, preventing myocardial infarction, and preventing cerebral infarction.

3. Why can’t fish oil replace statins?

1) Fish oil can only reduce triglycerides, not low-density lipoprotein

The recognized effect of fish oil is to lower triglycerides, but statins can lower cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein, and triglycerides. Fish oil can only lower triglycerides and has limited effects. Among high blood lipids, low-density lipoprotein is the most dangerous, which is the main cause of atherosclerosis, a vascular garbage maker, and a cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease. The culprit, the main purpose of our eating statins is to reduce low-density lipoprotein, and fish oil has no such effect at all, so fish oil cannot replace statins.

2) Fish oil does not have the effect of anti-inflammatory and stabilizing plaque

Not only can statins lower low-density lipoproteins, but they can also stabilize plaques against inflammation. This effect is currently only available with statins. Even other lipid-lowering drugs commonly used at present, such as fibrates, ezetimibe and other lipid-lowering drugs, have no anti-inflammatory effect to stabilize plaque. Statins can reduce low-density lipoprotein, anti-inflammatory, and stabilize plaques. They can control the aggravation of atherosclerosis, control the progression of cardiovascular disease, prevent the aggravation of cardiovascular stenosis, and prevent myocardial infarction. , Cerebral infarction.

These effects of statins are not possessed by other drugs, and even more so that fish oil is not possessed by this health product!

4. How to choose deep-sea fish oil and statins

If the triglycerides are only slightly elevated, most of the triglycerides can be restored to normal through diet and exercise first. Of course, you can also eat fish oil to control triglycerides, but you must monitor blood lipids. The most important thing is Controlling your diet is the root of triglyceride reduction.

If you have the conditions, you can also eat fish oil as a health product. It can indeed reduce triglycerides, but fish oil is relatively more expensive than medicine, and the first way to control triglycerides is to control your diet. In fact, I prefer to eat fish directly and kill two birds with one stone. (Scientific rumors first published)

However, if it is a clear coronary heart disease, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, cerebral infarction, heart stent surgery, heart bypass surgery, etc. cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, only long-term use of statins under the guidance of a doctor can stabilize the condition and effectively prevent it. Cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are aggravated to prevent myocardial infarction and cerebral infarction.

In short, deep-sea fish oil cannot replace statins!

(source:internet, reference only)

Disclaimer of medicaltrend.org