Elsevier

The Journal of Pediatrics

Volume 157, Issue 3, September 2010, Pages 395-400.e1
The Journal of Pediatrics

Original Article
Effects of Fish Oil Supplementation on Markers of the Metabolic Syndrome

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.04.001Get rights and content

Objective

To investigate whether fish oil affects cardiovascular risk factors during the adolescent growth spurt.

Study design

A total of 78 boys age 13-15 years with a mean body fat percentage of 30% ± 9% were randomly assigned to consume fish oil (providing 1.5 g of n-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid/day) or vegetable oil (control) for 16 weeks. The oils were included in bread.

Results

After the intervention, the red blood cell (RBC) content of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were 1.2% ± 0.5% and 6.7% ± 1.6%, respectively, in the those receiving fish oil (FO group), compared with 0.6% ± 0.3% and 4.1% ± 0.9% in the control group. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 3.8 ± 1.4 mm Hg lower (P < .006) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 2.6 ± 1.1 mm Hg lower (P < .01) in the FO group compared with the control group. Plasma triacylglycerol (TAG) concentration and insulin sensitivity were unaffected by either of the treatments. Plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and non-HDL cholesterol were increased by 5% and 7%, respectively, in the FO group, and by 2% and 0% in the control group (P < .01-.02). The changes in RBC EPA content were inversely correlated with the changes in SBP and DBP and directly correlated with the increases in HDL cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol concentrations. No association was seen between RBC EPA and plasma TAG concentration or insulin sensitivity.

Conclusion

Fish oil improves BP in normotensive and normolipidemic slightly overweight adolescent boys.

Section snippets

Methods

The study protocol was approved by the Committee of Biomedical Research Ethics of Denmark (H-A-2007-0055) and has been registered in the Clinical Trials database (clinicaltrials.gov; no. NCT00929552). Subjects were recruited via addresses obtained from the Danish Civilian Person Register. A total of 3652 letters of invitation were sent out to boys age 13-15 years living near the university. The inclusion criterion was a self- reported body mass above the 90th percentile, calculated based on

Results

Of the 87 teenage boys who entered the study, 78 completed the intervention. Reasons for withdrawal included dislike of the taste of the bread and insufficient structure in meal habits, which prevented the subjects from eating the daily ration of bread. When asked after study completion, 60% of the boys were able to guess which diet they had received. Compliance was estimated by asking the boys how much of the bread they had managed to eat during the intervention, which was ˜90% (range,

Discussion

Our study showed that the fish oil treatment in slightly overweight teenage boys reduced both SBP and DBP measured at the wrist. The insignificance difference between wrist and upper arm measurements might be explained by the greater level of relaxation required for the wrist measurements. This could result in increased quality of the wrist assessment, as reflected in a smaller variation (especially in SBP) compared with that obtained from the oscillometric measurements. Most of the boys had

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      In their clinical trial, Ahmadi et al. (2014) [41] found a significant increase (p = 0.007) in HDL-c in the omega-3 group (baseline: mean 39.16 mg/dL ± 10.67; final: mean 44.06 mg/dL ± 5.94) compared to the placebo group (baseline: mean 33.21 mg/dL ± 3.39; final: mean 37.17 mg/dL ± 3.93) and with the group that received vitamin E (baseline: mean 38.00 mg/dL ± 8.55; final: mean 40.80 mg/dL ± 7.63). In turn, Pedersen et al. (2010) [38] verified in their clinical trial that HDL-c increased by 0.06 mg/dL ± 0.03 (p = 0.01) in the fish oil group compared to the control group. Conversely, a clinical trial [29] found a significant increase (p < 0.01) in HDL-c in the placebo group (soybean oil) of 16.2 mg/dL ± 27.5 mg/dL compared to the omega-3 group, which presented an increase of 3.8 mg/dL ± 22.32 mg/dL.

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    Supported by the Danish Council for Strategic Research. The intervention bread was sponsored by Kohberg A/S, which had no influence on the interpretation of the data or the writing of this article. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

    Clinical Trials database registration (clinicaltrials.gov): NCT00929552.

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