Islamabad, JAN 08(Online): As cases of obesity and diabetes are on the rise, so are their complications. One complication that has recently been a point of focus for the American Heart Association (AHA) is high triglyceride levels.
Triglycerides are fats in the blood. Some are naturally produced by the liver, while others come from calories that the body doesn’t need to use immediately. The more calories a person takes in, the likelier they are to have a high triglyceride count.
Higher levels, calculated as above 200 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), can increase a person’s risk of having a stroke or heart attack by causing a narrowing of the arteries.
Estimates suggest that around a quarter of the adult population of the United States may have triglyceride levels above 150 mg/dl.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have currently only approved prescription omega-3 fatty acid medication to treat triglyceride levels that are extremely high, above 500 mg/dl.
But the authors of the current advisory found that a 4-gram daily dosage could reduce triglyceride levels of 200–499 mg/dl by between 20% and 30%. This would apply to the majority of people with high triglyceride levels.
The researchers also noted that the medication that contains both EPA and DHA did not increase levels of LDL cholesterol, the “bad” type, in people with triglyceride levels below 500 mg/dl.
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