Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Their Lipid Effects
Saturday, October 15 at 3:35pm
Omega-3 fatty acids effectively lower triglycerides, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, lipoprotein remnants, and apolipoprotein C-III.
Harold Edward Bays, MD, FTOS, FACC, FACE, FNLA, will discuss these benefits and more in his session on Saturday “Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Their Lipid Effects.”
This talk will describe the chemistry and biology of omega-3 fatty acids, as well as their medicinal and lipid benefits, said Dr Bays, medical director and president of Louisville Metabolic and Atherosclerosis Research Center in Louisville, KY. In addition, the session will describe the practical aspects of omega-3 fatty acid therapeutic interventions, with a special emphasis on the challenges with omega-3 fatty acid supplements.
Although clinicians have used triglyceride-lowering drug therapy for decades, no clinical trial as yet reported results supporting that triglyceride-lowering drug therapy administered to patients specifically enrolled with hypertriglyceridemia reduced the risk of cardiovascular events, he said. “The good news is that two such trials are ongoing with different formulations of omega-3 fatty acids.”
As for another key point Dr Bays plans to cover, he said in order for clinicians to best understand the health implications of the mixed dyslipidemia frequently seen in overweight or obese patients, they must appreciate how obesity is a disease.
“Just in the past decades, it is now better understood that an increase in fat cell size, or increase in fat as an organ (adipose tissue), can result in cellular and organ dysfunction, resulting in ‘sick fat’ or adiposopathy,” he said. “It is this very adiposopathy that leads to the adiposopathic mixed dyslipidemia so often found in clinical practice, which may be improved with weight loss among patients with overweight or obesity. Alternatively, other therapeutic approaches for many patients with mixed dyslipidemia would be the administration of agents such as omega-3 fatty acids.”
—Mike Bederka