Omega-3 fatty acids: how to lower blood pressure
All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichOmega-3 fatty acids are particularly healthy for the heart and circulation. One important effect: you lower blood pressure. An international group of researchers has now found out how this works.
Dilated arteries
The scientists of two research teams from Jena and one from Pennsylvania discovered that docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which occurs mainly in fatty fish species, docks at special points on the surface of muscle cells in the arterial wall.
There they open so-called SLO1 potassium channels, which causes potassium to flow out of the cell. The result: the muscle cell relaxes. "This effect should widen the blood vessels and thus lead to a drop in blood pressure," was the hypothesis of Prof. Michael Bauer, who headed a research group in Jena.
Mice under anesthesia
In fact, Bauer's assumption was confirmed in experiments with anesthetized mice. The anesthesia was important for the experiment so that the blood pressure values in the animals were not falsified by physical activity.
In one group of animals the ion channels in the cell membrane were normal, in the other they were absent due to a change in the genetic information. This group of animals served the researchers as a control.
DHA was administered to both experimental groups. As a result, the blood pressure in the normal mice fell. As expected, the DHA had no effect on the genetically modified mice.
Vegetable fatty acids have a weaker effect
The researchers also observed that the antihypertensive effect of omega-3 fatty acids from fish was much stronger than that of those found in plants. The explanation: SLO1 ion channels act like specific receptors for DHA.
According to the lock and key principle, the long DHA molecules lock into place particularly well. Vegetable fatty acids are much shorter and do not fit well into the binding sites of the channels. As a result, their effect is far less.
Fish oil capsules can be harmful
The study also uncovered another result that surprised the researchers: omega-3 fatty acid capsules for food supplements, which instead of DHA, a compound related to DHA, contained reduced the antihypertensive effect of the omega-3 fatty acids.
"Consuming non-natural omega-3 fatty acids can even be counterproductive," confirms Bauer. This is particularly important when feeding intensive care patients with specially enriched omega-3 products. (kb)
Source: "T. Hoshi, M. Bauer et al .: Omega-3 fatty acids lower blood pressure by directly activating large-conductance Ca2 + -dependent K + channels ”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 04.03.2013
