Fish Oil and Fat Levels

Taking fish oil supplements can lower your triglyceride level if it's too high. One drawback is that fish oil supplements might lower your overall triglycerides but raise your LDL or bad cholesterol.

There's a way around this problem. Combining fish oil with garlic supplements seems to lower your triglycerides and lower your LDL cholesterol. You need a lot of both for the treatment to work: about 5 to 15 grams of fish oil and 1 gram of garlic.

Large amounts of fish oil (over 5 grams a day) can cause your blood to become dangerously “thin” and make you bleed too easily. If you want to take big doses of fish oil, talk to your doctor first and get your blood checked often. A lot of studies show that fish oil lowers your cholesterol level. It does, but only if you also lower the amount of saturated fat you eat. If you take fish oil capsules but continue with a high fat diet, your cholesterol won't go down. In fact, it might even raise your LDL level which you definitely don't want.