High-Dose Fish Oil Improves a Heart-Risk Lipid Score Beyond Cholesterol
This clinical trial (called MoKaRi) looked at whether fish oil could improve a newer cardiovascular risk marker called CERT2, which is based on levels of ceramides and phosphatidylcholines — fat molecules in the blood that have been linked to heart disease risk independent of LDL cholesterol.
Adults with elevated LDL cholesterol who were not on cholesterol-lowering medication followed a structured heart-healthy meal plan for 20 weeks, either with or without an added 3 grams per day of EPA and DHA (fish oil). Researchers then tracked participants for another 20 weeks after the active intervention ended.
The group that took fish oil alongside the heart-healthy diet showed significantly larger improvements in their CERT2 score than the diet-only group, both at 10 and 20 weeks. This benefit weakened somewhat but was still noticeable 20 weeks after supplementation stopped. Only the fish oil group showed favorable shifts in the ratio of ceramides to phosphatidylcholines, the specific fats used to calculate the CERT2 score.
What this means for you
For adults working on heart health, this study suggests that adding fish oil to a heart-healthy diet may favorably shift certain blood fat patterns linked to cardiovascular risk, offering benefits that go beyond simply lowering LDL cholesterol — though CERT2 is still an emerging research tool, not a standard clinical test everyone gets.
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Journal of clinical lipidology · 2026-09-09 · DOI: 10.1016/j.jacl.2026.08.013
Read the original source ↗This summary is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always talk to your healthcare provider before making changes to your supplement routine.