Research

Hormonal

EPA and DHA suppress inflammatory gene expression by inhibiting the transcription factor NF-kB and activating PPARs, thereby reducing the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-6 and TNF-alpha.

This mechanism explains why fish oil works: it turns down the 'volume' of inflammatory signals in your cells by blocking specific genetic switches (NF-kB). This is why consistent intake matters more than a single dose.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
EPA has been shown to block the activity of NFkB through decreased degradation of the inhibitory subunit of NFkB, IkB... PPARs have been shown to inhibit NFkB and therefore play an important role in several inflammatory processes.
Rebecca Wall et al. · Nutrition Reviews · 2010

Why this rating

Supported by multiple in vitro and animal studies cited in the review.

Source

Fatty acids from fish: the anti-inflammatory potential of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids

Rebecca Wall et al. · Nutrition Reviews · 2010

DOI 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2010.00287.x

narrative_reviewCited 1,100×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →