Research

Hormonal

Supplementation with 4 g/day of purified docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) significantly lowers 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate in overweight, mildly hyperlipidemic men, whereas an equivalent dose of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) has no significant effect on these cardiovascular parameters.

If you are an overweight man with mildly high cholesterol looking to lower your blood pressure and heart rate, taking 4 grams of pure DHA daily for at least six weeks may help. Simply taking generic fish oil or EPA alone may not provide these specific blood pressure benefits, as this study showed EPA had no effect on blood pressure or heart rate in this population.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Only DHA reduced 24-hour and daytime (awake) ambulatory BP (P<0.05)... DHA also significantly reduced 24-hour, daytime, and nighttime (asleep) ambulatory HRs (P<0.001). EPA had no significant effect on ambulatory BP or HR.
Trevor A. Mori et al. · Hypertension · 1999

Why this rating

Double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial with parallel design, though limited to a specific male demographic (n=56 completed).

Source

Docosahexaenoic Acid but Not Eicosapentaenoic Acid Lowers Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Humans

Trevor A. Mori et al. · Hypertension · 1999

DOI 10.1161/01.hyp.34.2.253

rct · n=59Cited 408×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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