Research
Hormonal
Supplemental intakes of EPA and DHA combined at doses of 2-6 g/day, and DHA at 2-4 g/day, increase LDL-cholesterol by about 3%, but this increase is accompanied by a decrease in triglycerides and does not adversely affect cardiovascular disease risk.
If you take 2-6g/day of combined EPA/DHA, your LDL cholesterol may rise by about 3%. However, this is offset by a drop in triglycerides, and your total cholesterol remains unchanged. Overall, this does not increase your cardiovascular disease risk.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Supplemental intakes of EPA and DHA combined of 2-6 g/day, and supplemental intakes of mostly DHA of 2-4 g/day, increase blood concentrations of LDL cholesterol by about 3 %. Such increase is accompanied by a decrease in triglycerides with no changes in total (or non-HDL) cholesterol concentrations.
Why this rating
Based on multiple human intervention studies reviewed by EFSA.
Source
Scientific Opinion on the Tolerable Upper Intake Level of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA)
EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products et al. · EFSA Journal · 2012
DOI 10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2815
Meta-analysisCited 358×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Supplemental intakes of EPA and DHA combined up to 5 g/day, and EPA alone up to 1.8 g/day, do not raise safety concerns for adults.Strong
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- Supplemental intakes of EPA and DHA combined up to 5 g/day do not significantly affect glucose homeostasis in healthy or diabetic subjects.Good
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