Krill Oil Reduces Fat in Heart and Liver

People with belly fat often have fat invading and replacing liver cells damaging their liver. This can lead to severe liver disease. A high level of fat in the liver impairs liver function and can contribute to fatty hepatitis (NASH), liver failure and even liver cancer. Fatty liver may even lead to a reduced insulin sensitivity and contribute to the development of type 2 diabetes.

On a different note researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center have coinnected excess fat around the heart to calcified plaque in the hearts arteries. People with excess fat around their heart known as pericardial fat are at a higher risk of heart attack. Interestingly, this connection has little or nothing to do with belly fat but has to do with the way a particular person stores their fat.

The connections between fat and damage to the heart and liver are real. Once thought of as simply a storage depot for energy (that’s what calories in fat are) scientists now know that fat is an “organ” that releases inflammatory cytokines (immune proteins that trigger inflammation).  

In this study Italian researchers gave krill oil or fish oils to obese Zucker rats. Zucker rats are bred to study obesity and high blood pressure. Zucker rats are unbelievably fat weighing twice as much as other rats. The animals have fat in places you would never think fat could grow.

Krill Oil reduced the fat content in their heart by 42%. Fish oil reduced the fat content by 2%. A high level of fat in the heart is non-beneficial for the heart function, and it is therefore important to reduce the fat content in the heart to a normal level.

The corresponding examination of the fat amount in liver showed a reduction of 60% after administration of Krill Oil, while fish oil reduced the fat content in the liver by 38%.
According to the researchers Krill Oil rich in omega-3 phospholipids, gives substantially more reduction of fat in the heart and the liver than omega-3 from fish oil according to these previous preclinical findings.

The results from this study also help confirm that Krill Oil has a substantially better effect than fish oil on certain cardiovascular risk factors. The study is published in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of Nutrition.