What ratio (DHA/EPA) is preferred for a cardio application?
Dear CD,
The average ratio of DHA/EPA in the various long-term population studies which have
investigated fish intake in relation to a reduced mortality from cardiovascular disease, has
ranged from approximately 2/1 to 3/1. For individuals with coronary heart disease the American
Heart Association has recommended a combined intake of DHA+EPA of 900 mg/day without
specifying the proportion of the mixture which should be represented by each of the two
components. In 1999, a workshop convened at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
Maryland recommended a combined DHA/EPA intake of 650 mg/day for normal healthy adults
with a provision that at least one third of the mixture should be represented by either DHA or
EPA. In other words, the DHA/EPA ratio should fall between 2/1 and 1/2. No controlled studies
to date have directly compared DHA/EPA mixtures with DHA alone or EPA alone.
1/1