Funding outcome

Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide and is 2nd in Canada. End-stage heart disease often results in a heart attack or stroke in adulthood, but long-standing evidence documents that heart disease progression begins in childhood. Current guidelines for youth rely on assessing 'traditional' blood cholesterol levels, including 'bad cholesterol' [aka low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)]. However, bad cholesterol is often normal in overweight and obese youth, which suggests that other cholesterol sources may be involved in heart disease progression. Recent studies have shown that dietary fat derived from the intestine or 'remnant cholesterol' can also contribute to heart disease, the result of being 'fat intolerant'. With previous support from WCHRI, we have now established that overweight children and youth have very high levels of remnant cholesterol and are fat 'intolerant', which could explain how some might be at risk of developing early heart disease (erase.ualberta.ca). Fish oil supplementation has been shown to be very effective at reducing blood lipids and can improve fat intolerance in adults. However, it is not known if fish oil can improve fat intolerance in youth, particularly during puberty. We hypothesize that fat intolerance in overweight youth can be improved by fish oil supplementation and reduce cardio-metabolic burden in adulthood. We have established the clinical protocol for this study and have received human ethics approval certification. Findings from this study will provide evidence for advancing nutritional approaches to reduce subclinical CVD risk in youth and improve point of care for lifestyle modification.