Fish oil does seem to double GLP-1 levels, at least under the conditions described below. Somewhere in the last year I read a news story about the lone survivor of a mining accident in West Virginia who was virtually brain dead. In desperation, his GP pumped him full of fish oil for several weeks and he was making a strong recovery. Interesting.


1: Regul Pept. 1999 Apr 30;80(3):101-6.

Inhibition of human gastric lipase by intraduodenal fat involves glucagon-like
peptide-1 and cholecystokinin.

Wøjdemann M, Riber C, Bisgaard T, Sternby B, Larsen S, Rehfeld JF, Holst JJ,
Olsen O.

Department of Surgery, Rigshospitalet, National University Hospital, Copenhagen,
Denmark. rh01977@rh.dk

Seven healthy volunteers were intubated with two double lumen nasogastric tubes,
one in the stomach, the other in the duodenum. This system allows simultaneous
sampling of gastric juice and separate intraduodenal perfusion with a dietary fat
(fish oil, 1269 kJ). Gastrin-17 was infused i.v. at a rate of 40 pmol/kg/h
throughout the study. Gastric lipase was measured at 15-min intervals as activity
(tributyrin) and as immunoreactivity (ELISA). Infusion of gastrin-17 resulted in
a stable increase in the plasma concentration from a basal concentration of 8.3
+/- 0.8 pmol/l to 41.4 +/- 4.2 pmol/l. Perfusion with fat reduced gastric lipase
activity from 24.2 +/- 5.3 to 7.2 +/- 2.5 kU/l (P < 0.05), and immunoreactivity
from 0.7 +/- 0.1 to 0.42 +/- 0.1 mg/l (P < 0.05). After termination of fat
perfusion, gastric lipase secretion increased again, though not reaching
preinhibitory concentrations. During the intraduodenal perfusion with fat the
plasma concentrations of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and cholecystokinin
(CCK) increased from 6.9 +/- 0.5 to 15.1 +/- 1.5 pmol/l (P < 0.05) and from 1.2
+/- 0.4 to 3.8 +/- 0.9 pmol/l (P < 0.05). This study reveals a negative effect of
fat in the duodenum on gastric lipase secretion. This effect may be mediated by
GLP-1 and/or CCK.


PMID: 10425652 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]