Cardiovascular and Renal Calcification and Bone: A comparison of the effect of Dietary Fatty Acids

Cardiovascular (CV) and renal calcification is regularly found with osteoporosis and both are conditions of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress. Intake of dietary fatty acids is known to impact on the incidence of CV disease and bone loss but few studies have specifically looked at their impact on CV or renal calcification. This review found that although a very high total fat intake is likely to prove detrimental to both tissues and bone, particularly with low calcium intake, human studies often show mixed results, possibly because fatty acid intake shows a U-shaped dose/response curve, contrary to the expected linear relationship. Nevertheless, intake of fish and fish oil are generally found to protect against ectopic calcification and bone loss, with a low omega 6 to omega 3 ratio (preferably <5:1) proving critical. Fish intake of 3-4 servings a week was believed to be optimal. In arteries, the relationship between fish oil intake and other markers of sub-clinical atherosclerosis, such as intima-medial thickness, may be stronger than their relationship with arterial calcification. Any association with arterial calcification often lost significance after adjustment for CV risk factors, suggesting that fish oil may act principally by lowering risk factors and calling into question whether CV calcification is a condition of dyslipidaemia.