I am currently 58 years old and lead a very active, healthy lifes...

Congratulations for taking charge of youe health and doing the right thing. YES, fish oils will work.

When it comes to side effects from drugs, there are clinical trials, and there is long term usage in the real world. As time passes in the real world, new side effects emerge that never showed up in the medical literature. Your original lab numbers indicate a possible thyroid problem, which in turn could cause immunity problems. Slamming your body with toxic doses of Niacin would only serve to worsen the immunity problem from a sluggish thyroid. Lipid metabolism is governed via hormones. If you had trglycerides in the 500 plus range with no obvious explaination, then your physician should have immediatley ran a complete thyroid hormone panel. Elevated Triglycerides is a SYMPTOM, not a disease in itself.

Thank you for the responses bobby. It appears that my slowly elevating triglycerides over time are a result of age and heredity. I recall it was brought to my attention when I was in my early 30's that they were higher than normal. Over the past 25 years it steadily crept up, in spite of a rigorous exercise program (I still play soccer in the adult leagues and train daily) and a very low fat, low carb diet (no white flour, enriched flour products... no more donuts, sadly) and no alcohol. My mother and all my siblings show the same tendency. Interestingly, in spite of this, my family appears to have very good longevity with the exception that every single one of my relatives who smoked and drank had high blood pressure, cardiac events and arterial disease. You are correct that hormonal imbalances and thyroid issues can be a causal agent with regard to triglycerides, but there are no indicators of hyper or hypothyroidism and my body's immune response is excellent in the absence of daily bombardment by niacin and zocor. With that in mind, I am going enjoy my fortunate good health and not lose sleep over it.

I do find it very interesting how raising DHA and EPA levels have such a positive effect on lipid levels, blood pressure (mine now averages 116 over 66), reduction in inflammation in joints, reduction in prostate age related symptoms, and the list goes on and on. It would be interesting to see how the mechanism works, and why this obvious deficit in the western diet has only recently been given scrutiny by the medical establishment. My only regret is that I did not discover them in my 30's! Thanks again for your insight, and best wishes for good health and a long life!

Regards,

Ender