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If you’re relying on fish oil pills for better heart health, consider this: You might be better off taking them along with a plant-oil supplement as well. That way you’ll get both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

In a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Bruce Holub and Maggie Laidlaw, nutrition researchers at the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, divided 31 women into four categories: One group took a daily omega-3 supplement alone and the other three took this plus varying amounts of an omega-6. After a month, the women who received a 2-to-1 combo (4 grams of omega-3 fish oil and 2 grams omega-6) had the greatest reduction in heart attack risk factors—their LDL (or bad cholesterol) fell 11 percent, and their overall risk of heart attack dropped an estimated 43 percent.

And it wasn’t just any old omega-6 that did the trick. The version used in the study had a particular form of fatty acid, called gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), that’s usually found in evening primrose oil, borage oil, and black currant seed oil. (Americans usually get ten times the omega-6 they need, but it’s mostly in a form called linoleic acid that experts say is unhealthy in high amounts.)

So when shopping for an omega-6, look for one with GLAs.

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