More Fishy Data
More fish fuel for the fire from two reports this week
showing that omega-3s improve brain function. These are part of emerging current
issues on nutrition.
A research team from the University of Pittsburgh
presented data at a world meeting in Hungary. Dr. Sarah Conklin, who headed up
the study, said that her team previously found that people with low blood levels
of omega-3 fats were generally more impulsive and had worse attitudes. In their
new study, they used MRI to determine that folks who ate more omega-3s had more
grey matter in parts of their brains that regulate mood and emotion. While more
we need more data to determine whether omega-3s cause increased grey matter Rigid flex PCB, this adds another
piece to the puzzle.
A second, much smaller study in the United Kingdom
looked at kids who were given two doses a day of omega-3 supplements for three
months. The kids, who were between 8 and 13 years old, were also encouraged to
cut down on junk snacks and be more active. To the researcher's surprise, the
brains of these youngsters matured over the 3-month period to a much greater
degree than expected. In addition, the kids showed improvements in memory,
reading, concentration, and problem solving skills.
The study, conducted
by Professor Basant Puri from the Imperial College of London, was admittedly
very preliminary. It was a small group of children and increased omega-3
consumption was not the only variable. Still, the data warrants more
investigation into the action of omega-3 fats in the brain.
I have
written about omega-3s in the past but in light of this new data, thought it a
good time to review them again.
Why are all of these omega-3 studies
popping up all of a sudden? One reason may be the dramatic alterations of
essential fats in our diet (including omega-3s) over the last hundred years or
so. Another type of essential fat that doesn't get much press is omega-6s. Both
omega-3s and omega-6s are essential fats because we need them for our bodies to
operate normally but we cannot make them. So, we must get them from dietary
sources or supplements.
The thing is, omega-3s and omega-6s really need
to be kept in balance because they have many opposing functions in the body.
They are both needed but they tend to work against each other like a see saw.
Historically, we ate close to equal amounts of these fats, but in today's
western world, we eat about 20 to 30 times more omega-6s than omega-3s PCB Prototype. This is because many of
the oils that go into our processed foods, like corn oil, are very high in
omega-6s but not omega-3s.
Many people believe that this is causing an
omega-3 deficiency and contributes to all kinds of brain and body problems that
include depression, Alzheimer's, heart disease, diabetes and even some
cancers.
There are a few different types of omega-3s. Some are in
cold-water fish, like Salmon and Mackerel and others are in plant sources like
flax seed and walnuts. The kind found in fish are the ones that seem to be
important for brain function and mood regulation and the kind found in plants
are more important for diabetes prevention. Our bodies have the machinery to
convert one kind of omega-3 to the other, but it is very inefficient and doesn't
work that well in most people.
Things you can do to bring your omega fats
back in balance are eat more fish and nuts and avoid processed foods loaded with
oils. Of course, consuming too much fish gets into the whole problem of mercury
and PCB contamination as well. If you choose to take a fish-oil supplement just
make sure that it has gone through 'molecular distillation' to remove these
contaminants.
Copyright (c) 2007 The Brain Code LLC
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