Maybe Your Mother was Right

Back in the old days, moms used to give their kids a spoon of cod liver oil for good health. Turns out moms were right: Generations later, fish oil is still high on the list of healthy supplements.

Fish oil may help reduce chronic inflammation in the body, a condition that contributes to a range of diseases. Whether you dine on baked salmon, snack on sardines, or take a fish-oil supplement, you’re providing your body with omega-3 fatty acids.

What is inflammation, and why is it so uncool? We’ve all experienced local inflammation: redness, swelling, pain, and heat. Think of a fingertip you’ve just accidentally hit with a hammer, an arthritic knee, or a cut that gets infected. A little inflammation in one small spot usually doesn’t do much harm, but a chronic inflammatory state throughout your entire body is trouble. In addition to upping your risk for physical problems, it can even affect your mood, aggravating mood disorders or mental illness.

Extra pounds, particularly around your middle, increase your risk of chronic, all-over inflammation. A big belly actually releases inflammatory molecules into your bloodstream where they travel from the lungs to the joints to the central nervous system, sparking inflammation wherever they go. And, along the way, they set the stage for plaque build-up on the walls of the blood vessels. Not cool at all.

Another risk factor is consuming the typical American diet, overloaded with processed foods, sugar, and unhealthy fats. These foods weaken your individual cells’ defenses against the inflammatory molecules. Over time, whole organs—and entire organ systems—can be affected.

Yet some healthy fats—oil from flax seeds and certain fish, for example—contain essential fatty acids (such as omega-3s) that may help defend your organs against inflammation by shoring up the walls of your cells, crowding out the harmful inflammatory molecules. Omega-3s may be helpful in supporting the health of your blood vessels, reducing your risk of stroke and certain types of heart disease.

Your body needs omega-3s but can’t make them on its own—if you want them, you must eat them. If lots of fish and flax seeds aren’t part of your daily diet, you may consider adding an omega-3 supplement. And lucky for you, you don’t have to take the oil by spoon anymore. It’s actually healthier to take omega-3s in the form of enteric-coated capsules, which break down in your super-absorbent intestines and help you avoid the dreaded fish-flavored burps.

When you’re shopping for an omega-3 supplement, take a close look at how much EPA and DHA it contains. The body cannot make use of the parent omega-3 compound (alpha-linolenic acid) as well as it can use EPA and DHA. The American Heart Association recommends that people without documented coronary heart disease (CHD) eat a variety of fish, preferably oily fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, and trout), at least twice a week. People with documented CHD are advised to consume about one gram of EPA and DHA per day, preferably from oily fish, although EPA and DHA supplements could be considered in consultation with their physicians. People who have elevated triglycerides may need two to four grams of EPA and DHA per day. If any of these conditions apply to you, consult your physician before using an omega-3 supplement.

Here’s a bonus: Regularly taking an omega-3 supplement may help you reach a healthy weight and size. In a 2006 study at the University of South Australia, researchers found that daily doses of fish oil containing omega-3 fatty acids, when combined with moderate exercise, helped obese people burn off more weight than those who didn’t get the supplement. Researchers believe the omega-3s increased the body's fat-burning ability by improving the flow of blood to muscles during exercise.¹

Another more recent study from Japan appeared in the December 2007 issue of the Journal of Nutrition. Researchers reported that omega-3 fish oil reduced weight gain in lab mice by boosting their fat metabolism, and scientists believe it might work the same way for humans. When two groups of obesity-prone mice were fed high-fat diets, the mice that also got fish-oil supplements gained less weight and metabolized more fat than the group receiving no fish-oil supplements.²

If you’re concerned that you’re at risk for inflammation, ask your doctor for a blood test for C-reactive protein, which measures the amount of certain by-products of inflammatory processes in your body. In the meantime, omega-3-rich foods and supplements, plus a healthy diet and exercise, can help you keep your cool when it comes to inflammation. And that can keep you feeling better all over.

¹ “Omega fatty acids in the news again.” News-Medical.net. 31 July, 2006. (http://www.news-medical.net/?id=19135)

²Takuya M, Hidehiko K, Tadashi H, Tokimitsu I, and Takatoshi M. “Dietary fish oil regulates intestinal lipid metabolism and reduces body weight gain in C57BL/6J mice.” Journal of Nutrition. 2007. 137: 2629-2634.

Published by Take Shape for Life, Inc.