Fish oil is the source of the "good fats" that help our bodies keep inflammation in check. It is one of the few natural nutritional supplements which even the United States FDA admits there are rock-solid science-based benefits. And the benefits from fish oil can not just fight inflammation and help maintain your cardiovascular health, they can also help you lose weight, fight infections, and keep your mind sharp.
The benefits from fish oil are so obvious that Big Pharma has tried to capture them in a patented medication called Lovaza. But Lovaza actually is not even the most bioavailable form of fish oil, and you don't need a prescription to use this amazing addition to your daily diet to support good health. Let's start with some of the uses of fish oil that you probably haven't heard about.
Fish Oil Can Help You Lose Weight
Dr. Kate Claycomb is a researcher at the USDA-ARS Grand Forks Human Nutrition Center in North Dakota in the United States. For a number of years she has been studying the interaction of fish oil with two hormones, insulin and adiponectin. Both of these hormones play an important role in how our bodies maintain our weight.
Most of us are familiar with insulin as the hormone that activates cells to receive glucose sugar from the bloodstream. It is actually about 300 times more efficient at activating cells to store fat. In a condition called insulin resistance, bloodstream glucose levels rise so high that cells shut down their sugar receptor sites to avoid being flooded with glucose. They do not shut down their receptor sites for fatty acids. The pancreas senses high blood sugar levels and responds by making even more insulin. Cells in the liver and muscles and fat mass sense high insulin levels and become even more resistant to sugar. In the meantime, however, the extra insulin makes fat magnets out of belly fat, priming them to store every available calorie. You don't actually gain weight unless you overeat, but most of us do.
Adiponectin is a hormone that causes cells to burn fat rather than sugar. It keeps the liver from releasing stored glucose into the bloodstream through a process called gluconeogensis. This interrupts the process of insulin resistance in addition to causing the body to burn more calories. Thinner people have more adiponectin in circulation. Fatter people have less.
Just in late 2011, Dr. Claycomb announced findings of years of research that confirmed that fish oil increases the amount of adiponectin in the bloodstream and interrupts the process of insulin resistance. Both actions reverse weight gain and support weight loss. One of the key findings of Dr. Claycomb's research was that these actions are supported by the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) fats in fish oil. These are the fats that are found in fish oil that are not found in flaxseed oil or microalgae.
Fish Oil Can Help You Gain Muscle
Dr. John Berardi is Canadian fitness trainer and also a professor of physiology. He has coached Olympic swimmers in Texas and the Olympic hockey team in Canada. For over a decade he has advised all of his athletes to take 1 or 2 capsules of fish oil after workouts to enhance muscle growth.
The process of building muscle actually requires a certain amount of inflammation, but only for a short time. The muscles have to be exercised so that fibers break down and are replaced by stronger, thicker fibers over a period of about 48 hours. It is important not to interfere with the process of breaking down these fibers ("pain") while you are still in the weight room. But it is equally important to quench the process of inflammation after a workout so the muscle can take in water, glucose, and amino acids and begin to rebuild itself.
Fish oil stops inflammation during the recovery phase. It reduces muscle pain after workouts, and because it fights insulin resistance, it also helps muscles "pump up" as they are properly fed. For a short time after a workout, the muscles are about 50 times more sensitive to insulin, which helps them absorb both glucose, which combines with water to make the glycogen that "pumps" the muscle, and the amino acids to rebuild the fibers that power the muscle. Athletes who take fish oil put on muscle more easily.
Again, it is the EPA in fish oil that makes a difference building muscle. The fatty acids in flaxseed oil and microalgae do not work the same way.
Fish Oil Can Enhance Brain Health
Bipolar disorder is an especially difficult disease to treat. In bipolar disorder, the mood swings from depressed to manic and back again. Antidepressant drugs tend to trigger mania, and antipsychotic drugs tend to trigger depression. Medical science has made major strides in treating the condition, but sometimes drugs just don't work.
About 10 years ago, Harvard University researchers started using fish oil to help control the depressive phase of bipolar disorder. Over 100 clinical studies over the last 10 years confirm that fish oil has a role in managing the condition. It is more useful in treating depression than mania, but this helps people who have bipolar disorder stabilize with fewer meds.
But you don't have to have bipolar disorder to use fish oil to benefit your brain health. The docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in fish oil helps the brain produce brain-derived neurotrophic factor. This protects neurons in the brain from mechanical injury by high blood pressure and from chemical injury by free radicals. It helps neurons continue to make the chemicals that allow signals to pass from neuron to neuron in the brain, helping the brain filter extraneous sensations from important sensory data, and ensuring that information reaches the centers for executive judgment where decisions are made.
DHA is found in microalgae as well as fish oil. In fact, microalgae are a more potent source of DHA than fish oil. However, they also cost about five times as much as fish oil and they don't provide the EPA that prevents inflammation. That is the reason doctors recommend fish oil rather than microalgae for brain health.
Fish Oil for Cardiovascular Health
The best known application of fish oil in natural health is supporting cardiovascular health. Fish oil fights the inflammation that can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks, and stroke.
A little inflammation is actually a good thing. Inflammation activates the immune system. Inflammation constricts blood vessels to prevent loss of blood when we are injured. Inflammation raises blood pressure when it begins to go too low.
The problem most of us have, however, is that we have too much inflammation rather than too little. The fundamental reason is the standard modern diet. Processed foods contain enormous amounts of omega-6 essential fatty acids, the kinds of fatty acids every cell in the human body can use to make pro-inflammatory hormones, and not enough omega-3 essential fatty acids, the kinds of fatty acids every cell in the human body can use to make anti-inflammatory hormones. Both kinds of fat are essential, but the problem is that most of us get about 20 times as much omega-6 fat as omega-3 fat. Even healthy plant oils (with a few exceptions, such as chia and flaxseed oil) contain more omega-6 fat than omega-3 fat. Using more healthy plant oils actually makes the imbalance worse and worse.
Fish oil provides the omega-3's that fight inflammation and help keep arteries open. Fish oil that is combined with a chemical called ubiquinol (a form of coenzyme-Q10) is even better. The ubiquinol is immediately available to help the cells in your heart and in the linings of your artery use oxygen efficiently. Then the omega-3's in fish oil help your arteries relax so more blood can flow and deliver the oxygen cells need.
The Low-Down on Lovaza
If you live in the United States and you watch television at all, it is hard to avoid advertisements for a prescription fish oil called Lovaza. This drug is a form of fish oil that has been sent through a chemical process called esterification to make it shelf-stable. Many over-the-counter brands of fish oil are sent through a similar process so they will keep. Your body has to break down the esters, however, to release the fish oils in both Lovaza and certain brands of fish oil.
There is absolutely no doubt that Lovaza will do what it is advertised to do, lowering high triglyceride levels. We won't tell you to stop using Lovaza if that's what your doctor orders. But if you aren't using Lovaza yet, please consider using fish oil from companies like Xtend-Life. Natural fish oil does the same thing as Lovaza, and it's about 50 times less expensive.
The Best Way to Get the Benefits of Fish Oil
There are several really good brands of fish oil on the market. Probably the best value, however, is a product made by a company in New Zealand called Xtend-Life.
Xtend-Life makes its fish oil from a sustainably harvested Pacific cold water fish called hoki. The fish are immediately cleaned and refrigerated after catch, and then the oil is extracted without the use of chemicals. Every lot is tested for possible contamination—and if there is any, the product is not used. And because the company cares about every customer getting the very best result, the company makes different combinations of fish oil with other supplements that benefit good health.
Fish oil is fundamental to almost every program of nutritional supplementation. Buy the best fish oil to get the best results.
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