I regularly take fish oil having read a lot of material about its benefits over the years.
The New Scientist has an article this week that indicates that it might not be all it is cracked up to be.....Omega-3: Fishy claims for fish oil
Brain boosting
Claim: fish oil supplements significantly improve reading, spelling and behaviour
Current thinking: a systematic review of all studies found insufficient evidence to identify any effect. The largest study to date reported no effect on cognitive function in later life
Then again, the New Scientist is notorious for supporting whatever is the Conventional Wisdom.
Comments
Just something a little different, and as you seem to be casting your net wide for information, I thought I would mention it. :)
Not sure what I think of raw food. Does it include raw meat?
< 5g EPA+DHA per day (I don't think any study has ever exceeded this amount) is not going to do anything when you're still processed foods with lots of inflammatory omega 6 industrial seed/vegetable oils, and lots of carbohydrates.
If we take, as some have suggested, that the effects possibly seen with omega 3 supplementation stem more from offseeting the problems with higher omega 6 intakes, does that then mean that we could possibly link too much omega 6 with;
- ADHD
- Aggression
- AD
- Decreased mental function
- Cancer
- Depression??
Chris - most of the raw foodies I know aren't strictly raw. Of course you can always eat sushi. Pure raw foodists are generally raw vegans. It may sound limiting but I was amazed by some of the recipes. Let me know if you're interested in a pot luck and I'll make my tropical fruit tart and maybe even bring some chocolate macadamian nut milk. :)
Most of the brain dysfunctions you see cropping up nowadays have some relation back to inflammation.
Your list is just a short one.
Of course, there's likely other factors involved because moving to an more industrialized diet leaves people deficient in a lot of other minerals such as zinc, magnesium, vitamin d, etc. so it's likely not just an inflammation problem.
Although there are definitely inflammation roots in most of the problems you listed and many more you didn't list.
--testosterone, estrogen, thyroid deficiencies
--adrenal overactivity or insufficiency
--heavy metal and pesticide accumulation
--gut dysbiosis
Omega-3 and omega-6 are hormonal in their actions. The sad thing about omega-6 is that our mammalians systems do not utilize them at the same rate or sheer quantities as omega-3s so it takes longer to 'eliminate' out of the system. There estimates that the biological half-life of omega-6 in our membranes and adipose tissues where it is stored is THREE YEARS.
Dara Torres uses a ULTRA high high dose of fish oil. Those who follow Robb Wolf and xfit nutr certs, we use a lot and see tremendous benefits combined with clean eating, low n-6 intakes, and WODs. Evolutionarily omega-3 induces amazing gene expression that no exercise or clean eating can replicate that I can find and even has epigenetic potential to correct abnormalities...
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.com/search?q=olympic+swimmer
We can choose to either pull more fish out of the ocean an encapsulate their oily goodness, or we can choose to stop ploughing and planting endless fields of corn and soy. Bit of a no brainer as far as I can see.
The author also didn't write enough about its proven benefits at the higher dosages. Seems like they began with a biased viewpoint and then wrote only to support their view.
Steven Hawk