omega-3 fatty acids

[Whyme]

A new international study has found that a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids can help lower the chances of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/news/2011/Nov/another-study-finds-omega-3-offers-diabetes-benefits-95603272.html

Does this mean that it can also help when diabetes T2 has already been dignosed? After the event, so to speak. What is the best way to get the fatty acids? Diet or supplements?

 

[Whyme]

Bit disappointed that nobody has answered my query!

 

[pianoman]

I missed this before. Thanks for posting the link.

As you say, omega 3s seem to help with Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) -- some suggest they help by reducing the chronic inflammation that can lead to this condition. On the other hand, the omega 6s are thought to increase inflammation.

I'd say that: yes a diet higher in omega 3s is helpful at any stage.

I prefer to get mine from real whole food from trusted sources -- grass fed beef for example has a better balance of omega 6 and 3 as compared to grain fed from a feed lot. Cold water fish like salmon is also a good source -- some like to take fish oil capsules. On the other, other hand: man-made vegetable oils tend to be high in the pro-inflammatory omega 6s.

 

[Whyme]

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Whyme, i have been a type 1 diabetic for around 30 years now & I'm glad to say that i still have great all round fitness & health, a lot of which I openly put down to my daily consumption of omega 3 fish oil + the new modern human insulins we all use these days. (Novorapid & Lantus) Around 7 or 8 years ago i came across an article on the internet, which was on the subject of Omega 3 Fish Oil & all the benefits scientist were discovering it could hold! Since then, I have reading about the benefits of Omega 3 fish oil, i have been taking 5000mg of it a day (that’s 5x 1000mg capsules) & i swear on my life, everything they say about it is true! I now consider it to be an important part to my type 1 medication, even if my doctor does think I'm quackers ! haha If i am not insane lol then i can tell you that i have felt my basic IQ grow over the years, which may sound a funny thing to say but believe me, its true! Omega 3 fish oil is basically what our brains need, if i aint mistaken, it fuels & feeds our brains! lol In Japan they consume a huge amount of fish, which is a main source of omega 3, & because of it, heart disease in Japan is virtually non existent! Omega 3 also thins you blood naturally & I’ve recently been reading reports that it has cluster dissolving properties in it which dissolve the type of clusters that cause a person to have a stroke! In the same article it went on to say that the primary cause in eye damage amongst diabetics is due to microscopic cluster & so if does stop a person from having a stroke, it must also help to protect a diabetics eyes from micro clusters forming! Before i started taking fish oil i can tell you i did tend to fly of the handle at anyone who annoyed me due to my high aggression levels. But over the last few years my aggression levels have fallen away & are now practically none existent & that’s is another known affect omega 3 fish oil can have on a person! I have know & totally believed, by reading stuff on the net, that omega 3 fish oil may help to reverse the type 2 diabetic condition, to the extent that a type 2 patient may need to lower their medication. Its not a cure but if a newly diagnosed type 2 start on omega 3 fish oil, they may offset the need for any tablets, such as Metformin, for a few years or so? Only in the last few weeks has this now been proven by scientists around the world that omega 3 can off set type 2 diabetes from the beginnings! The benefits to taking omega 3 fish oil are huge & i truly consider it to be a super food! Though I'm no expert! lol

 

[Whyme]

Thanks Jimmytwoshoes for the information. I have bought some Omega capsules. They are 1000mg and it says to take one a day but is that enough??

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Whyme, I am no expert but i have been taking 5x 1000mg capsules a day for about 8 years now! There is no RDA for omega 3 fish oil! In my own personal opinion, i would say that 1x 1000mg is not giving you the best benefits as its a relatively low dose, the more you take the better effect they will have on you! Omega 3 fish oil in liquid form is a lot stronger than in capsule form! So one tea spoonful is equal to 5 0r 6 1000mg capsules, the only down side to liquid form is its tends to be just a little more expensive! I buy my omega 3 off ebay – 365 capsules for around £7. If you do buy off ebay make sure you buy from a reputable supplier!

 

[phoenix]

Hugh Macdonald SInclair was a somewhat excentric British researcher who back in the 1950s was convinced of the value of essential fatty acids. Subsequent research shows he was right.
He spent 100 days on a N=1 experiment eating seal meat which he kept in a freezer slicing off bits for each meal. Seal meat is a very rich source of omega 3s. After a period on this diet he began to have spontaneous nose bleeds, when pruning roses the small pricks resulted in blood flows that wouldn't stop. After the experiment he was supposed to have a routine operation, his blood clotting time had increased from the normal 3 min to over 50 min. He asked a medical friend if he should have the operation. The friend replied that if he had the operation it would be the last thing he did.

The point of this story is it's important not to think that just because some is good for you, and there is no doubt it is, a lot is better. It's worth taking into account other sources as well ( lots of people on here use flaxseed in cooking which is also very high in omega 3s).
You need to take care in particular if you are taking blood thinning drugs but there are other drugs that can also interact.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/drug ... l/993.html
edit to get rid of apostrophe!

 

[daisy1]

Who recommended to you to take 5000 mg per day? I had understood that one should take 2000 mg. I am currently taking 1500 per day.

(written while phoenix was also writing)

 

[ClaireG 06]

I take 2000mg a day. 1000 from cod liver oil and 1000 from flaxseed oil capsules. I take them as i have high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis and reynauds.

 

[Anonymous]

Who recommended to you to take 5000 mg per day?

Hi daisy1, no one recommended to me that I should be taking 5000mg of omega 3 fish oil, I came the conclusion that the recommended maximum of 3000mg, as stated on the side of most omega 3 fish oil containers, was not enough for what I needed after reading various google new alerts from around the world, that scientists discovered that omega 3 fish oil, in much larger doses (say with shark omega 3 oil, which can be up to 20x more stronger ) could aid conditions such as Alzheimers, or in some cases even cure condition like adhd in some kids! I also discovered that there are a lot of body builder out there who use no more than a good all round healthy diet & a larger amount of omega 3 fish oil to build their muscle with, rather than whey protein mix milk shakes! Having read pheonix post just above yours, I am aware about the problems associated with blood clotting, but I do think that taking 5000mg is still way below the danger levels of getting in to that area! But then again I'm no expert haha & I just could be wrong! Even although my bloods viscosity is like water, I stop bleeding just as quickly as I always have after a finger prick for a blood test! I truly am bewilded that we diabetic are not given omega 3 as part of our medication, as we are all at higher risk from stoke & eye damage & its now a scientifically proven fact it can help in these areas!

 

[reidpj]

Hi Jimmy

From the wonderful world of wikipedia:

In a letter published October 31, 2000,[94] the United States Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Office of Nutritional Products, Labeling, and Dietary Supplements noted that known or suspected risks of EPA and DHA consumed in excess of 3 grams per day may include the possibility of:

Increased incidence of bleeding
Hemorrhagic stroke
Oxidation of omega-3 fatty acids, forming biologically active oxidation products
Increased levels of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol or apoproteins associated with LDL cholesterol among diabetics and hyperlipidemics
Reduced glycemic control among diabetics

But I'm sticking to my 4000mg a day :wink:

 

[AMBrennan]

If it was a scientifically proven fact that it was effective and cost efficient then the NHS would be using it. The following, however, is fact :

Omega-3 fats are generally regarded as safe when taken in low doses (3g or less a day)[...] If you are thinking of taking a fish oil supplement, it’s best to speak to your doctor.

A 2006 Cochrane review that looked at all available trials up to 2005 found no evidence that omega-3 supplements reduce the risk of cognitive impairment or dementia

Another review of fish oil in 2002 found no evidence of any effect on mortality, “cardiovascular events” such a heart attack or stroke, or cancers, either in people at high risk of heart disease or in the general population, and regardless of whether obtained through supplements or from the diet

(Source)
Also,

I also discovered that there are a lot of body builder out there who use no more than a good all round healthy diet & a larger amount of omega 3 fish oil to build their muscle with, rather than whey protein mix milk shakes!

I'm sure that there are also lots of body builders using raw parsnips to build muscle; this is possible because neither omega-3, protein shakes nor parsnips are actually necessary; read the descriptions of the various shakes - you'll find that they only claim that the product improves muscle gain (which may well be true) and that it's the media that hypes them as "essential" (I doubt that a review along the lines of "Leads to a statistically significant improved muscle gain, but you won't notice a difference in practise" will attract much advertising revenue from sports nutrition companies)

 

[Anonymous]

AMBrennan – Why are you stalking me on this forum? Haha Your the guy who clearly tells me in another posting here in this forum that Type 2 diabetes is Insulin Dependant – which it is NOT! (Were you feeling a bit hypo when you wrote that or are you simply out to start an argument with me? haha)
The findings about the great benefits of omega 3 fish oil, are I admit, still an ongoing debate in the scientific community, I speaking from my own experiences of using it + what I've read about it from subscribing to google news alert on subjects such as diabetes & omega 3 fish oil! What they knew about it in 2002, 2005 or 2006 is trivial in today society! We were once told the earth was flat, then suddenly it became round! Lol Science has moved on since 2002 & I believe that in the next few years were all going to know the great health benefits about Omega 3 fish oil! I suggest you go google “Japan + Fish oil” as it is a fact that heart disease over there is virtually unknown due to the high levels of fish oil they consume on a daily basis!

 

[ClaireG 06]

Can we please remember to respect each others views, thank you.

 

[AMBrennan]

No, I merely dislike people spreading misinformation (potentially commercially motivated) since I got the impression that most people are not statisticians; I'm sorry that I appear to be stalking you as a result.

“Japan + Fish oil” as it is a fact that heart disease over there is virtually unknown due to the high levels of fish oil they consume on a daily basis!

Firstly, Japan and Europe differ in more ways than fish oil intake; furthermore, since correlation does not imply causation that is not sufficient to conclude that fish oil is the cure for all heart disease. [Note that this doesn't imply that it isn't a cure for all heart disease either].
Even if we assumed, for argument's sake, that fish oil reduces the risk of heart disease then it still won't be true that more fish oil will necessarily be better.

I believe that in the next few years were all going to know the great health benefits about Omega 3 fish oil!

If we do, great. However, the problem is that there are an huge number of supplements that might be beneficial for certain conditions (e.g. parsnips). If you compare two countries with different rates of certain conditions (e.g. Japan and Europe) then you are bound to find something that's significantly different; that's how statistics work* - p-value <0.05 means that there is a 1 in 20 chance that the result is due to random chance. For this reason we cannot construct and test a hypothesis based on the same data, which you are doing here. Correct procedure would have been to a) decide that fish oil causes the difference before looking at the data (which is impossible for reasons outlined above) or b) look at the data, construct a hypothesis (fish oil = cure to all ills) and then do another trial to see if it works - and the meta analysis (the best kind of evidence there is) shows that it doesn't. Also, remember Durham?

* To be fair, though, most editors don't get how statistics work either

 

[Anonymous]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid

AMBrennan - :shock: lol Could i ask you to go read all my posting about Omega 3 fish Oil for a second time! Everything i have said about Omega 3 fish oil is based on my own experience of taking it & from what i have read about from google news alert! I am neither some kind of insane Omega 3 fish Oil sales person or trying to make myself out to be any kind of expert on the subject! If the medical profession choose not to take any notice of what I'm telling them...shame on them! It is an accepted fact all over the world that the low rate of coronary heart disease in Japan is due to their huge consumption of fish, high in omega 3 oil! If you choose not to believe it, thats perfectly fine with me. I didn’t wake up this morn & make it up you know! The information is out there, on any search engine, for all to find, so please DO NOT knock something until you have at least tried it! Wikipedia clearly back ups what I am saying about omega 3 being able to dissolve the blood clotting clusters which cause a person to stroke, although not in an as direct clear mannor as I'm stating it here. I believe whole heartedly that i am correct on everything i am saying, it just needs to be proven! :thumbup:

 

[ClaireG 06]

Once again can i ask that other peoples views are respected.

 

[reidpj]

Currently re-reading Robb Wolf's 'the Paleo Solution'. He suggests massive amounts of omega 3 intake. He has a useful online calculator: http://whole9life.com/fishoilcalculatorwp.html

It would seem that I should (for the first month at least) be taken 25g a day (I weigh 255lb, and I'm 'all banged up')

Peter

 

[rfmiles]

I've recently found some information saying that you need to distinguish the ALA type of omega-3 from the DHA and EPA types, because the human body is very inefficient at converting the ALA type to the more useful DHA and EPA types - less than 1% is converted.

ALA is useful for controlling diabetic neuropathy. It's found in walnuts and flaxseed. Cattle find it in grass. Note that there is also another supplement also called ALA that does not help neuropathy.

The DHA and EPA types are an essential nutrient for humans. They're found in many types of fish caught wild from cold water such as salmon and sardines, but often not in the same types of fish farmed with a different diet. Also found in fish oil, oysters, krill, and krill oil. Found in grass-fed beef, but not in the cheaper and more common grain-fed beef. Cattle are much better at converting ALA to DHA and EPA than humans are.

http://www.dlife.com/dlife_media/diabetes_slideshows/top_sources_omega_3s

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid

I suspect that much of the older research failed to distinguish between the various types of omega-3, and therefore gave inconsistent results.