It looks as if fish oil (purified) may have many different health benefits if not taken in excessive amounts. In the Sacramento and Davis regional areas, the University of California, Davis has been researching fish oil for treating depression, anxiety, heart issues, polycystic ovarian syndrome, mood, fighting gum disease, and possibly slowing down brain aging, and alcoholism--or at least to help stop alcohol cravings. In the latest May 2011 study at another university bipolar mice stopped their cravings for alcohol when fed fish oil. If fish oil could be a superfood, then can spirulina be next, if it's the purified type? Check out the study, UC Davis Research Study Indicates That Cyanotech's Spirulina Pacifica® May Counter Anemia and Declining Immune Function in Persons over age 50.
Is Fish Oil a Superfood?
With so many people afraid of mercury in fish or fish oil that they don't know whether or not it's purified, can consumers transfer those findings in studies of mice to humans and look at fish oil as a superfood? Right now there is competition between krill oil and fish oil for their health benefits, with fish oil containing more DHA, the so-called brain superfood, in small amounts. But how do you know how much fish oil to take without thinning your blood to the point where some people may have bleeding under their skin in various places or other symptoms? That's the key--transferring the study with mice to what works for a specific individual human.
Also there have been various studies at different universities and articles such as, Fish Oil For Your Teeth and Cod Liver Oil: The Number One Superfood. The UC Davis Heart Health Study focused on the heart healthy benefits of a fish oil diet specifically in the black community.
And locally, UC Davis compared the effects of fish oil and flax seed oil on blood sugar levels. See, Compare Effects of Flax Seed Oil, and Fish Oil on Blood Sugar. Also UC Davis studied and compared fish oil, flax seed oil, and soy bean oil. These oils are commonly recommended supplements for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).
These oils have different chemical structures and biological actions. The UC Davis study wanted to find out which oil has the most beneficial effects in PCOS patients because they never have been compared to each other head to head before that UC Davis study. In that study the researchers learned more about the effects of these oils on blood sugar and insulin levels.
Also See the article, Certain Formulations of Omega-3s Might Help With Depression, and see the video, 2 Tablespoons Of Fish Oil Per Day For Anxiety, Depression.
Check out Indiana University School of Medicine's latest research article, "Fish Oil May Have Positive Effects on Mood, Alcohol Craving, New Study Shows," and also a similar article with the same title appears in the May 27, 2011 Science Daily article, "Fish Oil May Have Positive Effects on Mood, Alcohol Craving, New Study Shows."
In a multi-year study, researchers showed conclusive behavioral and molecular benefits for omega 3 fatty acid given to mice models of bipolar disorder. The fatty acid DHA, which is one of the main active ingredients in fish oil, “normalized their behavior,” according to Alexander B. Niculescu, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and the lead author of the study reported online in the Nature Publishing Group journal Translational Psychiatry, as explained in the news release.
Using a stress-sensitive mouse model of bipolar disorder developed in his lab, Dr. Niculescu and his colleagues studied the influence of dietary DHA. The mice have characteristic bipolar symptoms including being depressed and, when subjected to stress, becoming manic.
“The mice that were given DHA normalized their behavior, they are not depressed and when subjected to stress, they do not become manic,” said Dr. Niculescu. “When we looked into their brains, using comprehensive gene expression studies, we were surprised to see that genes that are known targets of psychiatric medications were modulated and normalized by DHA.”
An unexpected finding of the research was the discovery that the mice given DHA also showed a reduced desire for alcohol. “These bipolar mice, like some bipolar patients, love alcohol. The mice on DHA drank much less; it curtailed their alcohol abusive behavior,” he said, adding that this is a completely novel finding. To verify this finding, the researchers studied another well-established animal model of alcoholism, the alcohol preferring P rats, and obtained similar results.
“We believe a diet rich in omega 3 fatty acids may help the treatment and prevention of bipolar disorder, and may help with alcoholism as well,” he said, according to the news release.
The researchers also found correlations between mouse brain molecular changes and molecular markers in their blood, so called “biomarkers.” Would human brains change in the same way the mice brains changed if different 'doses' of fish oil were given? Or what happens when fish oil and krill oil are mixed and then Coenzyme Q10 is added? Would immunity increase, cravings stop, and rapid brain aging be slowed? The brain does need a certain amount of DHA. Numerous baby food jars in Sacramento supermarkets sometimes have the words, "DHA added" on the labels. The DHA usually is added "for brain health."
“There is now substantial evidence at the molecular level that omega-3 fatty acids work on the brain in ways similar to psychiatric drugs,” said Dr. Niculescu, according to the news release. “With these biomarker findings, we can now move forward as a field and do more targeted clinical studies in humans.”
Omega 3 fatty acids are known to be good for one’s health, good for one’s brain, and lack major side-effects, as opposed to some psychiatric medications, he said. Perhaps, he said, omega 3 fatty acid could in the future be used as an adjuvant treatment to minimize the amount of psychiatric drugs needed to produce the same effect, especially in pregnant women or women who intend to get pregnant.
“A lot more work needs to be done in this area,” Dr. Niculescu said. To see the ScienceDaily article online check out the link, "Fish oil may have positive effects on mood, alcohol craving, new study shows," Retrieved May 30, 2011. Or for more information see the article at the site for Indiana University School of Medicine (2011, May 27).
The research was supported by a National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award grant to Dr. Niculescu. Other authors are Helen Le-Niculescu Ph.D., Natalie J. Case M.Sc., Leslie Hulvershorn, M.D. , Sagar D. Patel , Dean Bowker, Jyoti Gupta, M.D., Richard Bell, Ph.D., Howard J. Edenberg, Ph.D. , Ming T. Tsuang, M.D., Ph.D. , Ronald Kuczenski, Ph.D., Mark A. Geyer, Ph.D., and Zachary A. Rodd, Ph.D.
Journal Reference:
- H Le-Niculescu, Y Balaraman, S D Patel, M Ayalew, J Gupta, R Kuczenski, A Shekhar, N Schork, M A Geyer, A B Niculescu. Convergent functional genomics of anxiety disorders: translational identification of genes, biomarkers, pathways and mechanisms. Translational Psychiatry, 2011; 1 (5): e9 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2011.9
Resources on Omega-3 Fatty Acids for Health
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