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Omega-3: Intervention for childhood behavioral problems? (2015)
- winter_blue 7y agoWow, this is amazing. My parents use to give me 2 or 3 capsules of cod liver oil daily growing up (since I was 4 or 5). I didn't know realize it had such a huge health benefit. The other daily supplement I took was liquid Feroglobin, an iron supplement. I'm feeling thankful that they were so health-conscious.
- noja 7y agoHow is cod liver oil made? Is it extracted from cods livers? :) If yes, is there a risk of heavy metal poisoning?
- wolco 7y agoYes this is one of the reasons why many avoid. The other is the high vit A (4500 per spoon fill) which interfears with vit d.
- amelius 7y agoI've read stories that they just dump fish remnants in a large pot with boiling water and scrape the oil from the top. But it may be FUD spread by the more expensive brands.
- Someone 7y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_liver_oil#Manufacture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_liver_oil#Manufacture. And the liver is a filter, so heavy metals and PCBs do accumulate there, yes. I wouldn’t know whether that is a big concern.
- eitland 7y agoI used to get cod liver oil as well: a spoonful a day in the morning, served with half a glass of orange juice for vitamin C and to get rid of the taste :-@ It only helped so much, here I am, just a software engineer, not a millionaire yet :-p
- vixen99 7y agoMany formulations now contain lemon oil which really does (for me at least) completely mask the totally disgusting (for me) taste of cod liver oil. Worth a try for those who can't stand it otherwise.
- adrianN 7y agoI wonder how much of the association of poverty with crime can be explained by poor nutrition.
- dao- 7y agoI wonder how much of the association of poverty with crime can be explained by how capitalism works.
- easytiger 7y agoI wonder how much of the world's dearth of personal responsibility can be blamed on an incredibly meaningless definition of economic systems.
- som33 7y agoI wonder how much self deception exists in western society when the evidence suggests you live in a lawless oligarchy, one example from endless copyright extension. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act#/media/File:Tom_Bell's_graph_showing_extension_of_U.S._copyright_term_over_time.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act#/... But first HN, you can be told the facts and the figures and you won't reason to the right conclusion see the science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ Does the upper class and the business community believe in Free markets? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHj2GaPuEhY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHj2GaPuEhY IMF subsidies for the rich and their corporations https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/Environment/energy- https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/Environment/energy- subsidies So looking at all that free cash from the state, did the upper class really "earn" all that cash or could it be they own the government and can just rubber stamp whatever they like because the average HN poster and person on our planet is illiterate and well indoctrinated?
- godelzilla 7y agoPretty sure there's only one economic system. Try another one and get bombed, couped, sanctioned, etc.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- akavel 7y agoOh, so cool, from first impressions it looks like solid good scientific method at work: - 200 participants, which is not super many, but already something to at least start talking about in terms of statistics & non-fluke probability; - your gold standard of: "put forward a theory, then run an experiment that can falsify it" (vs. e.g. retroactive) - according to the article's title, randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled. I didn't read the actual article, and I'm not a scientist myself or good enough in statistics to be able to validate it further for no errors, but the initial signals already make me so happy that in nutritioning there are people trying to do good science! <3
- tsco77 7y agoI've seen similar studies bouncing around. The results are always kinda promising, maybe. The important thing here is fish burps. Omega 3 pills are relatively inexpensive with the really only negative side effect being fish burps. So maybe it does work for aggression, antisocial behavior (heart disease, protection from Nuero cognitive disorders later in life), or maybe it doesn't. But if all it costs is a few bucks and some fish burps, isn't it worth trying?
- dntbnmpls 7y ago"The researchers caution that this is still preliminary work in uncovering the role nutrition plays in the link between brain development and antisocial behavior. The changes seen in the one-year period of the experiment may not last, and the results may not be generalizable outside the unique context of Mauritius." Wish articles/research papers/etc would put such warnings at the beginning of the article rather than towards the end. Also if omega-3 is truly a miracle "food" then can't we simply compare the populations that consume a lot of omega-3 ( fish primarily ) vs those who don't? Can't we compare nations that consume a lot of fish vs those that don't? Are one more antisocial than the other? Are the children better behaved in one vs the other? Are the brains healthier/more developed in one compared to the other? If the answer was yes, maybe then we should do further research on omega-3?
- sokoloff 7y agoIf you compared children in Japan to children in some poor country that doesn’t eat much fish, would the strongest correlation likely be fish consumption?
- asdkjh345fd 7y ago>can't we simply compare the populations that consume a lot of omega-3 ( fish primarily ) vs those who don't? That's how we came up with the hypothesis in the first place. But that's all such a study can do, give us a hypothesis. There are too many confounding factors (smoking rates, alcohol consumption, poverty, environmental toxins, ethnicity, other dietary differences, etc) to answer the question of omega 3 relevance. We need studies like this one, only with objective measurements instead of asking subjective questions to draw conclusions.
- dilap 7y agoWeston Price touched on this a bit in "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration". He did find increased "antisocial" behavior as traditional diets were abandoned in favor of modern diets. Fantastic book. Highly recommended.
- pdfernhout 7y agoAnother study (from 2006): https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/oct/17/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/oct/17/prisonsandp... "Omega-3, junk food and the link between violence and what we eat ... Research with British and US offenders suggests nutritional deficiencies may play a key role in aggressive behaviour ... Demar has been taking part in a clinical trial at the US government's National Institutes for Health, near Washington. The study is investigating the effects of omega-3 fatty acid supplements on the brain, and the pills that have effected Demar's "miracle" are doses of fish oil. The results emerging from this study are at the cutting edge of the debate on crime and punishment. In Britain we lock up more people than ever before. Nearly 80,000 people are now in our prisons, which reached their capacity this week. But the new research calls into question the very basis of criminal justice and the notion of culpability. It suggests that individuals may not always be responsible for their aggression. Taken together with a study in a high-security prison for young offenders in the UK, it shows that violent behaviour may be attributable at least in part to nutritional deficiencies. The UK prison trial at Aylesbury jail showed that when young men there were fed multivitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids, the number of violent offences they committed in the prison fell by 37%. Although no one is suggesting that poor diet alone can account for complex social problems, the former chief inspector of prisons Lord Ramsbotham says that he is now "absolutely convinced that there is a direct link between diet and antisocial behaviour, both that bad diet causes bad behaviour and that good diet prevents it." ..."
- jerome-jh 7y agoOmega-3 can also be had from unprocessed vegetable oils, especially colza/rapeseed. But because not only omega-3 matters, a mix of olive and colza oils is advised for a good balance of omega-3-6-9. I have not read the full article. It just reminds me of my mother's view where food decides everything else.
- vga805 7y agoEPA and DHA can be had from plants? Which ones? Rapeseed only has ALA. As far as I know, those other omega-3s are only found in fish or algae oil.
- amelius 7y agoALA converts to EPA and DHA to some extent. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9637947 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9637947
- vga805 7y agoOmega-3 is not a single thing. There are three important acids, ALA, EPA, and DHA. The first can be found in some plant sources, I mostly get it from flax, soy, and kale. The latter two are only found in fish, and for the vegetarians, algae. A few people have mentioned cod liver oil. I supplement with an algae oil, it contains the omega-3s and I believe avoids the worry of toxic metals.
- marton78 7y ago> avoids the worry of toxic metals. And, more importantly, of overfishing. When I looked into supplements a year ago l, the algae capsules named "Opti3" had the highest EPA & DHA / Cost ratio and are fully vegan.
- hkyeti 7y agoYup, go straight to the source (where fish get theirs)
- 735tsdfe44 7y agoThe fish or marine invertebrates synthesize EPA and DHA by consuming microalgae that {1}do not contain both. {1} https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24152561 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24152561
- chelovek89 7y agoYou can also get omega-3s from grass fed beef and pastured eggs. 3 quality eggs in the morning and I get 210mg+ DHA. The more people knew this the more demand there would be for local meat and away from factory slaughterhouses, especially now that the pandemia exposes their vulnerability. We've got workers risking disease to bring us low quality, nutrient sparse meat.
- 735tsdfe44 7y agoSardines and anchovies eat mostly plankton so there is no toxic metals there.
- slicktux 7y agoIt’s important to note that not all omega 3 is equal; plant derived omega 3 (ALA) is hard for the body to synthesize and use where animal derived omega 3 (EPA & DHA) is easier to synthesize for use.
- is_this_valid2 7y agoEndocannabinoids are produced by the body when Omega-3 is consumed. Too much Omega-6 seems to limit the body's ability to utilize Omega-3. Reducing inflammation (which is good for hyper-inflammation, which pollution can cause or worsen) is one function of the endocannabinoid system (ECS). A search for `Omega-3 endonannabinoids` on GScholar: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C43&q=omega-3+endocannabinoids https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C43&q=ome... The Omega-3 wikipedia page lists a number of foods sorted by Omega-3 content in descending order: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid#Dietary_sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid#Dietary_sou... The top two sources (flax and hemp) are plant based and thus have ALA but not the DHA or EPA that some animal sources have. Fish don't produce Omega-3: they eat algae and then the PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) are stored in fat. Fish and cheap fish oil may have other contaminants due to pollution in our lakes, streams, and oceans. It's important to eat a balanced diet. Eating anti-inflammatory (and anti-oxidant) foods is one way to regulate hyperinflammation. Any form of combustion (burning carbon matter) produces carbon monoxide. CO is terrible for most living things in part because the unbound oxygen binds to whatever it finds (oxidization).