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Fish oil seems to be one of a very small set of supplements that's proven itself to be more than hype. If this article piques your interest, or if you're intere

Fish oil seems to be one of a very small set of supplements that's proven itself to be more than hype. If this article piques your interest, or if you're interested in brain health in general, I'd definitely suggest reading more about it. Sometimes I wonder how much more happy and productive the world would be if everyone put a bit of regular effort into brain health. 30-40 minutes of cardio 3x/week + fish oil supplementation seems like a big easy win on that front.

solinent 6y ago
It's important to also reduce your omega-6 intake if you can, it's really about the ratio of those two polyunsaturated fats. Look for foods with a high omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. You could just eat some oily fish once a week too. It's tasty when you finally get it right, I promise. Another nutrient great for brain health is B12.
- vixen99 6y ago
  ... high being roughly around 11 for n6/n3. As always with supplements (if that's how the omega-n3 is taken) more does not equate with better.
- 3327 6y ago
  B12 is good but also known to accelerate certain cancers
  - solinent 6y ago
    I'm not an expert, but I don't imagine any study that could be designed that would determine this to any practical degree of certainty--B12 is correlated with so many other risk factors, like smoking for example. People with healthier brains possibly take more risks, but it's just a vague guess too.
- blunte 6y ago
  But what about microplastics and various other man made contaminants that are increasingly present in fish?
  - marton78 6y ago
    Go for Omega-3 sourced from algae, that's where the fish get it from. The algae are grown artificially, so you avoid both pollutants and participating in the destruction of our oceans. I take Opti-3 [1], it had the highest (DHA + EPA) / price ratio last time I checked. Not affiliated, just a fan. [1]: https://www.vegetology.com/shop/opti3-omega-3-epa-dha https://www.vegetology.com/shop/opti3-omega-3-epa-dha
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    You're getting far more microplastics in your diet just from interaction with packaging and household materials than what you're going to get from an ocean-caught fish.
    - TrainedMonkey 6y ago
      Do you have a source for that claim?
      - chrisco255 6y ago
        Nope, but given the prevalence of plastics in human households, packaging materials and the fact that we literally eat with plastic forks and straws and drink from plastic cups...I'd say you're getting a lot more plastic in your diet than a wild salmon off the Alaskan coast.
        mercer 6y ago
        That doesn't intuitively make sense to me. I'd say for 90% of the packaging of various products I consume, the plastic has been wrapped around the product for a very short time. I imagine consuming something that has involved multiple steps of digestion of plastics is probably not the same. It's a bit like comparing water that I put in plastic container a few days ago to water that's been bottled and sitting there for weeks or months. I'm not saying there's a difference there, just that at least intuitively it seems that way to me. so a source for such a claim is pretty crucial.
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  > Another nutrient great for brain health is B12. Why? I'm very sensitive to supplements and usually notice effects immediately even on humble doses but B12 (I've tried 100%-20'000% RDA cyanocobalamin pills) doesn't feel doing anything I could notice. The combo of dish oil + B12 seems preventing menstrual pain in ladies though.
  - maxk42 6y ago
    If you're not vegan and you eat at least one serving of meat a day, (or if you're taking a multivitamin) you're probably already getting all the B12 your body can use, and supplementation is unlikely to have much effect.
    - solinent 6y ago
      Souce? I don't think the RDI is a maximum, you can have quite a bit more B12 and still get benefits. When I have time I'll update this with my own search, but maybe you're more educated on this topic than I am. Typically negatives with overuse only exist with the supplements in my 1 minute glance. This is common amongst many different supplements actually. If you eat actual food you get full, so it prevents too much nutrition from being an issue. I don't think B12 is really something your body will reject, we are able to efficiently filter out any extra with minimal load on the kidneys & liver.
  - DiabloD3 6y ago
    Skip the Cyanocobalmin. Enough people have problems metabolizing that form, and it also shouldn't be consumed solo. Cheap and effective B Complexes exist that use better forms of the various vitamins exist; only lazy manufacturers still use stuff like Cyanocobalmin. A good multivitamin should also be covering your B need as well, I ended up making a short list of good multis, and Life Extension 2-per-day Capsules ended up being the least expensive of ones that made the list... you pretty much have to go to Thorne and pay more to get better.
  - solinent 6y ago
    Have you tried fish (eat wild-caught)? Mackerel is tasty if you don't like salmon. Those two are both very oily, you can eat one or two servings a week and get enough omega-3. B12 is present in any animal product usually so I recommend eating more meat, cheese or other dairy. You really need the full B spectrum, but B12 in particular is the one to focus on. I am not an expert, experts may disagree for other reasons, but I do know my math and read the studies for my own benefit.
ianai 6y ago
Importantly, fish oils are not the only source of decent omega3/omega6 ratios. Walnuts are roughly 1:4, everyone knows about flaxseeds, etc. as someone else said, too, cutting back on omega6 sources is as important or may just offer greater correction toward the target ratio.
- corysama 6y ago
  I used to consume a lot of flaxseed oil as a cheap source of Omega 3. But, then I heard on HN that Om 3 is not very bioavailable in that form. But, that's my only source of info on that.
  - codemac 6y ago
    It depends on what you're looking for I guess, my understanding is: There are 3 major omega 3 fats people mostly talk about, ALA, DHA, EPA. ALA is transformed to DHA & EPA through different mechanisms in the body, whereas DHA & EPA are usually only found in other animal sources. If you eat enough ALA (maybe more than recommended to increase probability of production?), your body will produce all the DHA & EPA you need. I haven't read through this study yet but it may be interesting: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9637947/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9637947/ It seems to indicate eating less saturated fat increases your ability to convert ALA ~5x
    - chrisco255 6y ago
      https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163782715000223 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016378271... "table isotope methods have typically resulted in estimates of percent conversion of ALA to DHA being less than 1% of the ingested stable-isotope ALA, although estimates vary widely, ranging from 0–9.2% (Table 1). Also, there is typically no increase in plasma total lipid or phospholipid DHA when ALA intake is increased in humans (reviewed in [10], [11]), supporting the conclusion that DHA synthesis from ingested ALA is not an efficient process in humans."
      - 6y ago
UniverseHacker 6y ago
My understanding is that fatty fish consumption is linked with health benefits, but for the most part omega-3 supplementation fails to reproduce these benefits. Perhaps it's due to other nutrients (selenium?) or perhaps the omega-3 gets oxidized or rancid too easily when purified out.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  It's often the case that you need to consume some fat in order for your body to uptake certain nutrients. I'm not sure if omega-3 is one of them.
- lambdaba 6y ago
  Most studies use very small doses. In my experience the benefits are with what some would consider "megadoses", in the tens of grams range. This is what Dr. Barry Sears, who's a specialist in this area, uses with trauma patients. It's extremely effective at reducing inflammation and brain repair.
  - ddorian43 6y ago
    The problem with mega doses is that it becomes expensive quickly. 3 grams omega3 daily example.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
partyboat1586 6y ago
Counterpoint http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml for those who like to be contrary.

solinent 6y ago

It's important to also reduce your omega-6 intake if you can, it's really about the ratio of those two polyunsaturated fats. Look for foods with a high omega-3 to omega-6 ratio. You could just eat some oily fish once a week too. It's tasty when you finally get it right, I promise. Another nutrient great for brain health is B12.

vixen99 6y ago
... high being roughly around 11 for n6/n3. As always with supplements (if that's how the omega-n3 is taken) more does not equate with better.
3327 6y ago
B12 is good but also known to accelerate certain cancers
- solinent 6y ago
  I'm not an expert, but I don't imagine any study that could be designed that would determine this to any practical degree of certainty--B12 is correlated with so many other risk factors, like smoking for example. People with healthier brains possibly take more risks, but it's just a vague guess too.
blunte 6y ago
But what about microplastics and various other man made contaminants that are increasingly present in fish?
- marton78 6y ago
  Go for Omega-3 sourced from algae, that's where the fish get it from. The algae are grown artificially, so you avoid both pollutants and participating in the destruction of our oceans. I take Opti-3 [1], it had the highest (DHA + EPA) / price ratio last time I checked. Not affiliated, just a fan. [1]: https://www.vegetology.com/shop/opti3-omega-3-epa-dha https://www.vegetology.com/shop/opti3-omega-3-epa-dha
- chrisco255 6y ago
  You're getting far more microplastics in your diet just from interaction with packaging and household materials than what you're going to get from an ocean-caught fish.
  - TrainedMonkey 6y ago
    Do you have a source for that claim?
    - chrisco255 6y ago
      Nope, but given the prevalence of plastics in human households, packaging materials and the fact that we literally eat with plastic forks and straws and drink from plastic cups...I'd say you're getting a lot more plastic in your diet than a wild salmon off the Alaskan coast.
      - mercer 6y ago
        That doesn't intuitively make sense to me. I'd say for 90% of the packaging of various products I consume, the plastic has been wrapped around the product for a very short time. I imagine consuming something that has involved multiple steps of digestion of plastics is probably not the same. It's a bit like comparing water that I put in plastic container a few days ago to water that's been bottled and sitting there for weeks or months. I'm not saying there's a difference there, just that at least intuitively it seems that way to me. so a source for such a claim is pretty crucial.
qwerty456127 6y ago
> Another nutrient great for brain health is B12. Why? I'm very sensitive to supplements and usually notice effects immediately even on humble doses but B12 (I've tried 100%-20'000% RDA cyanocobalamin pills) doesn't feel doing anything I could notice. The combo of dish oil + B12 seems preventing menstrual pain in ladies though.
- maxk42 6y ago
  If you're not vegan and you eat at least one serving of meat a day, (or if you're taking a multivitamin) you're probably already getting all the B12 your body can use, and supplementation is unlikely to have much effect.
  - solinent 6y ago
    Souce? I don't think the RDI is a maximum, you can have quite a bit more B12 and still get benefits. When I have time I'll update this with my own search, but maybe you're more educated on this topic than I am. Typically negatives with overuse only exist with the supplements in my 1 minute glance. This is common amongst many different supplements actually. If you eat actual food you get full, so it prevents too much nutrition from being an issue. I don't think B12 is really something your body will reject, we are able to efficiently filter out any extra with minimal load on the kidneys & liver.
- DiabloD3 6y ago
  Skip the Cyanocobalmin. Enough people have problems metabolizing that form, and it also shouldn't be consumed solo. Cheap and effective B Complexes exist that use better forms of the various vitamins exist; only lazy manufacturers still use stuff like Cyanocobalmin. A good multivitamin should also be covering your B need as well, I ended up making a short list of good multis, and Life Extension 2-per-day Capsules ended up being the least expensive of ones that made the list... you pretty much have to go to Thorne and pay more to get better.
- solinent 6y ago
  Have you tried fish (eat wild-caught)? Mackerel is tasty if you don't like salmon. Those two are both very oily, you can eat one or two servings a week and get enough omega-3. B12 is present in any animal product usually so I recommend eating more meat, cheese or other dairy. You really need the full B spectrum, but B12 in particular is the one to focus on. I am not an expert, experts may disagree for other reasons, but I do know my math and read the studies for my own benefit.

ianai 6y ago

Importantly, fish oils are not the only source of decent omega3/omega6 ratios. Walnuts are roughly 1:4, everyone knows about flaxseeds, etc. as someone else said, too, cutting back on omega6 sources is as important or may just offer greater correction toward the target ratio.

corysama 6y ago
I used to consume a lot of flaxseed oil as a cheap source of Omega 3. But, then I heard on HN that Om 3 is not very bioavailable in that form. But, that's my only source of info on that.
- codemac 6y ago
  It depends on what you're looking for I guess, my understanding is: There are 3 major omega 3 fats people mostly talk about, ALA, DHA, EPA. ALA is transformed to DHA & EPA through different mechanisms in the body, whereas DHA & EPA are usually only found in other animal sources. If you eat enough ALA (maybe more than recommended to increase probability of production?), your body will produce all the DHA & EPA you need. I haven't read through this study yet but it may be interesting: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9637947/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9637947/ It seems to indicate eating less saturated fat increases your ability to convert ALA ~5x
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163782715000223 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016378271... "table isotope methods have typically resulted in estimates of percent conversion of ALA to DHA being less than 1% of the ingested stable-isotope ALA, although estimates vary widely, ranging from 0–9.2% (Table 1). Also, there is typically no increase in plasma total lipid or phospholipid DHA when ALA intake is increased in humans (reviewed in [10], [11]), supporting the conclusion that DHA synthesis from ingested ALA is not an efficient process in humans."
    - 6y ago

UniverseHacker 6y ago

My understanding is that fatty fish consumption is linked with health benefits, but for the most part omega-3 supplementation fails to reproduce these benefits. Perhaps it's due to other nutrients (selenium?) or perhaps the omega-3 gets oxidized or rancid too easily when purified out.

chrisco255 6y ago
It's often the case that you need to consume some fat in order for your body to uptake certain nutrients. I'm not sure if omega-3 is one of them.
lambdaba 6y ago
Most studies use very small doses. In my experience the benefits are with what some would consider "megadoses", in the tens of grams range. This is what Dr. Barry Sears, who's a specialist in this area, uses with trauma patients. It's extremely effective at reducing inflammation and brain repair.
- ddorian43 6y ago
  The problem with mega doses is that it becomes expensive quickly. 3 grams omega3 daily example.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

partyboat1586 6y ago

Counterpoint http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml for those who like to be contrary.