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Daily omega-3 fatty acids may help human organs stay young
- nu2ycombinator 2y agoYep, I haven't aged a day for last 10 years. :)
- aucisson_masque 2y agoYou aren't taking enough of it. I've gone back 2 years.
- m463 2y agogoo goo gah gah.
- aucisson_masque 2y agoNeed help?
- tyronehed 2y agoThe yellow kind of Omega-3 comes from salmon, and it has a side effects of making a stink and also concentrating mercury. Instead, you should get your omega-3 from krill oil, which is low on the food chain does not concentrate Mercury is all around better
- mettamage 2y agoWill check it out, never heard of krill.
- defactor 2y agoWild alaskan salmon Alaskan people are tested regularly for mercury due to high fish consumption
- safeimp 2y agoGood advice. Additionally, I’d recommend that with any supplement you evaluate the source you’re buying from. I typically use Nootropics Depot (avoiding linking so this doesn’t look like a full blown add - check my history though, not a shill) and they use 3rd party lab testing to back up claims.
- xlbuttplug2 2y ago+1. ND and Thorne I trust blindly.
- codr7 2y agoEmptying the oceans of krill isn't a very good idea either unfortunately, and that's pretty much what we're doing.
- BenjiWiebe 2y agoSome skimming of Wikipedia suggests that our total annual krill harvest is about 1/950th of the amount that predators eat of the main krill species per year. Also usually the smaller the animal / the farther down the food chain, the faster they reproduce. And some more reading of Wikipedia suggests that krill can reproduce very quickly.
- codr7 2y agoThat's one perspective. I worked at a Norwegian company that ran 5 huge ships gulping krill 24/7 in the arctic region. Once you see the scale of operation, it becomes pretty obvious it's a problem, and I'm pretty sure those numbers are manipulated to hide it.
- kiwiana 2y agoThere are plant based alternatives too, which are derived from kelp.
- trehalose 2y agoMercury is generally concentrated in the meat, not the fat. (It has an affinity for the thiol groups on certain amino acids in protein.) There's certainly other fat-soluble pollutants like PCBs to worry about, but I'd never heard of any fish oil products having significant mercury contamination. I'd love to see the info you've been looking at?
- xlbuttplug2 2y agoAny decent brand is using molecularly distilled fish oil.
- nicce 2y agoFor Nordic people, Norwegian salmon is likely the worst possible source. Too many bad things going on with that farming.
- codr7 2y agoI met plenty of Norwegians while living there who refused to eat local Salmon, they have a pretty good idea where it comes from.
- alsoforgotmypwd 2y agoYup. It's gross. Ever see the documentary about fish lice and food pellets?
- codr7 2y agoWorse is the fact that some will escape, spreading their messed up genes and diseases to wild populations.
- exhilaration 2y agoJust eat the right kind of salmon: "All species of Alaska wild salmon have very low levels of mercury." From: https://health.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/eph/Pages/fish/default.aspx#:~:text=The%20Alaska%20Department%20of%20Environmental,very%20low%20levels%20of%20mercury. https://health.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/eph/Pages/fish/default.asp...
- graypegg 2y agoOverlooked one major benefit of salmon though: it tastes great and I would rather eat salmon than krill oil caps ;) To be fair, there’s low heavy metal contamination salmon on the market; a few sibling comments mentioned wild Alaskan salmon, but I also think farmed salmon tends to be lower in Hg content that the “average” wild salmon.
- alsoforgotmypwd 2y agoOr, take ALA which is just omega-3 and nothing else.
- snvzz 2y agoSardine. Most underrated fish ever. Almost as good as salmon re: Omega-3, but low mercury content.
- Cpoll 2y agoWorth noting that canned "sardines" can be any of a multitude of unrelated fish, so it's not a good differentiator. Although they tend to be small fish, which is probably a reasonable predictor for lower mercury content.
- ninininino 2y agoFlax is also really easy to add to a smoothie if you have a decent blender, my recipe: almond milk (any type of milk or yogurt), frozen berries, oats, flax seeds. Just blend it up and eat it for breakfast. Washing blenders after you finish is often easy as you can just add water and a drop of dish soap and then run it once more and then pour it out.
- dp-hackernews 2y agoOpposing claims? "Vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acids not helpful in reducing risk of frailty" https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09-vitamin-d3-omega-fatty-acids.html https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09-vitamin-d3-omega-fatt...
- jakeinspace 2y agoThose are different claims. I don't exactly know what frailty means technically, but this was a 5 year study on the elderly. Preserving organ health with a lifetime of omega 3 consumption is totally different.
- eightysixfour 2y agoI'm starting to wonder if Vitamin D and Omega 3s are indicators, not drivers. D is an indicator that you spend time outdoors, in the sun, and that is healthy for your body. Similarly, Omega 3 is indicative of other lifestyle choices, not causal for better health.
- Enginerrrd 2y agoOr even that being healthier and less frail means you're more likely to go out and enjoy being outdoors. As I age, I increasingly see the effect that healthy people with great genetics also have all the indicators of being healthy. I think this effect is conflated to an extent even for things like exercise: for people that feel good and strong, exercise feels great. For people that aren't, they go downhill faster anyway. I have terrible genetics for cardiovascular disease. I've spent my life as an athlete, eating healthy, training, etc. But now in my 30's, I can feel the slow down a lot despite being more disciplined in my training and diet than ever and yet I know people my age that haven't trained in years that can just go for a run and absolutely smoke me. I'm sure at some point my genetics is going to force me to slow down a bit on the training despite my best efforts and then I'll just end up as someone contributing to the statistics that those who exercise more are healthier. I know that exercise has benefits nevertheless, but I also think we very often just make the mistake of concluding "healthier people are healthier". Life is not really fair.
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- constantlm 2y agoHow do they separate the impact of the 3x per week exercise?
- nodata 2y agoBut: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10175873/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10175873/
- sebmellen 2y agoFascinating. > It is unclear how omega-3 fatty acids increase the AF risk. Omega-3 fatty acids stabilize the cardiac membrane and protect against arrhythmias, including ventricular arrhythmias, through both direct electrophysiologic actions and positive effects on biological processes involved in atrial remodeling. However, omega-3 fatty acids have direct effects on the activity of cardiac calcium, sodium, and potassium ionic currents, which can alter the duration of the ventricular action potential. Therefore, omega-3 fatty acids may promote re-entrant arrhythmias, despite being anti-arrhythmic in therapeutic conditions. Several previous studies have evaluated the electrical characteristics of the ventricular wall; few studies have evaluated how omega-3 fatty acids influence the atria.
- jadbox 2y agoEILI5? How compelling is this study against Omega3?
- stephen_g 2y agoIt sounds to me like that short quote is saying (paraphrasing here) that 'studies seems to show omega-3 is beneficial, but theoretically apart from the beneficial mechanisms there could be a harmful mechanism so we're not sure why we don't see that happening'
- Jaepa 2y agoThere's been a fair bit of research people who have diets rich in Omega 3, have better cardiovascular health. There is no real reliable study's that show consistent benefits from Omega 3 supplements however.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- helph67 2y agoThis may explain why people who use the Mediterranean diet tend to live long, healthy lives.
- nabaraz 2y agoThere are different variations of Omega 3 fatty acids. For instance, Avocados is rich in Omega 3 ALA which is considered not as effective as EPA and DHA. Fish is the only source of EPA and DHA.
- mbil 2y agoAnd algal oil supplements
- westurner 2y agoFrom "An Omega-3 that’s poison for cancer tumors" (2021) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27499427 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27499427 : > Fish don't synthesize Omega PUFAs, they eat algae which synthesize fat-soluble DHA and EPA. > From "Warning: Combination of Omega-3s in Popular Supplements May Blunt Heart Benefits" (2018) https://scitechdaily.com/warning-combination-of-omega-3s-in-popular-supplements-may-blunt-heart-benefits/ https://scitechdaily.com/warning-combination-of-omega-3s-in-... : >> Now, new research from the Intermountain Healthcare Heart Institute in Salt Lake City finds that higher EPA blood levels alone lowered the risk of major cardiac events and death in patients, while DHA blunted the cardiovascular benefits of EPA. Higher DHA levels at any level of EPA, worsened health outcomes. >> [...] Based on these and other findings, we can still tell our patients to eat Omega-3 rich foods, but we should not be recommending them in pill form as supplements or even as combined (EPA + DHA) prescription products,” he said. “Our data adds further strength to the findings of the recent REDUCE-IT (2018) study that EPA-only prescription products reduce heart disease events.”
- throwitawayfam 2y ago> Fish is the only source of EPA and DHA. Algae oil [0] which is plant based is also a source of EPA and DHA. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaweed_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaweed_oil
- technoabsurdist 2y agohttps://elicit.com/review/c701554b-5722-424d-a3d7-b805b5878a8e https://elicit.com/review/c701554b-5722-424d-a3d7-b805b5878a...
- ra 2y agoFor the most complete analysis of the evidence for Omega 3 (and other miconutrients) the very best resource I've found is Dr Rhonda Patrick: https://www.foundmyfitness.com/topics/omega-3 https://www.foundmyfitness.com/topics/omega-3
- kpfleger 2y agoThe academic paper this story is based on is here: https://nature.com/articles/s43587-024-00793-y https://nature.com/articles/s43587-024-00793-y Despite the linked story title only mentioning omega3, the paper was about 3 interventions, that, vitamin D, exercise and found reduced epigenetic age from the interventionts, with bigger anti-aging benefit as they were combined. With respect to vitamin D specifically, this isn't by itself good evidence vitamin D reverses aging. But it is consistent with the totality of evidence that being vitamin D deficient probably (causally) speeds aging. And it mildly increases the overall weight of evidence of a connection. As with much vitamin D research, it would have been better for the intervention to have been titrate vitamin D supplement amount to achieve an optimal target range (eg 30-60ng/ml) rather than using a fixed relative moderate dose (2000IU). The problem with a fixed dose is that surely some subjects started severely deficient, some mildly, and some had sufficient levels. The moderate but not very high fixed dose will have helped many in the middle group climb out of deficiency, not been enough for many in the 1st group to bring them fully out of deficiency, and been unnecessary for those in the 3rd group, so the study ends up seeing a weaker overall effect averaged over all subjects. This is well known within the vitamin D world, eg see https://x.com/KarlPfleger/status/1732514710715514883 https://x.com/KarlPfleger/status/1732514710715514883, but somehow has not permeated to be widely enough understood, even within the scientific community (or the Hacker News community). For an extensive list of papers supporting a link between vitamin D and speed of aging, see https://x.com/KarlPfleger/status/1390717755158974464 https://x.com/KarlPfleger/status/1390717755158974464