8 ms·
Omega-3 is inversely related to risk of early-onset dementia
- HPsquared 9mo agoI wonder how much of this is Omega-3 in the diet, or if there are processes that could deplete levels in the blood.
- cpncrunch 9mo agoAbstract says blood levels objectively reflect dietary intake.
- DonThomasitos 9mo agoCool! But isn‘t that already common wisdom and the basis for the omega3 fanboy culture?
- dude250711 9mo agoJust a stepping stone towards Omega 6, 9 and ultimately 7 grindset...
- testdelacc1 9mo agoIf you’re not already on Omega 12, it’s already over for you. You’re cooked. Just pre-pay your funeral expenses and wait a couple weeks.
- cmenge 9mo agoWhatever it is, if you have the Omega 13 you get a chance to correct it! Though that one might not help for slow-moving deterioration...
- hmontazeri 9mo agoI bet this is due to omega 3 reducing inflammation and oxidative stress
- deeth_starr_v 9mo ago> Compared to participants at Q1 of DHA, those at Q5 of non-DHA showed a significant lower risk of EOD. A statistically significant lower risk was observed in Q3, Q4 and Q5 of non-DHA omega-3 If I'm reading this right, if you can't get many fish sources in your diet, it's better to increase the quantity of non-DHA sources (certain seeds, oils and vegetables). But my understanding is non-DHA is not helpful so I may not be understanding correctly
- Qem 9mo ago> But my understanding is non-DHA is not helpful so I may not be understanding correctly Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the Omega-3 present in most plant sources, can get its chemical structure lenghtened to EPA and DHA in the organism. The problem appears to be, when people get older, the efficiency of this conversion takes a large hit.
- mikeyouse 9mo agoIt’s always a stretch too - takes something like 15x more ALA to convert to DHA when things are going well. Not nothing but if a substantial amount of DHA is protective, it’s hard to get there with only ALA.
- Faelon 9mo agoI think it's easy to take algal-based omega-3 supplements. They've gotten pretty good in the last couple years with gummies with a high dose and no algae test. And no fish killed!
- dotancohen 9mo agoI evolved to eat fish and meat killed. So did all other carnivores. I'm happy to continue eating and shitting and sleeping and having sex, I don't want supplements to replace food and AI to replace intellect and IVF to replace sex. I want to be alive.
- niek_pas 9mo ago
- unsupp0rted 9mo agoI would recommend it to elderly family members, but they have atrial fibrillation, and I heard omega 3 can exacerbate it?
- staticassertion 9mo agoIt's seemingly dose dependent. Low omega 3 can seems to have the same mechanistic effect. As for what the dose should be? No clue, personally, and it depends on your heavily diet since even one fishy meal could provide as much as most supplements do. Personally, I don't eat much fish, so I'm comfortable with a supplement. If I ate even one piece of salmon in a day I'd skip the supplement that day. If I had afib I'd talk to a doctor about it before taking it and probably would stay well under 1G on any day I don't eat fish and skip it entirely on a day that I do. Not a dr, not a health professional, not anyone you should listen to perhaps at all, but this is my understanding.
- unsupp0rted 9mo ago> If I had afib I'd talk to a doctor about it before taking it Doctors err on the side of "I read a note that said omega 3 = bad for afib" and stop thinking from that point onward.
- staticassertion 9mo agoYes, Doctors are humans and humans are mostly annoying and lazy. You'll have to search around for a good one, as with all people.
- KempyKolibri 9mo agoThere’s a good pod on this exact subject with nutrition scientists: https://sigmanutrition.com/episode538/ https://sigmanutrition.com/episode538/ The TL;DR (IIRC) is that we tend to only see this in trials where atrial fib is a tertiary endpoint so there’s not really compelling data to suggest AF is a risk. But give it a listen and see what you think, it was a while ago I listened to it and I’m not qualified to give actual advice!
- MarkMarine 9mo agoWhat’s missing from this is how much omega 3 containing food, how often you need to get this protective result. Do I need to eat fish twice a week? 5 times? Do I need to supplement because there is no way to eat enough fish? Would love some practical guidance tacked on to this
- boston_clone 9mo agoI like to get my omegas from the following sources, no fish needed! - hemp hearts (complete protein, goes best with oatmeal for breakfast, on salads, or in soups for an extra bit of nutty / fatty flavor) - pumpkin seeds (also good source of iron, iirc) - algae-based supplement (currently taking an omega3 + vit D + vit K combo capsule from nordic naturals)
- Finnucane 9mo agoNote that one of the authors received funding from Big Walnut.
- CWIZO 9mo agoIt's really surprising how many people don't realise where omegas come from and just default to "more fish". Fish get omegas from alge. Simply skip the middle man and all the nasty side effects that has in the form of animal exploitation and harmful substances for humans they contain.
- cogman10 9mo agoFish metabolize and concentrate the oil. Cows eat grass for protein, we can't really skip the middle man and eat grass to get protein. I don't know if it's true, but it wouldn't be unusual for there to be benefit from getting omega 3 from fish rather than algea because of something like this. AFAIK, we mostly only know about the benefits of eating fish.
- boston_clone 8mo agolike most nutrients, you can weigh them. for example, you can tell exactly how much protein is in 100g of a complete protein like tofu when compared to 100g of something gross like beef. similarly, my algae-based capsules contain 1210 mg of omega3s per serving, with 660mg of EPA and 440 of DHA. > we mostly only know about the benefits of eating fish nope, this study describes consumption of omega3s, not fish per se.
- djoldman 9mo agoStudies like this always seem to cite stats in a way that's pretty inaccessible to me. This is more clear to me: * 217,122 participants whose data was extracted from the UK biobank database * Out of those 217,122, 325 got early onset dementia over an average of 8.3 years * The vast percentage of data came from exactly one blood draw per person between 2006 and 2010 at the beginning of the biobank study Omega-3 Blood | Hazard Risk | Rate of Incidence | Percent Incidence Level Quintiles | | Over 8.3 Years | Over 8.3 Years -------------------|------------------|--------------------|------------------ Q1 (Lowest 20%) | 1.0 | 193 in 100,000 | 0.193% Q4 (High) | 0.62 | 120 in 100,000 | 0.120% Q5 (Highest 20%) | 0.60 | 116 in 100,000 | 0.116%
- getnormality 9mo agoThis could significantly underestimate the real impact. A single point measurement is perhaps a pretty noisy measure of long term average. If we had lifetime averages, the quintiles would be more purely differentiated by the variable of interest, and the risk would be as well.
- kingkawn 9mo agoOr overestimate?
- tfirst 9mo agoHolding all else equal, noisier estimates bias us towards the null. This is attenuation bias. However, the estimates are still probably overestimated. Confounding, p-hacking, publication bias, all move us towards larger estimates.
- kingkawn 8mo ago“Still probably” is classic statistical science
- MichaelDickens 8mo ago
- 46493168 9mo agoAre vegan sources of omega 3 worth it or am I fucked
- scns 9mo agoShould be, that's where the fish get it from.
- Manfred 9mo agoSeaweed :)
- FeteCommuniste 9mo agoJust use an algae-based omega-3 supplement. Eating algae is how fish build up omega-3 levels in their bodies anyway.
- andyjohnson0 9mo agoNot sure where you are located, but here in the UK supermarkets (eg Tesco) sell vegan omega 3/6/9 capsules.
- boston_clone 9mo agovery worth it! seven years here with no negative health effects noticed; plus, you’re saving animal lives and helping sustain the planet. natural sources for omega FAs include hemp hearts and pumpkin seeds.
- KempyKolibri 9mo ago
- pengaru 9mo agoI suspect the positive effects of consuming nutritious forms of fish-centric meals has as much to do with what you're _not_ eating in those meals as contents like omega-3s. There's a bunch of less harmful stuff you can fill your diet with that just by virtue of displacing terrible things has positive effects.
- coffeefirst 9mo agoYeah. In many cases these correlations wind up being a measure of home cooking.
- raffa667 9mo agohttps://blog.ncase.me/on-depression/ https://blog.ncase.me/on-depression/ - I think this is explained in a better and simpler way
- midtake 9mo agoIt's difficult if not impossible to increase your intake of omega-3 without increasing your intake of omega-6 even more. I am not sure that's worth it.
- ipaddr 9mo agoNot sure I understand. Replacing chicken with salmon seems simple. So does eating walnuts.
- Aldipower 9mo agoLinseed oil.
- aedrax 9mo agounfortunately the effectiveness from Omega 3 is from DHA and EPA but ALA (seed based omega 3) is minimal effective. Algae based omega 3 might be fine though
- Aldipower 8mo agoOk, interesting. I did some research about those studies, claiming that. And it seems best to combine Linseed with Fish or Algae! TBH this sounds way to complicated. How could we survive? My guess is, all the studies are incomplete and flawed in some ways. " Linseed oil, but not fish oil, leads to a desirable reduction in arachidonic acid (Omega-6) concentration." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240952797_Studie_zum_Einfluss_von_Leinol_und_Fischol_als_Quellen_fur_Omega3-Fettsauren_auf_den_Fettsaurestatus https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240952797_Studie_zu...
- the_pwner224 9mo agoThe O3:O6 ratio matters more. And with the right diet it's very easy to get tons of O3 with an excellent O6 ratio (1:4 vs. the 1:10+ of the standard western diet). Vegan with some seeds (hemp, flax, chia, etc.) and a fish oil or algal EPA/DHA supplement will do it quite easily. As long as you use olive/avocado oil over the O6-heavy cooking oils. Other diets are probably also capable of this.
- engelo_b 9mo ago[dead]
- getnormality 9mo agoToo bad the LTC industry is kinda dead!
- engelo_b 9mo ago[dead]
- barbazoo 9mo agoIn other words coverage will soon be denied implicitly to people with these markers? Or will people opt out of coverage?
- engelo_b 9mo ago[dead]
- ck2 9mo agoStudies also show you do NOT need DHA and DHA can be detrimental, you want pure EPA or very high EPA to DHA ratio if you want the purest Omega3 EPA without all the contaminants that are in OTC supplement nonsense (they are completely unregulated and untested by batch) ask your doctor for a script of generic VASCEPA CostPlusDrugs has the cheapest generic Vascepa that I've found The dose is usually two pills a day but trust me on this, start with one for a long time, it takes your GI a long time to handle it without bathroom urgency https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5282870/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5282870/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uoQUM30Ess https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uoQUM30Ess
- sfdlkj3jk342a 9mo agoYour link doesn't say anything about dementia. Do you have any source that shows EPA is more beneficial than DHA? What I found from a quick search says the opposite: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4019002/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4019002/
- ck2 9mo agosorry it requires a little detective work https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7760937/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7760937/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3534764/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3534764/ > "An X-ray diffraction study found that EPA and DHA exert different effects on the lipid bilayer of cell membranes. EPA readily incorporates into the cell membrane core and stabilizes it, whereas DHA does not" > "Why does this matter? Cell membranes are essential for cellular function: not only do they provide structural support for cells, but they also facilitate cell-to-cell communication and nutrient/toxin transport. Different effects of EPA and DHA on membrane stability likely elicit different effects in cell signaling. A second study revealed that in addition to stabilizing cell membranes, EPA is also protective against harmful reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation" basically EPA modulates the immune system, DHA does not
- sfdlkj3jk342a 9mo ago
- akashnagar 9mo agoHighly underrated
- dur-randir 9mo agoNote that EOD is both rare (of all dementia cases) and highly inheritable.
- purplehat_ 9mo agoOmega-3 good, Omega-6 bad has been known for many years. For example, Scott Alexander wrote in 2014 on his blog Slate Star Codex about how Omega-3 lowers crime rates and Omega-6 increases crime rates. And he links to some cool RCTs where you can check the methodology yourself. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/02/18/proposed-biological-explanations-for-historical-trends-in-crime/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/02/18/proposed-biological-ex... Eat your fish!
- KempyKolibri 8mo agoThere is zero evidence in that article, or anywhere else that I’ve seen for that matter, that omega 6 is harmful. The evidence provided there would perhaps suggest that omega 3s are beneficial, but that’s about it.
- storus 9mo agoWouldn't Omega-3 and vitamin B2 together be a great prophylaxis for most neuro-degenerative conditions due to repolarizing microglia?
- shiandow 9mo agoThis looks like a pretty weak correlation in a study that doesn't control for any other variables. Which is not nothing but concluding anything about causality is a stretch.
- hsuduebc2 8mo agoIt always amazes me a little how people somehow figure out the good thing to do probably just by simple pattern recognition. The benefits of fish oil are know for a long time yet not we're not marketed with concrete explanation.
- drgo 8mo agoWe have been here before many times. Nutritional epidemiology studies have a terrible track record of establishing causal relationships (e.g., Beta-carotene and lung cancer, selenium and prostate cancer, etc all were not replicated when the definitive clinical trials were done). The problem is that statistical models with questionable and often untestable assumptions are used, but the results are reported as if these models were fault-less. The result is overly optimistic estimates of statistical significance and inflated confidence in study findings.
- KempyKolibri 8mo agoI would disagree with this. While we can always point to examples where epi did not align with RCTs, this doesn’t capture how discordant (or not) this relationship is in the aggregate. Thing is, we actually have empirics on this, and in reality observational studies comparing intake to intake are concordant in over 90% of cases, so I think we actually have a very strong case for making causal inferences based on replicated epi findings: https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n1864 https://www.bmj.com/content/374/bmj.n1864
- firemelt 8mo agois it enough to eat a can of sardines everyday?
- KempyKolibri 8mo agoThe levels of n3s we usually see associated with benefits tend to be the equivalent of 1-2 servings of fish per week.
- therealdrag0 8mo agoI’d love it if we could ban single-study health papers from HN. Meta analysis or bust.