There’s a range of health benefits of fish oil supplements. Improvements in cholesterol levels are one of them.

We’ve talked about many of the health benefits of fish oil supplements. There’s a range of health benifits of fish oil, amongst them to your heart. Lets have a look at Omega 3 and cholesterol today.

The results of a new study into the heart benefits of fish oil have been published in the Jan/Feb issue of Sports Health, A Multidisciplinary Approach.

It was a study of the heart benefits of taking fish oil supplements, or essential fatty acid supplements, the main component of which is fish oil.

The study was done on 36 pro football players from 23 to 41, who took either fish oil Omega3 supplements or a placebo. They took 4 fatty acid supplements/capsules each day, and that provided them with 2560 mg of Omega-3 fatty acids (650 mg EPA and 450 mg DHA in each capsule.)

The results of  the study backed up many other studies that demonstrate the benefits of essential fatty acid supplements in the form of Omega 3 or fish oil supplements.

The football players had an improvement in their HDL levels (their good cholesterol) and a reduction in their LDL levels (their bad cholesterol).

And as well they demonstrated an improvement in overall triglycerides, the level being significantly lowered.

This is not the only fish oil supplements study to find a link between Omega3 and heart health. There are now numerous studies confirming a range of heart related health benefits of taking fish oil or Omega 3 supplements.

In fact the American Heart Association now recommends the intake of EPA and DHA (the two major beneficial Omega  3 fats) daily, at a dose of 1 gram a day, more for those with elevated triglycerides. Read the rest of this entry

Cod Liver Oil. Are there benefits to cod liver oil that outweigh the benefits of fish oil?

You may have heard about Cod Liver Oil from your grandmother. For a long time there has been an accepted wisdom that cod taking liver oil supplements has been good for you.

Is this the case? Are there cod liver oil benefits or is it a myth? Has modern science confirmed that there are indeed cod liver oil benefits? And are there risks to taking cod liver oil?

Yes it has, your grandmother was right, even though science may not have known then that there were good reasons for taking cod liver oil supplements.

The majority of the benefits of cod liver oil relate to the Omega 3 content, because of course cod liver oil has Omega 3 fats in it. And as you would know if you have read some of our other information there is a wide range of benefits from adding some more Omega 3 to your diet.

Cod liver oil also has beneficial vitamins as well, such as vitamins A and D. Vitamin D is an important vitamin in the body because it helps us process calcium so is useful for strong bones and is therefore helpful in preventing osteoporosis.

However there is now some question over how much Vitamin A should be taken. And as there is quite a lot of vitamin A in cod liver oil there are risks of over consumption of vitamin A. For example in the US pregnant women are now advised to avoid vitamin A and this includes cod liver oil. Cod liver oil is not recommended in the UK.

Thus there are some risks as well as benefits of cod liver oil. Whilst it is a good source of Omega 3 fats it isn’t ideal as it is high in Vitamin A.

And there is another risk to taking cod liver oil supplements. It is, as the name suggests, sourced from the livers of cod fish taken from the North Sea. Unfortunately there are issues associated with contamination of fish with various contaminants, including heavy metals, PCBs and mercury. Although levels are not high they are sufficient to be worrying. And the liver accumulates more of these toxins.

Whilst these contaminants weren’t a problem in your grandmothers time, they are now.

A better way to source your Omega3 fatty acids, the major advantage of taking cod liver oil, is to take Omega 3 supplements that are clean and free from the risk of excess vitamin A. Vitamin A comes from the liver of the fish but not the flesh, so it isn’t a problem in Omega 3 supplements taken from the flesh of fish. Read the rest of this entry

Should you eat fish to get your Omega3 fatty acids? Isn’t fish contaminated with Mercury and dangerous?

Once you find out how important Omega 3 fatty acids are to so many areas of your health, the next question you need to answer is how do you get your Omega 3 fats?

We’ve pointed out before that Omega 3 fats are most prevalent in fish, that there are plant sources like flax seeds but they don’t have the optimum types, or amounts, of Omega 3 fats that you need.

However although it sounds good getting your Omega3 fatty acids through eating fish there is a problem. You see most, pretty much all, fish is contaminated with various chemicals that we, human beings, in the main, have put into their ocean.

One of the biggest worries is Mercury contamination of fish. According to the EPA there is Mercury contamination in all fish.

Now of course Mercury isn’t something that you want in your body, and your body doesn’t get rid of it all that easily. It’s a particular problem for children.

However the EPA doesn’t recommend that you eliminate all fish from your diet. Fish is healthy, in small quantities, and if you follow some simple guidelines you should be ok eating it. Just don’t eat too much.

It’s ok to eat around 2 serves of fish a week. However for children or pregnant women there’s some more things to think about, because Mercury is more of a risk to children or developing fetuses.

So for pregnant women, or children, you ought to avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish. These are high in mercury. And canned salmon has also carried a warning for pregnant women.

Young children, particularly those 5 and under, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of Mercury. The same applies to pregnant women who are, obviously, carrying a child.

If you’re worried about your Mercury levels, possibly because you’ve been eating a relatively high level of fish most at risk of Mercury contamination, it’s quite possible to get your mercury levels tested. If you go to your doctor and you ask for a Mercury test he can organise that test for you.

To find out more about Mercury contamination visit this consumer guide to the mercury levels in various types of fish.

And you can also do a self test to determine your own Mercury levels on this page, just scroll down a little to find their self Mercury test.

If your mercury levels are shown to be too high you may well be advised by your doctor to delay any pregnancy until tests show that your mercury levels have dropped.

But don’t eliminate all fish from your diet just because you’re worried about Mercury. If you like fish you can eat it, sensibly and in relatively small quantities.

But of course if you understand the importance of Omega3 fatty acids in your diet you need a regular supply of fish oil. Preferable a daily supply. And there is the rub. You see for most of us ordinary people eating fish regularly is really expensive. Fish is getting more and more expensive all the time, and as it gets scarcer it gets more expensive.

And although the EPA says it’s ok to eat it, if you’re eating fish to get your Omega3 then there is a better way. Of course if you just love fish then go for it.

But there is still mercury in fish, albeit in small amounts, and there is a solution to getting your Omega3 that doesn’t involve eating fish, that is cheaper than buying fish a couple of times a week, and overcomes the problem with mercury contamination.

It’s using Omega3 fatty acid supplements. These contain fish oil, but the very best fish oil supplements source the cleanest fish in the ocean and then put it through an extremely robust molecular distillation process that means that levels of mercury, as well as other common contaminants of fish oil, are undetectable.

But be aware that although many fish oil supplements claim to be contamination free, there are varying standards, none binding, and not all fish oil supplements are truly contamination free.

But the best fish oil supplements are.

So unless you really love fish, if you’re just eating it for the Omega3 fatty acids it contain, you’re better off using the best fish oil supplements on the market. Use them daily to get your good fats. It’s cheaper than eating fish, and you aren’t getting any mercury at all.
But if you love fish eat it, just be careful.

With all the talk of EPA and DHA and ALA, how do you choose your Omega 3 capsules?

If you’ve been reading about Omega 3 fish oil you may have become a little confused. The more you read the worse it gets. You start learning about EPA and DHA, and long chain and short chain omega 3 fats. About ALA and converting ALA to DHA.

For example a reader recently asked us about how to choose his Omega 3 fish oil capsules. He was confused about the difference between long chain and short chain Omega 3 fats, and confused about which were the best Omega 3 supplements.

We can understand that. Here’s a short explanation, and then we’ll have a look at how to choose the best Omega 3 fish oil supplements.

The three Omega 3 fats we’ve mentioned (DHA, EPA and ALA) are polyunsaturated fats. They are all good for your body but by far the best and most important is DHA. Remember DHA is the fat that makes up a large part of your brain, though of course that isn’t the only reason.

ALA is primarily found in plant foods like flax, whilst EPA and DHA are found in sea foods like fish. ALA is the less important Omega3 nutrient. And ALA is a short chain fat. No need to go into complete detail on what a short chain fat is as it’s really complicated.

But DHA, the most important Omega 3 fatty acid, is a long chain fat, and, along with EPA, is what you need from your Omega 3 supplements. And all Omega 3 fish oil capsules contain DHA.

So you’re better getting your Omega 3 fats from fish oil supplements rather than supplements like flax seed oil supplements.

So are all fish oil supplements the same? How do you choose between them?

There’s 2 things you need to look for to find the best rated Omega 3 fish oil capsules. You need to look for the quantity of DHA in the capsules, and the purity of the oil.

You look for the quantity as all fish oil capsules have DHA, but in different amounts. Thus you cannot just look for the cheapest fish oil capsules without knowing how much DHA is in them.

Supplements with a third of the amount of DHA than other supplements are not good value even if they are half the price, because on a price/DHA quantity comparison they are actually more expensive.

And that’s not all, you need to consider the purity of the oils too, because, sad to say, many of our fish are contaminated with toxins. You wouldn’t want to take Omega 3 capsules with traces of mercury and PCBs would you?

We’ve done a much more detailed article about how to choose Omega 3 supplements. That deals with all the issues so make sure that you’ve read that if you’re interested in finding out more about the differences between the different supplements available, how to compare them and which ones are our preferred supplements.