Omega 3 Fish Oil Necessary For Optimal Health

If you were about to be imprisoned on some island and you were only allowed to take one nutritional supplement each day, what would it be?

Multivitamins? Antioxidants? CoQ10 perhaps?

While these may be good choices, you won’t find a drug or a single dietary health supplement with more far reaching anti-aging benefits than omega 3s.

Western diets are heavily laden with omega 6 (inflammatory) fatty acids. Inflammation is what causes so many of the diseases people suffer from today.

To counteract this bias in our diets, it is essential that we consume enough omega 3s – which are anti-inflammatory. Just so happens that we are not getting enough and desperately need to do something about this.
The Benefits

Research has suggested the following benefits of consuming omega 3 fatty acids:

* Shows usefulness in treating colon, breast and prostate cancers

* Can be effective for keeping people with healthy hearts free of heart disease

* Prevents second heart attacks better than any drug it was tested against!

* It changes the density of the LDL (bad) cholesterol making it less bad and improves HDL (good) cholesterol this reducing the incidences of heart attacks and strokes. Studies have shown that fish oil works better than statins at improving HDL

* Can lower triglycerides, a type of blood fat that’s linked to heart disease.

* Reduce strokes caused by clotting of the blood vessels in the brain

* Lowers blood pressure

* Can benefit the joints and cartilage and help prevent arthritis or make arthritis less severe.

* Can effectively reduce the risk of age related cognitive decline or dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease

* Improves mood and is a natural anti-depressant.

* Plays a key role in brain development, improves memory and I.Q.

* Improves testosterone in men

* Great for eyes as it protects against age related macular degeneration.

* A potent anti-inflammatory that can play a part in the prevention of Type 1 diabetes

* Improves the effects of insulin on cells and hence fights adult onset diabetes

* Improvements in hair, nails, skin, sleep, workout recovery and more!
The Basics

Omega-3s are essential fatty [the 3 main forms being eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) ] are critical to human health.

However, the human body cannot produce these nutrients on its own; it has to get them through food (mainly fish) or supplements.

Woman taking the #1 anti-aging supplerment on the planetEPA and DHA are referred to as the long chain forms of omega-3 and are found primarily in fish and fish oil supplements.

ALA is the short-chain form. It is found primarily in plant sources such as canola, flax seed and walnuts.

The body needs to convert the short chain version of omega 3s to the long chain version in order to make use if it. However, this conversion does not happen very efficiently. This is why you’re better off taking fish oil capsules as a source of omega-3 essential fatty acids than plant-based sources.
Why Not Just Eat Fish?

Generally, it is better to get nutrients from food, since those nutrients are more bio-available. However, the world’s oceans are so polluted with mercury, PCBs, toxic metals and radioactive material that eating fish is potentially a hazardous affair.

Check out GotMercury.org if you are curious about how much mercury you are ingesting when you eat tuna, sushi etc. Even eating farm raised fish has its short comings because they are fed foods high in omega 6s and hormones – yes – substances which are inflammatory to your system.

Besides, you’ll have to eat multiple servings of fish per week to get the amount of omega-3s available from a dosage of fish oil.

If you like eating fish – and don’t mind the mercury – then be my guest. But if not – taking a pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement (to be exact) is by far, the healthiest option. Such a supplement is molecular distilled to remove the contaminants present in the oil of the fish, to the n’th degree.
Dosage

Personally, I take around 4 grams a day – that is around 4 capsules. The American Heart Association recommends dosages based on your vascular health.

Seek your physician’s advice for greater clarity on dosage because fish oil is just too important to your health to pass up. Really, it is the closest mother nature comes to providing a fountain of youth.