By Marcelina Hardy, Staff Writer on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Cutting out dietary fats is crucial for losing weight but cutting out the wrong fats can be detrimental to your health. Learn how omega-3 fatty acid benefits your health.
Cutting out dietary fats is crucial for losing weight but cutting out the wrong fats can be detrimental to your health. Learn how omega-3 fatty acid benefits your health.
A good fat? Isn't that an oxymoron? Check out the facts on omega 3 and see why there's such things as good fats.
What Is Omega-3?
They are essential fatty acids. Your body cannot make these fatty acids, which is why you need to provide your body with them through food or supplements.
They are essential fatty acids. Your body cannot make these fatty acids, which is why you need to provide your body with them through food or supplements.
When your body gets the omega-3s it needs, the fatty acid helps your body make chemicals that help reduce inflammation in place such as your joints, tissues and bloodstream. This helps you move easier, helps your blood flow freer and keeps you from feeling as much pain. This improvement in bodily functions could help prevent illness and disease.
How Omega-3 Benefits You
- It Reduces Triglycerides
A high triglycerides level could increase your risk for heart disease and stroke. According to ScienceDaily, Denmark researchers found high levels of triglycerides increased the risk for ischemic stroke for men and women. Lowering your triglycerides could decrease your risk for both of these diseases. According to Medline, researchers believe that fish oil can help lower triglycerides by as much as 50 percent. - It Lowers High Blood Pressure
If you have a difficult time keeping your blood pressure within normal levels, you may want to try fish oil. It’s believed that the omega-3 expands blood vessels, helping blood flow freely, which lowers the pressure. - It Reduces Menstrual Pain
Reaching for OTC drugs every month? Consider switching it out for fish oil capsules instead. Taking fish oil with or without vitamin B12 could help you just as much as taking over the counter anti-inflammatory drugs. - It Lowers Risk of or Improves Osteoporosis
Does your mother or grandmother have osteoporosis? Take some fish oil capsules along with your milk. Medline reports it slows down bone loss and increases bone density in elderly people with osteoporosis. - It Reduces Pain and Swelling
Feeling sore after a strenuous workout? Start popping fish oil! If you feel pain and experience swelling, the National Institute of Health recommends taking omega-3 fatty acids. It helps stop the cycle of inflammation, which causes the pain. - It Alleviates Mental Illness Symptoms
If you’re feeling as though your mental health medications are not quite helping all of your symptoms, you may want to speak to your psychiatrist about fish oil. The Journal of Affective Disorder published a study by the Psychiatry Department at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom about how there is a possibility that fish oil supplements can help with mental health symptoms in depression, bipolar and psychosis.
Other Benefits of Omega-3
- Controlling Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
- Improving skin ailments
- Protecting against Alzheimer’s disease
- Reducing rheumatoid arthritis problems
Omega-3 Supplements
If you don’t like fish or any of the other foods with omega 3 fatty acids, fish oil supplements can give you what you need. They are typically made from fatty fish such as mackerel, tuna, herring, halibut, salmon, cod liver, whale blubber or seal blubber. According to Medline, they also can include other beneficial vitamins and nutrients such as calcium, iron and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C or D.
If you don’t like fish or any of the other foods with omega 3 fatty acids, fish oil supplements can give you what you need. They are typically made from fatty fish such as mackerel, tuna, herring, halibut, salmon, cod liver, whale blubber or seal blubber. According to Medline, they also can include other beneficial vitamins and nutrients such as calcium, iron and vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C or D.
Recommended Dosage from American Heart Association
American Heart Association recommends 2 to 4 g of omega-3 in capsules daily. However, the exact dosage amount should be discussed with your doctor to ensure you take as much as you need without elevating your risk for bleeding.
American Heart Association recommends 2 to 4 g of omega-3 in capsules daily. However, the exact dosage amount should be discussed with your doctor to ensure you take as much as you need without elevating your risk for bleeding.
Sources
- FAQ, How Often Should I Eat Fish?, Heart.org
- Good Fat, Bad Fat: The Facts About Omega-3, WebMD
- Increasing Triglyceride Levels Linked to Greater Stroke Risk; Study Finds Higher Cholesterol Levels Only Increase Risk of Stroke in Men, ScienceDaily.com
- Fish Oil, MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine
- Omega 3 Fatty Acids, University of Maryland Medical Center
- Ask the Expert: Omega 3 Fatty Acid, Harvard School of Public Health
- Journal of Affective Disorder Vol. 48(2-3); 149-55
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