I have a fun omega-3 anecdata point going right now. A friend of mine researches the stuff in mouse models and told me it's extremely beneficial, but you need to buy a fancy brand to avoid rancid oil or heavy metal contamination both of which ~null out the benefits. She recommended Sports Research.
I bought some and started taking it and my 1:1 bullet chess ELO jumped from 850 to ~1070 over the next couple weeks.
I play chess a bit like sushi ginger for the mind - purge working memory with a short intense task to context switch. I intentionally don't study openings or anything so I can use it as a benchmark for mental horsepower with a reasonably slow drift in the baseline from 'actually learning chess'.
My friend says this effect is way too big to actually attribute to the vitamins and it has to be placebo etc but I'm thoroughly enjoying the idea that omega-3 Nick would win 3/4 bullet matches against deficient Nick.
Consumer Labs offers as a subscription service testing of various vitamins Including fish oil. They perform a great service, and I think it's economical in terms of determining if what you're buying is really what you want.
Heavy metal contamination is classically not a problem because the fish oil is distilled. My guess is your researcher friend has fallen victim to the marketing of the pharmacological industry-- Although I do want to indicate they do have value, probably not the 500 percent markup that they put on what in essence is a generic product.
Some natural fish oils are not distilled and do have this problem-- These are normally marketed as natural or cod liver oil or something that should hit your radar pretty quick. Your friend's concern about rancidity is clearly a problem And pretty well understood by people for years if you have any familiarity with chemistry. Omega threes get their name from the fact that you have a weird bend on the end of a long carbon molecule. This is susceptible to oxidation. This is true for any Omega 3 molecule regardless of its length Or it's sourcing.
This includes omega-3 "drugs" like Vascepa (pure EPA) and Lovaza (EPA and DHA combination).
Fortunately in testing, they have not found widespread issues with rancidity, although they definitely have found pockets. My normal suggestion to everybody is by a high volume manufacturer that you know is tearing through the product quite rapidly. My top suggestion is Costco. Then make sure you keep your fish oil in the refrigerator, and churn through it on a regular basis.
p1esk · 43m ago
If I eat raw salmon (sashimi) a couple times a week, would I still benefit from consuming fish oil?
johnyzee · 34m ago
Yes. A real, raw source is almost certainly better than a processed and treated source. Packaged fish oil is sometimes rancid, unnoticeable to you, and those oxidation products are harmful. It is also heavily loaded with antioxidants, without which fresh fish oil goes rancid within hours, and which have their own detrimental effects when in excess.
anonymars · 1m ago
I'm confused, it sounds like you very much don't recommend supplementing if already eating enough fish?
trehalose · 15m ago
How long was your bullet chess elo stable at 850 (and how often were you playing) before this experiment began? I'm asking because the act of playing constitutes practice, which could itself cause a rise in your elo. Bit of a confounding factor there, potentially.
maxboettinger · 2h ago
How much do you take? Evidence-based dosage guidance for supplements is hard to find. Pointers to primary sources with empirically supported dose ranges for common supplements—magnesium, zinc, and multivitamins—appreciated!
theologic · 1h ago
This really is a good use for Perplexity. I suggest a prompt along the lines of "what is the pubmed indications for what somebody should take for omega-3 or n3 pufa for X". This way your pull the primary research and you can have a conversation to your needs.
With that written, generally the literature indicates that somewhere around 1-2G daily of EPA/DHA is in the range of what is fringe mainstream. There is a lot of variance around this and a lot of debate. For example, you'll get a debate about the ability of the body to convert 22 EPA into 24 DHA, so some will push DHA as the preferred source for the body.
adrian_b · 1h ago
The range of 1 to 2 g daily of DHA+EPA has been suggested based on the daily consumption of 2 g or more that is typical for populations like the Japanese, who include a great proportion of marine food in their diet and who appear to derive health benefits from this.
I agree that for now there is no better evidence about which is the optimal daily intake.
Quantities about 10 times less than this might be sufficient to avoid any obvious signs of nutritional deficiency, but are unlikely to be optimal.
The capacity of converting ALA from vegetable oil into DHA and EPA may vary a lot between humans and it is typically lower in males than in females and also lower in older people than in young people.
The less risky choice is to ensure that you eat enough DHA+EPA. Perhaps one does not need 1 to 2 g of DHA+EPA daily, but eating it is unlikely to be harmful, while not eating it carries definite risks.
Moto7451 · 1h ago
There’s a study that 3g is needed to move triglycerides and HDL in a good direction. I did that under a doctor’s direction and it worked as intended. Didn’t do anything for my cholesterol otherwise which is one of the confounders in some of the studies. Sometimes people get better LDL, sometimes not. vLDL improved markedly but maybe I was just taking better care of my diet between tests.
I don’t mind taking them so I kept the Omega 3s and started taking others for my LDL issues.
iamben · 8m ago
Without hijacking the thread, may I ask what you took for better LDL? Always interested in heart health! Thanks!
FollowingTheDao · 30m ago
I take fish oil and eat seafood for this exact reason. I probably get 4 to 5 g of omega-3 a day at least. And that really moved all my lipids in a positive direction.
Qem · 2h ago
> but you need to buy a fancy brand to avoid rancid oil or heavy metal contamination both of which ~null out the benefits
I didn't know about the rancidity problem, thank you. Knew about the contamination issue. To avoid it, I tried to source oil derived from sources lower in the food chain, either vegan algae oil, or krill oil. But krill oil is super expensive, when compared to fish oil, with lower levels of EPA/DHA per capsule. The problem with algae oil it's that those I've found contain only DHA. Not sure about the relative importance between EPA/DHA, although.
adrian_b · 1h ago
The so-called "algae" are not algae.
"Algae oil" is a marketing term that has been chosen for sounding better, especially to vegans, than "Schizochytrium oil" or "oil from stramenopiles".
Schizochytrium is an organism somewhat similar to a fungus, but which is not a fungus and it is distantly related to brown algae and diatoms (but unlike those, it is not an alga; it never had chloroplasts acquired by symbiosis).
The first cultivated strains of Schizochytrium produced only DHA, but now there are strains that also produce EPA. At least in Europe, you can easily find Schizochytrium oil that contains DHA + EPA in a 2:1 proportion. For most humans, especially for most males, both DHA and EPA are needed, because the capacity of interconversion between them is typically insufficient in comparison with what is needed.
However, even if it has become cheaper in recent years, Schizochytrium oil remains about 3 times more expensive than fish oil, per its fatty acid content. There are also many vendors that try to deceive their customers by selling diluted oil at about the same price as the decent vendors, therefore at a price many times higher per the fatty acid content.
In Europe, in recent years I have preferred Möller's Pure Cod Liver Oil, which is quite tasty, either alone or added to food. Using bottled oil is much better than using capsules. Besides being cheaper and not ingesting garbage capsules, tasting the oil makes certain that it neither is rancid nor has any suspect content. This is also true for Schizochytrium oil. Many decades ago, cod liver oil had a reputation of something that children were forced to eat, despite its bad taste. This is completely untrue nowadays, when the oil is made either immediately after catching or from fish that have been frozen immediately after catching, so the oil has not degraded and it retains a pleasant taste.
If Schizochytrium oil will become cheaper, i.e. with a price not more than double in comparison with pure cod liver oil, then I will switch to it, removing from my diet the only ingredient that is obtained by killing animals.
bnycum · 2h ago
I also started taking the Sports Research omega-3 capsules early this year. Seems the consensus for taking any omega-3 is that it's single-source and wild caught which is why I chose that brand. My biggest benefit has been my eyesight with way less floaters.
However I started taking creatine this summer to help with my recovery from running now that I'm older. I will say I feel it's done more for my cognitive function than the omega-3 did.
RankingMember · 1h ago
> biggest benefit has been my eyesight with way less floaters.
Huh, did you also have to get any laser surgery done to get rid of them totally? My research always indicated that once you had floaters, they were basically just there forever and your brain just learned to work around them.
wil421 · 43m ago
My eye doc said I had a slight case of blepharitis and that I should use high quality fish oil and eye lid cleaning wipes. The oil would help the membranes or gland in the eye lid, can’t remember which.
pretzellogician · 4m ago
I hadn't heard that! I'll have to take good fish oil religiously.
Blepharitis is just the worst.
bnycum · 39m ago
No surgery and I don't wear any vision correction, they aren't gone 100% just reduced greatly. I really only ever notice them when going from dark to light. Typically never inside my house under normal light, mainly just outdoors.
My diet does lack seafood overall. While I love salmon my family doesn't. If we eat seafood it's mainly catfish and shrimp though, as we are in Louisiana.
adastra22 · 24m ago
> wild caught
Wouldn't wild caught have more heavy metals?
storus · 2h ago
Omega-3 together with vitamin B2 repolarizes microglia from pro-inflammatory state to healing state, so no wonder your brain got a boost. Now, how can I tell if Omega-3 capsules are rancid?
adrian_b · 1h ago
If you buy bottled oil instead of capsules, you can feel its taste, so you can sense whether it is rancid or it has any other suspect taste.
Good omega-3 oil has a pleasant taste, there is really no need to eat capsules made from chemically-modified cellulose or who knows what other material that is not suitable as food.
The omega-3 oil can be mixed with whatever oil you add to your food, e.g. to a salad.
storus · 39m ago
Yeah, I mean if I open a capsule, I can tell. But without opening it, is there any way to tell it's rancid?
adrian_b · 8m ago
Like I have said, you can buy omega-3 oil as liquid in bottles, even if it may be harder to find than in capsules (but with online shopping it is very easy to find many kinds of such oil).
The pure oil is cheaper and you can feel its taste without having to break capsules. Moreover you do not have to ingest capsules made of dubious substances, besides the desired oil.
Once opened (but preferably also before) such an oil bottle should be kept in a refrigerator.
Some bottled oil includes flavors, e.g. lemon, which mask its natural taste. Unflavored omega 3 oil is preferable.
smilliken · 21m ago
The best way is to open a capsule for each batch you receive to test it by taste, then store in the fridge.
JumpCrisscross · 2h ago
> I play chess a bit like sushi ginger for the mind - purge working memory with a short intense task to context switch
I use it as a stupidity meter. If I play a series of bad bullet games, I’m more cautious about my decision making that day.
mettamage · 43m ago
Playing chess as a baseline thing to know how your cognitive processing is seems like a good idea.
da02 · 2h ago
Your life sounds amazing. What other discoveries have you found? Do you publish anywhere online? (social media, Youtube, etc.)
Finnucane · 1h ago
Or just eat foods that have it.
adrian_b · 1h ago
That would be a great solution, except that such foods are usually much more expensive than an equivalent amount of omega-3 oil.
Moreover, due to the great human stupidity of dumping everything where "it becomes the problem of others", now it has become the problem of everybody that what were previously among the healthiest foods, i.e. most food items of marine origin, nowadays carry significant health risks, due to possible mercury content.
Finnucane · 25m ago
But they do have the advantage of being, you know, food, and not just a bottle of oil. And you can't live on a bottle of oil. You'll still need to buy the food.
FollowingTheDao · 2h ago
I believe you. People really don’t understand how important omega-3 is for the transport and metabolism of neurotransmitters.
Kirkland Omega 3’s seem to be decent, hope they are.
reducesuffering · 2h ago
They are pitifully low in EPA/DHA per $
theologic · 1h ago
I highly recommend them as they test well for freshness, but if you aim to get around 2G of EPA/DHA, you'll need 8 capsules. To your point that's a lot of capsules if you don't like swallowing pills. Compare with prescription below:
Kirkland Signature Fish Oil provides 151.8 mg EPA and 119.1 mg DHA per tablet, totaling 270.9 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel).
Prescription Lovaza (Rx)* provides 465 mg EPA and 375 mg DHA per tablet, totaling 840 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel (Rx)).
Prescription Vascepa (Rx)* provides 960 mg EPA and <40 mg DHA per tablet, totaling ~960 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel (Rx)).
j45 · 1h ago
Thanks so much. Reducing the average 1600 decisions a day we apparently make is helpful.
It can be a lot of pills time wise as well.
j45 · 2h ago
Agreed, it’s why I’m taking multiples.
Open to other omega 3’s if there’s any recommendations.
theologic · 1h ago
Because of the issues with rancidity, I strongly prefer Costco because they churn through the stuff like there is no tomorrow. Their supply chains seem to be pretty straightforward from OEM to internal warehouse to to clearance. Just make sure to keep it refrigerated and move it from shelf to a cool place in a timely fashion period.
j45 · 2h ago
Appreciate the anecdata. There could have been a bit of a deficiency compared to baseline.
I have heard of that brand too - quality matters.
Omega 3 containing sufficient DHA is studied to reduce inflammation in the brain as well has help with other cognitive processes.
Another one I had read is the insulin spike after a meal can be lowered significantly by having one omega-3 with each meal.
I’ll try to circle back with a few of the studies.
bongodongobob · 2h ago
Eh, I could see it. When I look at my rating graph it's really easy to correlate with life events. Bad stuff at work, rating drops. Went on vacation, goes way up etc. Just being in a bad mood will fuck up my game, so I def think it's very possible it did affect your game that much. Not to mention that that level of chess is very volatile. A 2200 player would definitely not see the same effects.
bilsbie · 2h ago
I just can’t imagine how you’d remove healthy user bias from a study like this.
andrewla · 20m ago
Have not read the underlying study but given that it is a generic nutrition and vision study, this seems like a clear case of p-hacking. At best it could be a "here is something that might merit future research".
They find that one of the nutrient factors studied is positively correlated with improved vision at p=0.01. https://xkcd.com/882/
whatever1 · 49m ago
Compare Chinese and Indian myopia frequencies. One country loves fish the other is mostly vegetarian.
FollowingTheDao · 29m ago
Both of these cultures are genetically adapted to the foods they need. So comparing these populations will not reveal anything about myopia in certain populations.
whatever1 · 22m ago
Why? Who died of Myopia and did not pass their gene to the next gen ?
gs17 · 16m ago
You wouldn't die "of myopia", you would die because myopia means you didn't see things that might be hazardous.
hellojebus · 2h ago
This reminded me of the Knowledge Project podcast with Dr. Rhonda Patrick on certain biomarkers, including omega index as an indicator for longer life span.
How much was the highest-quartile group consuming?
simianwords · 1h ago
Hi any trusted review of Nordic Natural's fish oil please?
savorypiano · 3h ago
This should be studied across different populations, not just one which is known for myopia.
FollowingTheDao · 3h ago
I disagree, I think they need to study specific populations for specific diseases associated with different diets. If you study this across population where this doesn’t matter as much then they will say omega-3 has no effect on nearsightedness, which is bad for the population that needs omega-3.
Omega-3 saved me from the fate of my family, dying from a heart attack before I was 50.
And I see this need in my genetics, specifically FADS1 FADS2 polymorphisms that make me need higher chain omega-3 fatty acids like from seafood.
j45 · 2h ago
Agree. Omega 3 is well studied.
Things don’t have have to be proven universally for every human, but omega 3 seems pretty universal.
nemo44x · 1h ago
Omega 3 helps manage triglycerides which when high make managing insulin difficult which results in the liver putting more glucose in the blood. This can create poor vision as high glucose damages eyes.
Wonder if this is related.
fortran77 · 44m ago
I hate to sound like one of those "Do Your Own Research" types, but as far as I can tell, there are only a few supplements that have repeatedly shown _some_ benefits in peer-reviewed replicated studies for general health:
Vitamin D, Omega 3, and possibly Magnesium and Creatine.
So I stopped taking a daily multivitamin and I just take modest doeses of these 4 supplemements every day.
Aurornis · 8m ago
> Vitamin D, Omega 3, and possibly Magnesium and Creatine.
Vitamin D supplementation is mildly helpful for those with low baseline levels. However the benefits have been exaggerated across the internet and podcasts. A lot of studies show no measured reduction in things like frequency of respiratory infections ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38178229/ for example, which funnily enough had the Vitamin D3 treated men getting more respiratory infections).
Omega 3 has also been greatly exaggerated. Later large scale studies have shown minimal to no effects.
Magnesium is another one that can be helpful for those who are deficient, but due to the long duration within the body a lot of the supplement fanatics who consume large doses of magnesium might be getting too much over time. Gwern did some self-experimentation where magnesium might have possibly been net negative over time: https://gwern.net/nootropic/magnesium
Creatine is the latest trend. If you believe the latest trends you need to consume a huge amount daily and it will fight off everything from depression to low energy. This is another one where the most impressive studies are all very small, but the larger the study the less impressive the results. The influencers only talk about the small, impressive studies, of course.
moduspol · 31m ago
It may depend on what you count as a supplement. Fiber and protein are pretty good to supplement, though obviously you can also get them from diet. And testosterone (at least for males), though not without side effects.
yalok · 3h ago
Summary from GPT (wow, not sure about avoiding cheese & milk - sounds risky for calcium/bones health):
Omega-3 fats seem to protect against myopia, while saturated fats seem to increase the risk. Other nutrients didn’t show clear effects.
Foods high in saturated fats (risk foods)
• Fatty meats: beef, lamb, pork, processed meats (sausages, bacon)
• Dairy: butter, cheese, cream, whole milk, ice cream
• Baked goods: pastries, cookies, cakes made with butter or shortening
• Fast foods: fried chicken, burgers, pizza
• Coconut and palm oil products (though plant-based, they’re high in saturated fats)
So the takeaway is: More fish, nuts, and seeds may help protect children’s eyes, while too many fatty meats, butter, and fried foods may raise the risk of myopia.
angiolillo · 2h ago
> wow, not sure about avoiding cheese & milk - sounds risky for calcium/bones health
The importance of dairy is overblown, especially in the US where the dairy industry funds a lot of school nutrition initiatives. I helped out around a cousin's dairy farm as a kid but eventually discovered that I'm part of the ~2/3rds of the world population that doesn't digest dairy well.
You'll get calcium as long as you eat some white/navy beans, tofu, kale, okra, collards, broccoli raab, chia, or even "calcium fortified" foods.
alphazard · 1h ago
There has historically been a lot of flawed research about saturated fat. Sugar and fat together is always fattening, and being obese comes with a lot of risk.
> Summary from GPT
This whole post is filled with bad implicit advice. No one should stop eating meat to make their eyesight better. No one should add canola oil to their diet as a source of Omega 3.
adrian_b · 57m ago
Yeah, also soybean oil would be as useless as canola oil.
Among vegetable oils, flaxseed oil is the best source of ALA, while also walnut oil and hemp oil have decent amounts.
However many humans, especially many men, have a too low capacity for elongating ALA into DHA and EPA, so they may remain deficient in omega-3 fatty acids even when eating decent amounts of ALA from flaxseed oil or the like.
Because you normally do not know your own biosynthetic abilities, it is less risky to eat fish oil or Schizochytrium oil, instead of flaxseed oil.
AstroBen · 2h ago
> not sure about avoiding cheese & milk - sounds risky for calcium/bones health
Non-fat dairy. Greek yogurt + walnuts + berries
j45 · 2h ago
Low/no-fat cheeses are available too.
The kitchen is a pharmacy.
rsync · 1h ago
"... wow, not sure about avoiding cheese & milk - sounds risky for calcium/bones health ..."
A disappointing level of knowledge and sophistication in this late, 21st century era.
Your bone health is almost entirely correlated to the load bearing exercise and gravity stress that you put on your musculoskeletal system.
Fine optimizations to your diet (just like fine optimizations everywhere in life) are only sensible after you've taken care of the big, macro factors.
privatelypublic · 2h ago
Milk/cheese is hardly the best/only source of calcium.
FollowingTheDao · 2h ago
Although high omega-3 with saturated fats may protect against the effect of only a diet high and saturated fats.
If I was not on my phone, I would look up the studies on this. :)
I bought some and started taking it and my 1:1 bullet chess ELO jumped from 850 to ~1070 over the next couple weeks.
I play chess a bit like sushi ginger for the mind - purge working memory with a short intense task to context switch. I intentionally don't study openings or anything so I can use it as a benchmark for mental horsepower with a reasonably slow drift in the baseline from 'actually learning chess'.
My friend says this effect is way too big to actually attribute to the vitamins and it has to be placebo etc but I'm thoroughly enjoying the idea that omega-3 Nick would win 3/4 bullet matches against deficient Nick.
https://www.chess.com/member/nickparkerprint/stats/bullet?da...
Heavy metal contamination is classically not a problem because the fish oil is distilled. My guess is your researcher friend has fallen victim to the marketing of the pharmacological industry-- Although I do want to indicate they do have value, probably not the 500 percent markup that they put on what in essence is a generic product.
Some natural fish oils are not distilled and do have this problem-- These are normally marketed as natural or cod liver oil or something that should hit your radar pretty quick. Your friend's concern about rancidity is clearly a problem And pretty well understood by people for years if you have any familiarity with chemistry. Omega threes get their name from the fact that you have a weird bend on the end of a long carbon molecule. This is susceptible to oxidation. This is true for any Omega 3 molecule regardless of its length Or it's sourcing.
This includes omega-3 "drugs" like Vascepa (pure EPA) and Lovaza (EPA and DHA combination).
Fortunately in testing, they have not found widespread issues with rancidity, although they definitely have found pockets. My normal suggestion to everybody is by a high volume manufacturer that you know is tearing through the product quite rapidly. My top suggestion is Costco. Then make sure you keep your fish oil in the refrigerator, and churn through it on a regular basis.
With that written, generally the literature indicates that somewhere around 1-2G daily of EPA/DHA is in the range of what is fringe mainstream. There is a lot of variance around this and a lot of debate. For example, you'll get a debate about the ability of the body to convert 22 EPA into 24 DHA, so some will push DHA as the preferred source for the body.
I agree that for now there is no better evidence about which is the optimal daily intake.
Quantities about 10 times less than this might be sufficient to avoid any obvious signs of nutritional deficiency, but are unlikely to be optimal.
The capacity of converting ALA from vegetable oil into DHA and EPA may vary a lot between humans and it is typically lower in males than in females and also lower in older people than in young people.
The less risky choice is to ensure that you eat enough DHA+EPA. Perhaps one does not need 1 to 2 g of DHA+EPA daily, but eating it is unlikely to be harmful, while not eating it carries definite risks.
I don’t mind taking them so I kept the Omega 3s and started taking others for my LDL issues.
I didn't know about the rancidity problem, thank you. Knew about the contamination issue. To avoid it, I tried to source oil derived from sources lower in the food chain, either vegan algae oil, or krill oil. But krill oil is super expensive, when compared to fish oil, with lower levels of EPA/DHA per capsule. The problem with algae oil it's that those I've found contain only DHA. Not sure about the relative importance between EPA/DHA, although.
"Algae oil" is a marketing term that has been chosen for sounding better, especially to vegans, than "Schizochytrium oil" or "oil from stramenopiles".
Schizochytrium is an organism somewhat similar to a fungus, but which is not a fungus and it is distantly related to brown algae and diatoms (but unlike those, it is not an alga; it never had chloroplasts acquired by symbiosis).
The first cultivated strains of Schizochytrium produced only DHA, but now there are strains that also produce EPA. At least in Europe, you can easily find Schizochytrium oil that contains DHA + EPA in a 2:1 proportion. For most humans, especially for most males, both DHA and EPA are needed, because the capacity of interconversion between them is typically insufficient in comparison with what is needed.
However, even if it has become cheaper in recent years, Schizochytrium oil remains about 3 times more expensive than fish oil, per its fatty acid content. There are also many vendors that try to deceive their customers by selling diluted oil at about the same price as the decent vendors, therefore at a price many times higher per the fatty acid content.
In Europe, in recent years I have preferred Möller's Pure Cod Liver Oil, which is quite tasty, either alone or added to food. Using bottled oil is much better than using capsules. Besides being cheaper and not ingesting garbage capsules, tasting the oil makes certain that it neither is rancid nor has any suspect content. This is also true for Schizochytrium oil. Many decades ago, cod liver oil had a reputation of something that children were forced to eat, despite its bad taste. This is completely untrue nowadays, when the oil is made either immediately after catching or from fish that have been frozen immediately after catching, so the oil has not degraded and it retains a pleasant taste.
If Schizochytrium oil will become cheaper, i.e. with a price not more than double in comparison with pure cod liver oil, then I will switch to it, removing from my diet the only ingredient that is obtained by killing animals.
However I started taking creatine this summer to help with my recovery from running now that I'm older. I will say I feel it's done more for my cognitive function than the omega-3 did.
Huh, did you also have to get any laser surgery done to get rid of them totally? My research always indicated that once you had floaters, they were basically just there forever and your brain just learned to work around them.
Blepharitis is just the worst.
My diet does lack seafood overall. While I love salmon my family doesn't. If we eat seafood it's mainly catfish and shrimp though, as we are in Louisiana.
Wouldn't wild caught have more heavy metals?
Good omega-3 oil has a pleasant taste, there is really no need to eat capsules made from chemically-modified cellulose or who knows what other material that is not suitable as food.
The omega-3 oil can be mixed with whatever oil you add to your food, e.g. to a salad.
The pure oil is cheaper and you can feel its taste without having to break capsules. Moreover you do not have to ingest capsules made of dubious substances, besides the desired oil.
Once opened (but preferably also before) such an oil bottle should be kept in a refrigerator.
Some bottled oil includes flavors, e.g. lemon, which mask its natural taste. Unflavored omega 3 oil is preferable.
I use it as a stupidity meter. If I play a series of bad bullet games, I’m more cautious about my decision making that day.
Moreover, due to the great human stupidity of dumping everything where "it becomes the problem of others", now it has become the problem of everybody that what were previously among the healthiest foods, i.e. most food items of marine origin, nowadays carry significant health risks, due to possible mercury content.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16963244/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/17/revealed...
Kirkland Signature Fish Oil provides 151.8 mg EPA and 119.1 mg DHA per tablet, totaling 270.9 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel).
Prescription Lovaza (Rx)* provides 465 mg EPA and 375 mg DHA per tablet, totaling 840 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel (Rx)).
Prescription Vascepa (Rx)* provides 960 mg EPA and <40 mg DHA per tablet, totaling ~960 mg EPA+DHA (Softgel (Rx)).
It can be a lot of pills time wise as well.
Open to other omega 3’s if there’s any recommendations.
I have heard of that brand too - quality matters.
Omega 3 containing sufficient DHA is studied to reduce inflammation in the brain as well has help with other cognitive processes.
Another one I had read is the insulin spike after a meal can be lowered significantly by having one omega-3 with each meal.
I’ll try to circle back with a few of the studies.
They find that one of the nutrient factors studied is positively correlated with improved vision at p=0.01. https://xkcd.com/882/
https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/dr-rhonda-patrick/
Omega-3 saved me from the fate of my family, dying from a heart attack before I was 50.
And I see this need in my genetics, specifically FADS1 FADS2 polymorphisms that make me need higher chain omega-3 fatty acids like from seafood.
Things don’t have have to be proven universally for every human, but omega 3 seems pretty universal.
Wonder if this is related.
Vitamin D, Omega 3, and possibly Magnesium and Creatine.
So I stopped taking a daily multivitamin and I just take modest doeses of these 4 supplemements every day.
Vitamin D supplementation is mildly helpful for those with low baseline levels. However the benefits have been exaggerated across the internet and podcasts. A lot of studies show no measured reduction in things like frequency of respiratory infections ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38178229/ for example, which funnily enough had the Vitamin D3 treated men getting more respiratory infections).
Omega 3 has also been greatly exaggerated. Later large scale studies have shown minimal to no effects.
Magnesium is another one that can be helpful for those who are deficient, but due to the long duration within the body a lot of the supplement fanatics who consume large doses of magnesium might be getting too much over time. Gwern did some self-experimentation where magnesium might have possibly been net negative over time: https://gwern.net/nootropic/magnesium
Creatine is the latest trend. If you believe the latest trends you need to consume a huge amount daily and it will fight off everything from depression to low energy. This is another one where the most impressive studies are all very small, but the larger the study the less impressive the results. The influencers only talk about the small, impressive studies, of course.
Omega-3 fats seem to protect against myopia, while saturated fats seem to increase the risk. Other nutrients didn’t show clear effects.
Foods rich in omega-3 (protective foods) • Fatty fish: salmon, mackerel, sardines, tuna, herring, anchovies • Seafood: oysters, mussels • Plant sources: flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts, hemp seeds • Oils: flaxseed oil, canola oil, soybean oil • Fortified foods: some eggs, dairy, or juices enriched with omega-3
Foods high in saturated fats (risk foods) • Fatty meats: beef, lamb, pork, processed meats (sausages, bacon) • Dairy: butter, cheese, cream, whole milk, ice cream • Baked goods: pastries, cookies, cakes made with butter or shortening • Fast foods: fried chicken, burgers, pizza • Coconut and palm oil products (though plant-based, they’re high in saturated fats)
So the takeaway is: More fish, nuts, and seeds may help protect children’s eyes, while too many fatty meats, butter, and fried foods may raise the risk of myopia.
The importance of dairy is overblown, especially in the US where the dairy industry funds a lot of school nutrition initiatives. I helped out around a cousin's dairy farm as a kid but eventually discovered that I'm part of the ~2/3rds of the world population that doesn't digest dairy well.
You'll get calcium as long as you eat some white/navy beans, tofu, kale, okra, collards, broccoli raab, chia, or even "calcium fortified" foods.
> Summary from GPT
This whole post is filled with bad implicit advice. No one should stop eating meat to make their eyesight better. No one should add canola oil to their diet as a source of Omega 3.
Among vegetable oils, flaxseed oil is the best source of ALA, while also walnut oil and hemp oil have decent amounts.
However many humans, especially many men, have a too low capacity for elongating ALA into DHA and EPA, so they may remain deficient in omega-3 fatty acids even when eating decent amounts of ALA from flaxseed oil or the like.
Because you normally do not know your own biosynthetic abilities, it is less risky to eat fish oil or Schizochytrium oil, instead of flaxseed oil.
Non-fat dairy. Greek yogurt + walnuts + berries
The kitchen is a pharmacy.
A disappointing level of knowledge and sophistication in this late, 21st century era.
Your bone health is almost entirely correlated to the load bearing exercise and gravity stress that you put on your musculoskeletal system.
Fine optimizations to your diet (just like fine optimizations everywhere in life) are only sensible after you've taken care of the big, macro factors.
If I was not on my phone, I would look up the studies on this. :)