Fish Oil and Omega 3 Health Benefits

Omega 3 fish oil may help prevent and reverse dyslexia. That’s the conclusion of numerous scientific studies on the subject.

Dyslexia used to be considered a learning disability problem, but not any more. Today many researchers are beginning to think dyslexia is linked to a nutritional deficiency of omega 3 fatty acids, particularly DHA (docosahexaenoic acid, which is found only in fatty fish such as salmon and sardines.

Dyslexia affects about 5% of school age children. Diagnosed children usually have normal intelligence, vision, hearing and speech, but are unable to learn how to read and write effectively. This disability puts great pressure on both the child and the parents.

The best thing you can do to help prevent dyslexia in your child is to make sure you’re getting at least one gram of fish oil omega 3 fatty acids in your diet before and during pregnancy and after birth if you’re nursing. If you’re not nursing, a small amount of omega 3 fish oil can be squeezed into a baby’s formula. They won’t mind and, in fact, will probably develop a taste for fish, which is excellent for their long term health in so many other ways.

Did you know a baby’s brain is made up of about 70% omega 3 DHA? That’s why hundreds of studies show dietary DHA to be vitally important for the development of a child’s brain. Research shows children born of mothers who ate lots of fatty fish or took high quality fish oil supplements are less likely to have ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and other developmental difficulties. They have also been shown to have a higher intelligence.

This is all very good news if you’re planning on having more children, but what if you already have a child with dyslexia? Well, it’s not the end of the world. As a matter of fact, fish oil omega 3 fatty acid research shows great promise for dyslexic children and adults too.

An Oxford University Laboratory of Physiology study published in Prostaglandins Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids (Vol. 63:69-74) concluded “children with high fatty acid deficiency ratings showed poorer reading and lower general ability” than children without a deficiency. They went on to say the results of their study “support the hypothesis that fatty acid deficiency may contribute to the severity of dyslexic problems” and that dyslexia may be corrected through diet, specifically supplementing with omega 3 fatty acids from fish.

Other researchers agree. S.M. Baker, for example, wrote in the Journal of Learning Disabilities (Vol. 18:581-584) that dyslexic children demonstrated improved schoolwork after treatment with fatty acids. And, B.J. Stordy, writing in Lancet (Vol. 346:385), found a normalization of visual deficits in dyslexic adults after supplementing with omega 3 fatty acids.

So if you have a child dealing with dyslexia, then it’s time to up your family’s omega 3 fish oil. Based on the research, it’s best to get at least one gram of combined fish oil omega 3 DHA and EPA a day.

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Did you know omega 3 fish oil is better for preventing cardiovascular disease than Liptor, Crestor and other statin drugs?

That’s the conclusion of a recent review of the most reliable scientific studies on fish oil and statin drugs and heart disease published in the highly respected Archives of Internal Medicine (Vol. 165: 725-730).

Omega 3 fish oil was found to be 45% more effective at reducing cardiovascular death and 76% more effective at reducing overall mortality than statin drugs.

That’s an amazing difference. Still statin drugs, such as Lipitor and Crestor, are being prescribed for millions of people in the U.S. to lower cholesterol and reduce risk of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). As a matter of fact, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) recently recommended even more people take statin drugs to lower cholesterol.

But, like all drugs, stains have serious side effects and dangerous drug interactions. The most common side effects linked to statin drugs are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, rash, muscle weakness and pain. In rare examples, statins are even connected to kidney failure and death.
So why do you suppose, if fish oil is more effective, the NCEP is recommending even more people take statins? Good question, right?

Do you think there might be a conflict of interest for the NCEP committee members?

That’s the question raised by a group of over thirty doctors, epidemiologists and scientists from Harvard, Stanford, UCLA and other prestigious universities and research centers, along with the Integrity in Science Project of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).

In a vigorous protest urging an independent review of the scientific studies behind the NCEP recommendation, the dissenters pointed out that 8 of the 9 NCEP committee members had financial ties to the companies that manufacture statin drugs and that none of these ties were disclosed when the recommendations were published.

As Merrill Goozner of the CSPI Integrity in Science project declared, “When researchers have financial relationships with drug companies that raises red flags. When those relationships are concealed, alarm bells start going off.”

The protesting scientists also claimed the NCEP studies were misinterpreted and totally ignored significant data.

The NCEP studies, for example, showed statins had no significant benefit for women and older men without heart disease or for diabetics. Yet, these were several of the groups for which the NCEP recommended statins. And one of the studies the NCEP cited actually showed statins significantly increased the risk of cancer in the elderly.

Think about it! High cholesterol and hardening of the arteries are not caused by a deficiency of statins. They’re caused by bad lifestyle choices, such as smoking, lack of exercise and a poor diet.

And here’s the good news! Fish oil does a better job of reducing LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and arterial inflammation than statin drugs and it does it better naturally without any serious side effects.

That’s why the American Heart Association and the U.S. National Institutes of Health both recommend everyone eat salmon, sardines or other fatty fish at least two or three times a week.

They also recommend everyone with a higher risk of heart disease also take daily fish oil supplements containing a combined one gram of omega 3 fatty acids.

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Does flaxseed oil provide the same heart health benefits as omega 3 fish oil? Emory University researchers say the answer is “NO!”

The Emory research team, led by C. R. Harper and T. A. Jacobson, reviewed 14 previous randomized controlled clinical trials dealing with both fish oil and plant based oils and their effect on heart health. The fish studies were based on dietary fish consumption and fish oil supplement trials. The plant based oil trials used diets enriched with walnuts, soybeans or flax seed oil supplements.

They concluded fish oil omega 3 trials showed a significant reduction in coronary heart disease deaths, as well as total mortality. They believed these health benefits were the result of omega 3 fish oil’s strong anti-arrhythmic effect. The studies on omega 3 fish oil with DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) fatty acids showed a reduction of heart attack risk by reducing inflammation of blood vessel wall cells and lowering the risk of thrombosis or blood clotting.

The studies done on plant based alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) did not show the same health benefits. Why? Plant based ALA is incomplete omega 3 oil. It doesn’t contain the potent DHA and EPA factors which are found only in fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, herring and tuna. The Emory researchers also found the ALA studies to be less reliable and of limited quality. (American Journal of Cardiology, Vol. 96, pp. 1521-29)

Based on these successful fish oil health benefit studies, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health recommend everyone should eat fatty fish at least two or three times a week or take fish oil supplements containing a combined total of one gram omega 3 DHA and EPA fatty acids. They also suggest that anyone at higher risk coronary heart disease might consider taking more.

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