Fish Oils to the Rescue
It’s been approximately 16 months since I last had my blood tested and I just got my test results back today.
Everything checks out A-ok. Last time my HDL numbers were a little low, so I took a fish oil supplement which brought my HDL up nicely into a cardio protective range.
This is the stuff I take.
If I didn’t get my blood tested last year I wouldn’t have known that my HDL was low. I didn’t make any big dietary or lifestyle change, I simply added some fish oil and continued doing whatever else I was doing from an exercise and diet standpoint.
The point is that you’ve got to know where you are in order to know what you need to do (if anything).
For me the only thing that needed attention was HDL. The solution was quite simple as there is good research to show that taking a fish oil supplement that is high in EPA and DHA can have a potent effect on raising HDL. So I took the simplest approach and added fish oil. The specific brand I used was from BlueStarNutraceuticals. I am biased towards their brand because I helped them develop it, but I also trust them because I know the quality of the ingredients.
I’m sure there are plenty of other good fish oil supplements on the market. And if you’re going to take one make sure it’s got the highest level of EPA and DHA possible (these are the two essential fatty acids that we take fish oil for in the first place).
With that said, you probably want to get your blood tested first to know if you even need a fish oil supplement in the first place. There are other reasons to take fish oil besides low HDL. It can improve dry eye syndrome, it can help with some skin conditions as well as joint problems.
The point is to do some homework on whatever your symptoms are and why you think that a fish oil supplement might be right for you. Then if possible test whatever it is that you want to change before you take the fish oil, and test it again a few months later. This is the only way to know if it’s working.
For me the test was easy and the proof that it was working was pretty obvious as I had a defined number to look at.
For things like joint pain, inflammation, or dry eyes it’s going to be a bit more subtle and you’ll have to keep a journal of how you feel on a daily and weekly basis specifically about the given condition. Looking back through your journal will be the only way to notice if things are improving because these changes happen slowly and gradually.
If you start using fish oil and you think things are improving but your not sure, the only way to get a definitive answer is to stop the fish oil and see if your symptoms come back. It a minor inconvenience but this off-on-off approach is the only way to know for sure if it’s doing what you want it to do.
Better to know than to just be guessing.
John
P.S. If you want to check out the fish oil I used you can see it here > Omega Blue
4 Responses to “Fish Oils to the Rescue”
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June 21st, 2011 at 2:40 am
sure; only problem is, there’s very weak correlation between cholesterol and heart disease, a rather weak correlation between HDL and “cardioprotective” benefits, and much evidence that raising HDL in itself plays little to no role in reducing heart disease incidence. It’s more likely that higher HDL is merely an indicator and result of properly functioning liver enzymes, adequate vit B (meaning low homocysteine levels), and leptin sensitivity, all which in turn probably protect against heart disease; not the HDL itself.
eating saturated fat will raise HDL even. Fish oil/omega 3 is more likely effective at reducing heart disease incidence by raising omega 3/omega 6 ratios in the body, promoting a systemic anti-inflammatory action. This is kind of one of those “do what they do, but not for the reasons they say to do it” sort of things.
June 22nd, 2011 at 9:43 am
Joshua,
There is still some correlation, I know it’s not perfect but it’s something. It’s true we can’t do a randomized placebo controlled study for the duration of a person’s life to truly get a cause and effect relationship. The best we can do is estimate with epidemiological data.
Either way, it wasn’t a big deal to just take a few fish oil caps.
June 22nd, 2011 at 10:47 am
Personally I avoid tablets like the plague and prefer to eat a healthy diet. I personally found it to easy to over consume tablets (esp when you look at some of the ridiculous fish oil doses people recommend online). My last blood test put me with a HDL Of 139. My overall cholesterol is within the excellent range, and I had very low trigs (0.57). I eat fish about once a week. I don’t avoid saturated fats but I don’t deliberately seek them out. I tried a high fat saturated fat diet (paleo) and the highest HDL was 78 but my overall numbers where awful. At the moment I just eat everything except processed food and do power lifting 3x a week.
@joshua: if you follow the medical establishment it’s very very rare they actually have a clue when it comes to food and diet. The best they usually have is correlations, they usually don’t really understand the mechanisms, and usually treat the symptoms of disease and not the disease itself. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
June 22nd, 2011 at 9:39 pm
@andylau: why do you make a blanket statement that tablets are not part of a “healthy diet” (whatever “healthy diet” even means)? If you’re lacking in EPA/DHA omega-3s, for example, why would it matter if you got it from less expensive tablets than from much more expensive fish?
By the way, I’m starting to see the strengths and weaknesses of the medical community. I’ve been hanging out this whole week with a medical team of sleep researchers and we were talking about sleep apnea. I asked what the cause was and how they usually treat it and they said it’s usually a restriction of the airway there is a machine that blows air into one’s mouth to open the airway. I then asked what usually causes this airway restriction and they said obesity, so I asked if it would be better to actually address the root of the problem by losing weight so they wouldn’t have to use this machine every night. They were speechless lol.