Benefits of Fish Oil

Benefits of Fish Oil

A beautiful, living symbol of your growth.

Mood regulation through fish oil? A benefit of fish oil is mood regulation? Can fish oil be combined with dark chocolate somehow?

That last question hopefully piqued your curiosity because both dark chocolate and omega 3 fish oil can can impact your feeling state.

Fish Food for Mood Dude

Brainfit for Life

Professors Simon Evans and Paul Burghardt have written a wonderful book, "Brainfit for Life" which gives us some excellent information about the benefits of fish oil on mood and brain function.

"One of the best-studied classes of nutrients relevant topsychological stress is, again, the omega-3s. We discussed thebasics of omega-3s in chapter 2. In this section, we get intosome of the roles they play in stabilizing your mood.There are many studies connecting dietary omega-3intake to various aspects of mood. In general, societies that eatmore fish, the primary source of the brain healthy omega-3s(EPA and DHA) have lower rates of depression. There are alsoseasonal variations in suicidal behavior that correlate with fishintake. In Scandinavian countries, during times of the yearwhen fish intake is lower, there is an increase in violentsuicides. In some studies, people that attempted suicide, havelower blood levels of omega-3s and in other studies peoplewith less fish intake admitted to considering suicide morefrequently. Now, this is not to say that if you don’t eat fish youwill find yourself perched on top of a bridge, but, combinedwith other life factors and genetic drivers, omega-3s do seem toplay a strong role in regulating mood and depression in manypeople.All of these human studies provide strongcircumstantial evidence that omega-3 intake affects mood. Butthe human data are still circumstantial...." Professors Evans and Burghardt go on to amplify their discussion on the benefits of fish oil by detailing rat studies.

Using the rats as subjects allow experimenters to control for some variables, and to make stronger connections on the benefits of fish oil than we can make with human subjects.

In other words, we move from the realm of inference towards something closer to cause and effect.

While the rats do not have the prefrontal cortex that humans have, they have many of the same kinds of brain structures, for example, pleasure centers, which we have, so observation of denying omega 3's and then supplementing omega 3's can be made.

The research on rats indicates that omega 3's play an important part in rat social and exploratory behavior. In other words, they do what rats do.

Without the omega 3 fish oil, rats don't do social activities and give up on certain challenges. In Brainfit for Life, the authors suggest that since we cannot get the appropriate amount of fish oil from our usual source, fish, because we have polluted the oceans with mercury, we need to supplement, and any supplement we buy should indicate that the contaminants have been purified away.

An indication on the label of this distillation on the product would be the words "molecular distillation".

Look for it here.

Xtend Life Omega 3

Brainfit for Life

Here is a tool to evaluate the impact of your omega 3 use. Another benefit of fish oil!

Would You Share Something That You Are Grateful For?

When I was beginning my personal growth journey, a wise person told me that when I was feeling resentful or afraid or sad, that I should remember the phrase "gratitude is the attitude" when I was ready to feel better. That phrase has helped me feel better tens of thousands of times.

Would you share what you are most grateful for? Your story could be just what another person is searching for to renew themselves? Thanks.


Have a question and want to talk with a therapist? Call 815-316-2621 for Julie Logan, LCSW, RN. 7121 Windsor Lake Parkway, Loves Park, Illinois 61111 jlogan7264@myway.com