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Health
professionals and nutritionists have been advising people to eat more
fish for decades. Fish contains important fatty acids that our bodies
need, but can’t produce on their own. Fish oil is believed to have
anti-inflammatory properties and has been extensively researched as a
cure for such inflammation triggered conditions as inflammatory bowel
disease, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. Fish oil
supplements contain two types of omega-3 fatty acids -
eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA). These are major
anti-inflammatories. EPA and DHA are essential building blocks for
the body's anti-inflammatory prostaglandins (e.g., prostaglandin E1)
and for turning off Cox-2 and the body's pro-inflammatory cytokines
(IL-1, IL-6, and TNFa).
A
2006 study that was published in the journal Life
Sciences, looked
at the effects of fish oil and / or a restricted calorie diet on
various markers for inflammation in mice. The diets were adopted when
the mice were two months old and formulated to contain either corn
oil (5 per cent) or fish oil (5 per cent containing DHA,
EPA, palmitic acid), and the calorie-restriction diets (60 per cent)
were fed the same levels of fish or corn oil as the controls.
At
the end of the study the researchers measured various markers of
inflammation, such as levels of lipid oxidation, and concentrations
of reactive superoxide species, prostaglandins, and leukotriene B4,
for both the young mice (four months old) and old mice (nine months
old).
Mice
eating the corn oil diet had superoxides levels about 18 per cent
higher than corn oil fed young mice. Young mice receiving the fish
oil-containing diet had superoxides levels almost 60 per cent lower.
Calorie-restricted young mice had a 35 per cent level of superoxides,
while young mice consuming the calorie-restricted fish oil diet had
levels 90 per cent lower than the young controls.
(Life
Sciences (Vol. 78, pp. 2523-2532)
The US National
Institutes of Health has recognized the benefits of DHA and EPA and
has published Recommended Daily Intakes of these important fatty
acids. They recommend a daily intake of 650 mg of DHA and EPA.
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