Body Shop: Mood food: For a healthy heart and mind, boost omega-3s - Military Health, military health and wellness, military physical fitness - Military Times

Body Shop: Mood food: For a healthy heart and mind, boost omega-3s

Omega-3 fatty acids are the building blocks of your brain and an important element of heart health, and evidence continues to pile up showing that using supplements may be a good idea.

Omega-3s have been making news in the military recently thanks to a study by military and public health doctors that found low levels of omega-3s, especially DHA, to be” a significant risk factor for suicide deaths” among active-duty troops.

Other studies have shown that omega-3s can help improve your outlook overall, activating and building areas of the brain that regulate mood, and that they may help reduce symptoms of depression and even alcohol cravings.

Just this year, the Indiana University School of Medicine published the results of a study that showed dramatic improvements in mice with the equivalent of bipolar disorder and its associated alcohol cravings. Alcohol-preferring “P” rats also drank “significantly less” when fed a diet high in DHA.

Our bodies don’t make omega-3s, so the only way to get them is through food and nutritional supplements.

And if you think you’re getting enough brain- and heart-healthy omega-3s by eating a vending machine tuna sandwich or a fried fish patty on a bun, you’re mistaken.

The beta on omega-3s

Omega-3s — known officially as neuroactive, highly unsaturated omega-3 essential fatty acids, or n-3 HUFAs — include docosahexaenoic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, DHA, EPA and ALA, respectively. They’re all necessary for healthy brain function, growth and development, yet aside from the omega-3s found in breast milk, our bodies do not produce them. The two most important, DHA and EPA, are found in fish oil, which is why the Agriculture Department’s MyPlate program — successor to the Food Pyramid — recommends at least two servings of cooked seafood per week.

Fish high in omega-3s include anchovies, bluefish, herring, mackerel, menhaden, mullet, salmon, sardines, sturgeon, trout and tuna. These provide about 1 gram of omega-3 fatty acids for every 3.5 ounces of fish.

Army Col. (Dr.) Michael D. Lewis, a physician at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and an author of the suicide study, recommends eating 2 to 4 grams of omega-3s per day, which comes out to about 7 to 14 ounces of fish — far more than consumed in the typical Western diet.

That’s why fish oil supplements make sense. Fish oil supplements are usually made from cod liver, halibut, herring, mackerel, salmon, tuna and other fatty fish. Look for products marked “molecularly distilled” that are regularly checked for harmful contaminants found in fish, including mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

Fish oil comes in gelatin capsules, as a liquid, in chewables for kids and as a water-dissolving powder.

Vegetarians and those allergic to fish can reap the same benefits by taking an omega-3 supplement made from algae. Horizon Organic milk, other dairies and producers of baby formula use an algal oil to add omega-3s to their products. Udo’s Choice oil blends are another vegetarian option. Speak to your nutritional store for more information, and read labels carefully to ensure you’re getting the maximum concentrations of omega-3s for your money.

The most common complaint with taking fish oil is fishy burps. Look for capsules with added flavor if you find this to be a problem. Some say keeping fish oil capsules in the refrigerator helps. Some brands are denatured to eliminate the fish smell.

3-6-9

Omega-6s and 9s are also essential to body function and work with omega-3s for overall health. An imbalance between omega-6s and 3s has been associated with asthma, heart disease, cancer, obesity, depression, hyperactivity and even “a tendency toward violence,” according to nutrition guru Dr. Andrew Weil.

Omega-6s work with omega-3s and also must be taken in through diet. The World Health Organization recommends consuming an omega-6/3 ratio of between 5:1 and 10:1, but a 2002 report in the journal Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy concluded that a ratio between 1:1 and 4:1 is optimal.

Omega-6s are abundant in seeds and nuts. In fact, a diet heavy in processed, fast and fried foods usually has too much omega-6 (often in the ratio of 15:1 to 25:1) from refined cottonseed, soybean, corn and sunflower oils, which can be detrimental to health because omega-6s are linked with increased inflammation, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Healthier choices are flax and sunflower seeds, pistachios and olive oil.

Our bodies produce omega-9s naturally when omega-3s and -6s are present and in balance.

Healthy head and heart

Lewis compares the brain to a brick wall.

“If a brick wall gets damaged, you want to repair it with bricks,” Lewis said. “A significant portion of the brain is made up of DHA, thus DHA should be used to repair the brain and keep it healthy.”

Lewis’ group examined tissue samples from 800 active-duty service members who had committed suicide and compared them with samples taken from 800 healthy troops of similar age, rank and gender. Omega-3 levels were surprisingly deficient in both groups, but profoundly low in the suicide victims.

“Our society, in general, seems to be missing out on proper levels of omega-3 fatty acids,” Lewis said. “I see education and supplementation as an opportunity to make a difference in military suicides. ... We truly don’t know if it will prevent suicides until it fails, but, on the upside, what do we have to lose?”

Given omega-3s’ relative lack of side effects, the Indiana study goes so far as to point out that they may be “particularly useful” in children and in women of child-bearing age.

Lewis recommends his patients take fish oil to treat concussions, to aid in stroke recovery and for traumatic brain injury. Current treatment for concussions is to let the brain heal itself, but omega-3s — DHA in particular — are concentrated in the brain and considered important to lifelong brain health. In cases of injury, Lewis encourages his patients to take a triple daily dose of fish oil for a week — 6 to 12 grams a day depending on their previous regular dose of 2 to 4 grams — double doses the following week and normal doses thereafter.

Because fish oil acts as a blood thinner, patients must talk to their doctors before taking it, said Lewis’ co-author Public Health Service Capt. (Dr.) Joseph Hibbeln. Nosebleeds are a sign to cut back.

As for heart health, omega-3s are thought to reduce blood vessel-damaging inflammation throughout the body. Other possible health advantages are lower levels of triglycerides (fats found in blood and used for energy, with high levels leading to health problems) as well as lower blood pressure, reduced clotting, improvements in arthritis symptoms and boosted immunity.

Lewis says it takes months to years to deplete omega-3s in the system but that people can see positive results within 48 hours of supplementation. The Army’s Health Promotion & Risk Reduction Task Force is working to determine action steps based on current data.

Instead of waiting for the official report, take charge of your own health by eating right, exercising, getting enough sleep and talking to your doctor about taking omega-3s. What do you have to lose?