Friday, July 24, 2009

Omega 3 Cures Depression. That Can't Be True Can It?

By Peter Bertonich

Depression is a terribly debilitating illness, putting the sufferer on an endless merry go round of doctors and treatments and pharmaceuticals. But there is now some evidence that Omega 3 cures depression, or at least that there is a strong link between Omega 3 and depression relief.

It was around the 1990s that evidence started to emerge that showed a strong link between the intake of Omega 3 and depression levels in various societies. It was found that in societies with a lower intake of seafood depression levels were higher and vice versa. Seafood is the main food that contains Omega3 fats and so intake of seafood increases intake of these healthy fats.

Studies have now shown strong links between increasing Omega 3 intake and lowering rates of depression. Of course science moves slowly and it is always difficult to say when the link is fully proven, and what recommendations may be drawn from it. But the results of the studies are extremely encouraging.

But there is always more work to be done. Each study raises more questions, like what specific conditions are affected, what dose should be taken, how the intake of Omega 3 can affect current pharmaceuticals that sufferers are taking and so on.

But there is good news right now for depression sufferers. Those who have depression know that there can be strong and negative side effects from taking many of the traditional anti depressants commonly prescribed. But there are no observed negative side effects from increasing the intake of Omega 3 fats, and there are other positive health benefits.

In fact there is very strong evidence that taking a daily supplement of fish oil is good for a wide range of health problems. No lesser an authority than the American Heart Association recommends eating at least 2 meals of fish purely for the positive health effects of the fish oil on the heart. Or taking fish oil supplements.

There is now strong evidence of the benefits of increasing the intake of Omega 3 fish oils to a wide range of health areas, and there is really no evidence of negative side effects.

There is one issue though. It is now clear that the fish in our oceans are contaminated to some degree by various toxins like PCBs, heavy metals and mercury and recommendations are that some fish should not be eaten too often for this reason.

However there are excellent fish oil supplements available on the market that are molecularly distilled, reducing the level of any potential contaminants to zero. The better fish oil supplements have no detectable levels of the major contaminants, and allow us to take our Omega 3 fish oil daily.

So if you suffer from depression it would seem that there is now an extremely strong link between an improvement in the condition and your fish oil intake. And as Omega 3 is so good for you in so many other ways you've got nothing to lose from increasing your intake, other than, perhaps, your depression.

Visit my website to find out where to source the very best Omega 3 fish oil supplements.

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