Nutrition Testing: Omega 3 Testing from Dr. Doug Bibus

Nutrition Testing: Omega 3 Testing from Dr. Doug Bibus

 

This is a video I took from the ISSN conference in FL recently.

Many, many people are deficient in Omega 3s and probably don’t know it.

Increasing their omega 3s in their diet is a great thing for almost anything you can think of from hearing loss, head trauma, fat loss, decreased muscle atrophy (losing muscle), etc.

Up until recently you have no way of knowing what your Omega 3 status was.  Are you taking enough?  Are you sure?

Review

Omega 3 are essential fatty acids. They are ESSENTIAL and MUST be provided by your diet. Your body can not make them, so they must be consumed.  The highest source of Omega 3s is primarily flax seed oil.

Fish Oils

Fish oils (EPA and DHA) are made from Omega 3s. The rate of how fast and how much can be made is up for debate. To get around this, supplementing with the fish oils themselves directly works best.

Common Dose?

While common doses vary, look to get around 1-4 GRAMS of combined EPA and DHA per day. As always, check with your doc to make sure this is ok, especially if you are on blood thinners (although the risk is small).

How To Read the Label

Read the label and look for EPA and DHA, not just Omega 3s.

Fish oil labels, what to look for

Label from Biotest Flameout

The picture above is from Flameout by Biotest (full disclosure, I make nothing promoting it).  There are many fish oil supplements on the market and the key is to know what to look for on the label.

Look in the middle and it will list the EPA and DHA right below the total free-fatty acids.  Add these up for your TOTAL fish oil content. So, for one serving, it is about 3 grams (3,000 mg) of total fish oils.    Note the serving size here is 4 caps.   I have looked at some other fish oils and they are 10-22 caps for the SAME amount of fish oils themselves (EPA + DHA).

How Would I Know If I Need Fish Oil or Omega 3s?

As Doug talked about above, the easiest way is to have it tested.   Very soon there will be a cheap and economical way for you to test this at home!  I am super excited about this since omega 3 status is related to sooooooooo many things. Jodie and I are doing our test this weekend and if you want more info as soon as it is available, pop your name in below and you will be the first to get the info (even before it is posted here).

I will be giving away a few FREE tests in the future too, so sign up below today!

 

Comments

Let me know what questions you have about fish oil by posting one below!

Rock on

Mike T Nelson

Recent References

J Neurosurg. 2010 Jul 16. [Epub ahead of print]

Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and reduction of traumatic axonal injury in a rodent head injury model.

Mills JD, Bailes JE, Sedney CL, Hutchins H, Sears B.

Department of Neurosurgery, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia; and. Abstract Object Traumatic brain injury remains the most common cause of death in persons under 45 years of age in the Western world. Recent evidence from animal studies suggests that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acid (O3FA) (particularly eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA] and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) improves functional outcomes following focal neural injury. The purpose of this study is to determine the benefits of O3FA supplementation following diffuse axonal injury in rats. Methods Forty adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were used. Three groups of 10 rats were subjected to an impact acceleration injury and the remaining group underwent a sham-injury procedure (surgery, but no impact injury). Two of the groups subjected to the injury were supplemented with 10 or 40 mg/kg/day of O3FA; the third injured group served as an unsupplemented control group. The sham-injured rats likewise received no O3FA supplementation. Serum fatty acid levels were determined from the isolated plasma phospholipids prior to the injury and at the end of the 30 days of supplementation. After the animals had been killed, immunohistochemical analysis of brainstem white matter tracts was performed to assess the presence of beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP), a marker of axonal injury. Immunohistochemical analyses of axonal injury mechanisms-including analysis for caspase-3, a marker of apoptosis; RMO-14, a marker of neurofilament compaction; and cytochrome c, a marker of mitochondrial injury-were performed. Results Dietary supplementation with a fish oil concentrate rich in EPA and DHA for 30 days resulted in significant increases in O3FA serum levels: 11.6% +/- 4.9% over initial levels in the 10 mg/kg/day group and 30.7% +/- 3.6% in the 40 mg/kg/day group. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed significantly (p < 0.05) decreased numbers of APP-positive axons in animals receiving O3FA supplementation: 7.7 +/- 14.4 axons per mm(2) in the 10 mg/kg/day group and 6.2 +/- 11.4 axons per mm(2) in the 40 mg/kg/day group, versus 182.2 +/- 44.6 axons per mm(2) in unsupplemented animals. Sham-injured animals had 4.1 +/- 1.3 APP-positive axons per mm(2). Similarly, immunohistochemical analysis of caspase-3 expression demonstrated significant (p < 0.05) reduction in animals receiving O3FA supplementation, 18.5 +/- 28.3 axons per mm(2) in the 10 mg/kg/day group and 13.8 +/- 18.9 axons per mm(2) in the 40 mg/kg/day group, versus 129.3 +/- 49.1 axons per mm(2) in unsupplemented animals. Conclusions Dietary supplementation with a fish oil concentrate rich in the O3FAs EPA and DHA increases serum levels of these same fatty acids in a dose-response effect. Omega-3 fatty acid supplementation significantly reduces the number of APP-positive axons at 30 days postinjury to levels similar to those in uninjured animals. Omega-3 fatty acids are safe, affordable, and readily available worldwide to potentially reduce the burden of traumatic brain injury.

JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2010 Jul-Aug;34(4):387-94. Safety and efficacy of fish oil-enriched parenteral nutrition regimen on postoperative patients undergoing major abdominal surgery: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Chen B, Zhou Y, Yang P, Wan HW, Wu XT.

Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. Abstract BACKGROUND: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of a fish oil-enriched parenteral nutrition regimen in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery, a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was conducted. METHODS: An electronic search of PubMed, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Academic Search Premier, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was performed in March 2009. RevMan 5.0 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The combined analysis showed that a fish oil-enriched parenteral nutrition regimen had a positive treatment effect on length of hospital stay (weighed mean difference = -2.98, P < .001), length of intensive care unit stay, postoperative infection rate (odds ratio = 0.56, P = .04), and serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and alpha-tocopherol on postoperative day 6 in these patients. The regimen increased the plasma levels of eicosapentaenoic acid (standardized mean difference = 3.11, P < .001) and docosahexaenoic acid and upregulated the leukotriene B(5) production in leukocytes on postoperative day 6. No significant differences were found between the 2 groups in postoperative mortality; incidence of postoperative cardiac complications; serum levels of bilirubin, triglyceride, or arachidonic acid; or the liberation of leukotriene B(4). No serious adverse events related to fish oil treatment were reported. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the meta-analysis, fish oil-supplemented parenteral nutrition was safe, improved clinical outcomes, and altered the fatty acid pattern as well as leukotriene synthesis. More laboratory parameters should be considered in future meta-analyses.

JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2010 Jul-Aug;34(4):378-86. Immunonutrition in high-risk surgical patients: a systematic review and analysis of the literature. Marik PE, Zaloga GP.

Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. marikpe@evms.edu Abstract BACKGROUND: Immunomodulating diets (IMDs) have been demonstrated to improve immune function and modulate inflammation. However, the clinical benefit of these diets in patients undergoing elective surgery is controversial. The goal of this meta-analysis was to determine the impact of IMDs on the clinical outcomes of high-risk patients undergoing elective surgery. METHODS: The review included prospective, controlled, clinical trials that compared the clinical outcome of elective surgical patients who were randomized to receive an IMD or a control enteral diet. Studies were stratified according to the type of IMD and the timing of the initiation of the IMD. Data were abstracted on study design, study size, patient population, and IMD used. The outcomes of interest were the acquisition of new infections, wound complications, length of hospital stay (LOS), and mortality. Meta-analytic techniques were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Twenty-one relevant studies were identified, which included a total of 1918 patients. Immunonutrition significantly reduced the risk of acquired infections, wound complications, and LOS. The mortality rate was 1% in both groups. The treatment effect was similar regardless of the timing of the commencement of the IMD. The benefits of immunonutrition required both arginine and fish oil. CONCLUSIONS: An immunomodulating enteral diet containing increased amounts of both arginine and fish oil should be considered in all high-risk patients undergoing major surgery. Although the optimal timing cannot be determined from this study, it is suggested that immunonutrition be initiated preoperatively when feasible.

J Nutr. 2003 Jul;133(7):2239-43. Dietary fish oil increases lipid mobilization but does not decrease lipid storage-related enzyme activities in adipose tissue of insulin-resistant, sucrose-fed rats. Peyron-Caso E, Quignard-Boulangé A, Laromiguière M, Feing-Kwong-Chan S, Véronèse A, Ardouin B, Slama G, Rizkalla SW.

Department of Diabetes-INSERM U341, Hôtel-Dieu Hospital, 75004 Paris, France. Abstract Fish oil feeding has been shown to limit visceral fat accumulation in insulin-resistant rats. Our goal was to determine whether this finding is due to increased fat mobilization or decreased lipid storage. Adipocytes were isolated from rats fed for 3 wk a diet containing 57.5 g/100 g sucrose and 14 g/100 g lipids as either fish oil (SF) or a mixture of standard oils (SC); there was also a reference group (R). Substituting fish oil for standard oils protected rats from visceral fat hypertrophy, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperglycemia. The stimulation of lipolysis was greater in adipocytes isolated from SF-fed rats than in those from SC-fed rats. Fatty acid synthase (FAS) activity was markedly lower in the liver but not in the adipose tissues of rats fed SF. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity was 2.2-fold higher in the adipose tissues but not in the muscle in rats fed the SF diet than in those fed the SC diet. The decrease in visceral fat in rats fed fish oil could be attributed to decreased plasma triacylglycerol concentration and/or increased lipid mobilization rather than to reduced lipid storage.

Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2010 Jun;35(3):310-8. Dietary fish oil alleviates soleus atrophy during immobilization in association with Akt signaling to p70s6k and E3 ubiquitin ligases in rats. You JS, Park MN, Song W, Lee YS.

Department of Food and Nutrition, Research Institute of Human Ecology, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea. Abstract Reduced muscle activity leads to impaired insulin signaling, which leads to loss of contractile proteins and muscle mass via the Akt pathway. Dietary fish oil rich in long chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids has been shown to prevent insulin signaling resistance in skeletal muscle. This study was conducted to elucidate the protective effect of dietary fish oil on disuse-induced perturbations in insulin signaling and soleus muscle atrophy. To accomplish this, rats were fed a corn-oil- (control) or fish-oil-based diet for 2 weeks, and then subjected to hindlimb immobilization while still receiving the same diets. After 10 days of immobilization, the soleus muscle mass and myosin heavy chain level had markedly decreased; however, these losses were significantly suppressed in rats fed dietary fish oil, compared with the control group. Dietary fish oil nearly completely attenuated the disturbances in activation of the Akt and p70 S6 kinase proteins, as well as the gene expression of muscle-specific E3 ubiquitin ligases (muscle atrophy F-box and muscle RING finger 1). However, insulin receptor substrate 1 associated with the p85 subunit of phosphoinositide 3-kinase was not altered during immobilization. Dietary fish oil also inhibited alterations in the gene expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase, with no additional observation of oxidative stress. Collectively, these findings indicate that dietary fish oil prior to and during immobilization may alleviate the immobilization-induced soleus muscle atrophy, at least in part, via the Akt pathway through E3 ubiquitin ligases and p70s6k.

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