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Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

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Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#131

Post by johnyzee »

treeman79 wrote: post #80
kimmik wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immune system isn’t just too much or too little. Can’t simplify it to that. People with autoimmunity are also immunesuppressed at baseline.

Your sort of correct. Lots of drugs like plaquninal are immune modifiers not suppressant. However shoving large amounts of sugar and basically everything in the American diet is a great way to get the immune system to decide that everything in body is the enemy.

Sugar is pro-inflammatory, and so is omega-6 fatty acids, the consumption of both of which has increased massively within the last 60-70 years. Omega-6 fats have gone from less than 5% of human diet to up to 30% today, thanks to the commercial success of 'vegetable' oils. These two alone probably represent the most conspicuous diet changes that have happened in our societies in recent history and should be obvious suspects when looking at disease factors, imho.

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#132

Post by karpierz »

abeppu wrote: post #128
mistercow wrote: post #16

I don’t understand the author’s reading of the literature they cite. They refer to “isolated studies” and then link to a systematic review of 25 studies. They also linked to the same review twice for both memory and attention, which I assume is a mistake, because the review only supports the claim about memory. But none of these studies are about “brain-boosting”. They’re about preventing or reversing cognitive decli…

> anyone who has looked into the evidence around nootropics can tell you that pretty much nobody wants to study that There's a class of areas where lots of non-experts are interested, but doing studies large enough to detect modest effect sizes with high confidence is too expensive. Nutrition can do either large survey studies, or small controlled experiments. Exercise researchers often have to work with a small numb…

> I feel like the hardest parts are getting participants to adhere to their assigned intervention, and preventing participants with a pre-existing agenda from joining.

This combined with perverse incentives are why it's not possible. Non-experts with the resources to solve these problems are generally trying to sell you something, and aren't particularly interested in the truth.

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#133

Post by taeric »

nervousvarun wrote: post #125
taeric wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you look at any of the studies that showed placebo effects comparable to creatine? It is insane, as we know the mechanism for how creatine does its thing. Still, the social effects of being told it is effective seems to be the dominant reason it is as effective as it is.

Have not seen those studies. Creatine is one of the most studied supplements out there though so would think the empirical data supports it at this point. I'm speaking anecdotally of course. I used to cycle creatine but now I just always take it. When I'd cycle off I'd lose 5-10 lbs every time. Thats mostly water weight but my lifts would decrease about 10% as well. Not to mention the extra energy (more reps not just…

It is one of the more studied drugs, agreed. We are very confident it works. Which is why the studies that show being told it works is a major driver are insanely interesting and worth checking on.

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#134

Post by jerf »

walthamstow wrote: post #122
Dalewyn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Milk sold in the US almost always has vitamin D added to it, because presumably Americans don't get enough sunlight to produce sufficient amounts. Instant noodles sold in Japan almost always have vitamins B1 and B2 added to them, for presumably similar reasons.

White bread and processed grain products in the UK always have things like iron, calcium, vitamins, riboflavin added. I think it's to replace the loss of the nutrient-rich germ from milling. Never known what riboflavin is, still don't today, but I saw it on the side of a cereal box every day as a child and the word is etched in my mind

Riboflavin is one of the vitamin B complex. I remember it because deficiencies are extremely rare, and there appears to be no practical upper limit on how much you can take, it is virtually impossible to overdose on. I mean, obviously, there is some limit, but it's sky high.

Which makes the supplementation of it a particular joke, in my opinion.

That it was discovered as a "vitamin" at all is probably more to do with it being easy to spot (very brightly colored) and easy to chemically handle and a few other accidents of history more than anything else: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riboflavin#History (I am editorializing that a bit and I freely admit that.) It certainly doesn't stick out like, say, iron, which has recognizable deficiency symptoms and plenty of people in the real world with them.

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#135

Post by johnyzee »

simonh wrote: post #8

So basically once your body has all the nutrients it needs to grow or make the things it needs to make, it makes them. Even more extra stuff it doesn’t need, it doesn’t use. Makes sense. This also appears to apply to the immune system. There’s zero evidence that supplements that are supposed to “boost your immune system” do any such thing. Yes your immune system functions best if you have good nutrition, but that’s i…

This is why omega-3s are effective. Your body depends on them to function optimally, and they are found in only a very few food sources, pretty much only fish. The omega-3s found in nuts and plants can convert to the most critical fatty acids, but about ten times less efficiently.

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#136

Post by jerf »

mgraupner wrote: post #87
treeman79 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Had tons of random problems. Ended up being autoimmune Sjogrens and a clotting disorder. Diet changes and supplements are how I got thing under control for most issues. Blood thinners for Clotting since That’s way to dangerous, and no combination of anything else helped. LDN covers symptoms when I’m not strict about diet.

Interesting. I had similar symptoms like migraine/brain fog, stiff neck and muscle tension as soon as October (winter in Central Europe) came. Tested for Vitamin D deficiency and had super low levels. Since taking supplements I feel good in winter for the first time in probably 5 years. I'm also a very outdoorsy person, so getting enough sun is not always a sure way wo have high levels of Vitamin D.

"Sun" is definitely not sufficient. Vitamin D synthesis requires UVB exposure [1] and that plummets to effectively zero in the higher latitudes in the winter: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5037520/#sec3-n... By "higher latitudes" I mean considered on a global scale; continental Europe is effectively all at these "higher latitudes".

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#137

Post by deepsquirrelnet »

seper8 wrote: post #88
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the sales pitch for multivitamins and the like; they talk you into a problem but they provide the solution. Certain vitamins your body will dispose of safely (like vitamin C), but there's others that just build up until they kill you; there's the case of Xavier Mertz [0] who was theorized to have died from an excess of vitamin A after eating his sled dogs' livers. But the basic rule is: just eat normally / "a…

Even that balanced diet will consist of less and less minerals and vitamins as time goes on and growers optimize for vegetable, fruit VOLUME instead of vitamin/mineral contents. >>> The level of decline varied depending on the specific nutrients and the type of fruit or vegetable, but it generally ranged from 6 percent for protein to 38 percent for riboflavin. In particular, calcium dropped most dramatically in brocc…

Food storage and preservation also has a lot to do with it as well. Oxidation makes a lot of nutrients mostly unavailable, and degradation can happen quickly. Minerals in vegetables aren’t chelated, so while they sit in refrigerated storage, they are still rapidly losing nutrition.

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#138

Post by johnyzee »

ilostmyshoes wrote: post #25
n2j3 wrote: post #6

cost of 100 omega 3 capsules (in .gr): ~10 euros, fish and nuts cost about 18 euros per kilo and tend to spoil.

You you can just buy cold pressed flax oil and supplement with that. ~30 USD for ~1L iirc and it has an absolute assload of ALA (omega3) Hemp seed oil is a good one for omega6 but usually people get enough 6 from diet and 3 is the one we need to boost to get the 3:6 ratio up https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatty_acid_ratio_in_food

ALA must be converted to EPA and DHA, which it does at less than 10% efficiency, so you'd need to consume an assload of it, too. Your best bet is still fish(oil).

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#139

Post by GTP »

bearcream67 wrote: post #117
mililitre wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback: will update the second link to point to the correct source, and I think "isolated findings" would be a more accurate word here. I agree that many of the studies are about cognitive decline, but there's also research on improving cognitive function, which would probably be closer to "brain boosting" category you mention. For example, from the first source I listed, "Six trials (including 1757…

"Current evidence supports the finding that omega-3 PUFAs with EPA ≥ 60% at a dosage of ≤1 g/d would have beneficial effects on depression." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-019-0515-5 Is this considered brain boosting?

I don't think so, I would consider "brain boosting" something that makes the brain of an healthy person perform better at certain tasks, not something that improves it for people with a disease.

Re: Omega-3s: Are “Brain-Boosting” Effects Scientifically Backed?

#140

Post by ROTMetro »

scottLobster wrote: post #105
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the sales pitch for multivitamins and the like; they talk you into a problem but they provide the solution. Certain vitamins your body will dispose of safely (like vitamin C), but there's others that just build up until they kill you; there's the case of Xavier Mertz [0] who was theorized to have died from an excess of vitamin A after eating his sled dogs' livers. But the basic rule is: just eat normally / "a…

The question is one of optimization. There are arguably optimal doses of particular nutrients (i.e. Vitamin D) that would be extremely hard to achieve through "a balanced diet". Also most people do not and many can not eat a "balanced diet", as that requires a ton of effort to maintain. To put it another way, if the benefits of exercise were available in pill form on grocery store shelves, everyone would be taking th…

And what is a balanced diet? Is it the 1990s food pyramid that I was taught by my doctor to follow?
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