"Omega-3" is as vague and underdescriptive term as "marihuana". We're better educated now and we can focus on the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) where it comes to Omega 3. And we can point at THC, CBN, CBD or any of the 100+ other cannabinoids present in cannabis flowers when we describe "marihuana", "weed" or "pot".
And there's a reason behind my local pharmacy offering THC-focused or CBD-focused pot, and my local supplements store offering DHA-focused and EPA-focused softgels, produced by the same company and under the same brand. How these these products act varies by active substances content and the person. Both "Omega 3" and "marihuana" are dumbed-down terms, meaningless when it comes to studies or papers.
There's a ton of studies on nih.gov about EPA's potential as an antidepressant, misaligned with DHA-related articles on the subject, that I could link. But I can say - purely anecdotally - that I removed psypost.org feed from my RSS reader a few months after ChatGPT became public.
The specific supplement used in this research [0] was equal parts DHA and EPA (no ALA, which is the third main Omega-3.) Determining whether the effect is specific to one of the Omega-3's or general to the class would be an expected subject of further research, as would seeing if the effect holds outside of the lab mice model.
There's a whole lot of work between this study and anything actionable other than for planning further research to confirm and better understand the effect, and whatever more general problems psypost.com may have, reporting the source of the effect as "Omega-3" is both consistent with the paper and not overly general given the actual facts.
[0] Linked from the story, but: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235228952...
I think there's a practical distinction between the kind of term "omega-3" is vs the kind of term "marijuana" is.
You mostly only find THC/CBD/etc in marijuana; and we mostly only consume marijuana to get those particular active ingredients into our bodies. So you can forget about "marijuana" as a category for describing those compounds, and just speak of the compounds themselves — measure marijuana strains by the presence of those active ingredients; extract and purify one particular active ingredient and sell it; etc. Doing this doesn't lose you anything; in fact, it's a pure win, as the use of precise language gives people a tool to leverage to more precisely ask for the effect they're looking for, and gives suppliers a tool to more precisely describe what they're selling.
While the omega-3 constituent compounds can be treated this way, they are not solely a thing we extract or synthesize to put in precise-molarity-per-dose pills; they're also a thing found in food. Many different foods; with most of them being foods people eat for reasons beyond just getting omega-3s in their bodies. In other words, the "omega-3" constituent compounds are nutrients.
And many of these omega-3-containing foods — fish, for example — aren't carefully cultivated species that have known ratios of the omega-3 constituent compounds that could be put on the label of the food-product. Rather, the ratio of those constituent compounds is pretty much random per individual food item. One salmon at the grocery store has omega-3 fats which happen to be high in DHA, while the next salmon beside it in the same cooler display is higher in EPA. All you can in general about a food product — all a supplier can say, and all a food shopper can generally expect to look for — is a food that is "high in omega-3s."
As long as people are interested in optimizing their health in a loose manner by eating "healthful foods" — rather than taking specifically-formulated supplements — I don't expect they'll let go of the generic categorical term "omega-3." When it comes to food, "it contains omega-3s" is almost always the tightest bound you can put on the "nutritional value" of a given food.
I'm not so sure about the incertitude you speak of about omega-3s content and ratios in food.
In fact while in Japan I used to specifically select my bags of dried sardine (niboshi) and mackerel cans by the content of EPA and DHA, clearly indicated in mg per 100g. Every such products had these indications with content varying by brands.
I guess that if you master your process you can ensure and advertise a consistent quality.
Processed fish products are a bit different from a large chunk of a single fish, in terms of the promises that can be made.
The problem with large, wild-caught fish, is that different fish are going to be living in slightly-different regions, or migrating through given regions at slightly-different times, and so eating different things; and so will have more or less of any given nutrient coming from those things in their bodies.
If you're catching large swarms/schools of fish, all the fish in a given school will be mostly identical in their nutritional content. And so, if you're doing some bulk operation like canning or drying, and you're doing it on fish that swarm/school and get caught as whole swarms/schools (such as sardine or mackerel) — then, for each catch delivered to your plant by a fishing vessel, you can take a few samples from that catch to get a sense of the average micronutrient values of that catch; and then you can store these catches separately, titrating together the different catches into each processed mixture, to achieve the a steady nutritional value in the result. (This is roughly the same thing that e.g. orange juice companies do with the truckloads of oranges they buy to achieve a consistent output juice product.)
But if you're just buying e.g. one salmon, then it came through an entirely different logistics pipeline to get to you — either an "independent" one where a small-time fisherman sold some fish directly to a local fishmonger, who then sold it directly to a local grocer, a few fish at a time; or a "big chain" one where a stream of flash-frozen fish from fishing vessels is being just-in-time streamed out to various grocery stores. (This lack of a fan-in processing step for raw large fish is also why grocers end up with so much mislabelled fish; the guy who works at a fish processing plant near the fishery will recognize all the fish that fishery tends to pull out of the water; but there's no similar expert in the meat department of a random grocery store in Idaho — in fact, that person might not even know which fishery the fish they're receiving came from!)
High quality EPA was the only thing that universally worked for a family member with depression. Tried changing sources one time and felt the difference in about 2 days. Got back on the previous source and back out of depression.
I had been under the mistaken impression that DHA was only interesting inasmuch as your body inefficiently turns it into EPA.
DHA and EPA have distinct roles in the body.
Both are necessary for most people, especially for males and for older people, because the inter-conversions between the various omega-3 fatty acids are done inefficiently by humans.
The other omega-3 fatty acids do not have known functions, except as sources of DHA and EPA, after an enzymatic conversion.
Omega 3 supplements are such a wild world. So many low quality ones, so many different types, and so many claims about them being miracle cures (that then don't hold out for later studies).
I have severe chronic dry eye, and omega 3 is one of the first things they recommend. But then in the past 5 or 6 years there have been a bunch of studies that have shown there is no actual measurable effect.
Some people still claim that it helps, but that you have to get it by actually eating Omega 3 rich fish, and not just taking the supplements. Either way, I've never seen any difference with my dry eye symptoms.
It is suspect to me that a lot of waste products end up being pushed as supplements. Also, there is a swath of junk science associated with nutrition publishing.
It's used in TBI, see Dr. Barry Sears for some accounts.
"Fish oil helped save our son" https://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/19/health/fish-oil-brain-inj...
> Most of the studies about omega-3 for traumatic brain injury are in animals, but they indicate potential for healing the human brain.
> After a trauma, the brain tends to swell, and the connections between some nerve cells can become damaged, while other cells simply die.
> National Institutes of Health research suggests that omega-3 fatty acids may inhibit cell death and could be instrumental for reconnecting damaged neurons.
> Another recent study revealed genes that are activated to contain massive damage – especially inflammation – when the brain is injured. What activates those genes: omega-3.
> “We have strong data that suggest omega-3 will activate good proteins to cope with brain damage and turn off proteins that cause neuroinflammation,” said Dr. Nicolas Bazan, director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health in New Orleans and author of the study.
> Bailes consulted with a fish oil expert and eventually decided that administering 20 grams a day of omega-3 fish oil through a feeding tube might repair the myelin sheath. (For comparison: A typical supplemental dose for someone with an uninjured brain is about 2 grams a day.)
TBI is a wide spectrum of conditions akin to "trauma" in psychological terms.
I skimmed the article, but I didn't see any specific medical terms used. The reason I am curious is because I do not think that mTBI like concussions cause brain swelling since the injury is more of a functional injury than a structural injury.
I like to play ice hockey as an adult, and I try to do everything reasonably possible to protect my brain from vulcanized rubber disks flying at my head at 0 < x 100 mph. Perhaps I will add some fish oil back into my diet. I already uses Lion's Mane, but I am not sure if it truly does anything, but I love the taste of the product I use, so I will continue to use it regardless. Not sure if I have ever had a "real" concussion, but definitely some ringers.
Sorry, this was just a quick search, I first heard about this from Dr. Barry Sears, and he had several accounts of miraculous recovery with massive doses of fish oil (20g+)
This is incredibly common with things such as fungi, which are known to have numerous benefits across a wide body of studies. The catch is that most of the supplements are just filler, leftover parts you can't use for much else e.g. ground up stem or even growth medium that has little to nothing in it.
There are conflicting studies, but recently, it was determined you need adequate vitamin B levels to support omega-3.
As an aside, you can definitely over-dose on omega-3 which can cause afib, and increase your chance of stroke. I was taking 2 grams per day and definitely had arrhythmia issues. Decreasing the dosage to 500mg per day eliminated the arrhythmia.
Didn’t know that was possible with Omega 3. The pills I have are 660mg and recommends 1 per day, seems you took about 3.5x that dose
By the way, how can you detect arrhythmia? Blood pressure monitor or Apple Watch? General feeling?
The elephant in the room is that true randomised controlled trials take decades to do and even then are almost impossible to build in a way that teases out nuances such as the specific effects of individual compounds within a supplement.
So we are effectively left with pseudoscience as the only other option, but what would you rather do - sacrifice all of the insight and knowledge we are learning at such a rapid pace in medicine today, just because there's no feasible way to prove it within your lifetime (like, if you wait 20 years for observational studies to show that humans benefit from Omega 3 you will have missed the entire window when it would have been beneficial).
We have to find a balance, but it can't sit at the extreme of requiring everything to meet an impossible bar of scientific proof before we start to benefit from it. But the price to pay is that some of them are not going to pan out.
I have dry eye as well. What have you done that helps? Omega 3 didn’t do anything for me either.
I'm about 10 years into this, and I've tried many many things. It's all about management now. It really depends on the type of dry eye you have, so I'd recommend seeing a dry eye specialist if you haven't. Getting a meibography done is really important for seeing the state of your glands.
The things that work the best for me currently are Systane Hydration PF eye drops, NuLids, Manuka Honey gel, OcuSoft lid scrubs, moving out of a dry climate, and limiting screen time. Inflammation in general causes it to flare up -- diet, lack of sleep, alcohol, stress, staying up late coding or gaming, all seem to cause inflammation and make it worse for me.
I've also done Restasis, Xiidra, Cequa, IPL, Radio Frequency, warm compresses, and punctal plugs, without much success.
I'd like to try autologous tear serum next.
Wow you've tried the whole industry. The only thing I can recommend to you would be to try a brand of drops called Optase, they are more quality and thicker than everything else on the market.
Here's a HN post with a really good top comment that talks about psychological eye strain that really resonated with me, plenty of other advice in there too you might like: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34518343
Good luck!
I haven't tried Optase, but it's worth a shot. Systane Hydration PF has been the best for me, and it is also a lot thicker.
Thank you for the link! It resonates with my experience. I do think there's a psychological aspect of it for me. When I'm depressed or disassociating (which is frequent) it's easy to just stare at a screen and not blink at all.
That’s a lot of different things to consider and try, thanks!
What worked for me was drinking massive amounts of water throughout the day.
Not so much to cause hyponatremia, of course, but it was a cheap easy way to establish a baseline for me (i.e. helps with dry climates, salty foods, dehydration, etc). And yeah, I tried some of those other things too.
I'm doing IPL/RF now which is theorized to help with inflammation, but now I know to be more careful with healthy lifestyle. Too bad this understanding of computer lifestyle and dry eye syndrome was that well explained and emphasizsd 15 years ago.
Have you noticed any improvement with IPL/RF? I've done 5 sessions - I saw improvement after the first and fourth, but regressed pretty quicky back after a few days. I've heard some people saying they had to do like 10 to start to notice a bigger difference. The problem is it's so expensive (I have to pay $750 for the combo session).
I used to have this problem too. Tried prescriptions, systane, hydration eye drops etc etc, but in the end but actually worked was baby shampoo rinsing my eyes twice a day and washing them it took some time but now it's completely gone. But for me I believe it was some sort of blepharitis that was blocking the glands that produced the lubrication my eyes needed, and now that I have a good routine, it appears to have solve the problem.
How much water do you drink and do you take extra salt?
If Manuka honey has helped, have you considered using other antiseptics or even probiotic eye baths and bacteriophages?
Perfluorohexyloctane helped me quite a bit. You can ship it from Europe for something like $20 per vial (EvoTears), or get in the US for $700 (Miebo). The vials are literally identical.
For me, Xiidra combined with once a day Pataday (which actually dries the eye, but for me helped stem inflammation that was harming my ability to form a tear film), plus this iTEAR device (https://olympicophthalmics.com/itear-100/), was incredibly helpful.
I’d also recommend getting a humidifier for each of your main rooms and using distilled water with it.
I cured mine bc I figured out it was related to LPR/reflux which was causing dry eyes along with some other crappy stuff.
What was the cure?
I have uveitis and it certainly helped for me. I think what happens is a lot of people don’t lower the amount omega 6 and just increase omega-3 by a small amount. It took a drastic reduction in omega 6 for it to help.
I've researched trustworthy brands a lot, the ones I settled on are Nootropics Depot, Viva Naturals and Nordic Naturals. I prefer those with only Vit E as preservative.
What led you to settle on these?
- Nootropics Depot because I know the owner (online) and they do rigorous testing
- Viva Naturals from recommendations and testing (Labdoor)
- Nordic Naturals is a well-known premium brand
frankly I haven't documented, these are just some things out of the top my head
I think there is a Russian medicine for dry eye: Visomitin
But I remember a study that claimed it does not work. Also, may be currently hard to get.
Do you get headaches because of your dry eyes? (specifically, after staring at screens for a long time)
I generally don't get headaches luckily. When my dry eye was a lot more severe I had to strain to see the screen, and would sometimes get them then. It's better managed now (but still severe).
Blepharitis perhaps?
Another important aspect regarding supplements; so few are tested for how well they are absorbed by human digestion.
Have you tried Lutein?
It's amazing the lengths some people will go to avoid eating fish.
Fish can be prohibitively expensive even in parts of the world with access to large amounts of seashorres. Think: North Africa.
> Omega 3 supplements are such a wild world.
That's why you should get it from seafood and grass fed mammals (if you need long chain PUFAs) or flaxseed (if you need short chain PUFAs).
There are probably many other things in seafood that co-exist with Omega 3 for a reason.
Why are we still looking at mice studies for such a human-used substance?
This study used EPA: 0.55 mg/kg/day, and DHA: 0.55 mg/kg/day.
Among the largest I've heard in human studies are things like 4,400mg EPA and 2,200mg DHA.
Examine.com is one of the best resources to understand what evidence shows about supplements.
EPA appears to be the component that works for depression.
Also, important these days, is the quality: it should be filtered from heavy metals, and processed and stored in a way that avoids it going rancid by the time you consume it.
I strongly believe in the benefits of having a higher omega-3:omega-6 ratio than is common nowadays.
> Once the behavioral tests were completed, the mice were killed, and their blood and tissues were analyzed to assess the biological effects of stress and omega-3 supplementation.
I think they are trying to show biological causes by carefully controlling the mice’s entire life and then cracking them open at the end of the study. Can’t really do that with humans.
You have to be careful with such high doses over a long period of time. It can cause heart arrhythmia.
On a related topic, I started taking bacopa monnieri and it improved my memory and mental endurance, anxiety and depression. I gave it to my wife and had the totally opposite effect:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacopa_monnieri
Also I can drink coffee and won't make any effect on my sleep, while my wife gets the boost. I wouldn't be surprised the effects of all those supplements depend on your body chemistry.
They can't differentiate the population, so all these studies will average zero.
Are you measuring your vitals during sleep with a watch or a ring? Might not be affecting your ability to fall asleep but hard to imagine it does nothing to your brain or heart while you’re unconscious
Bacopa Monnieri aka Brahmi has been very effective to eliminate mental turbulence for me. It has a calming, sharp, bitter effect. It's like it's cleaning something up. If my mind is overactive in bed at night I take Brahmi and I quickly feel settled.
Yep, what works for one may not work for others. Some people find L-theanine supplement helpful for reducing anxiety. For me it kind of worked, but then gave bad anxiety as a withdrawal symptom.
This definitely tracks with my experience. I take a tablespoon of cod liver oil daily and I've definitely noticed a complete flatlining of my emotional states. My baseline is just basic calmness and a general lack of "monkeymind"/intrusive thoughts. Really amazed its not a more prescribed treatment.
Cod is super high in Vitamin D, and considered by many historians the secret food that contributed to Vikings success.
Cod is super high in Vitamin A too and I would be worried about your liver.
used to drink cod liver oil daily, then i learned how it's processed... I would advise just taking vitamin d pill and eating 2 to 3 times a week fat fish.
About cod liver oil manufacturing : https://www.rositausa.com/cdn/shop/articles/Rosita-Postcard-...
Everything is so polluted that either you're drinking oil that contains plastics and chemicals, or you're drinking an oil that has been completely destroyed and rebuilt using vitamin D, A and omega 3 from third party manufacturer.
What am I meant to be getting out of that link? I don't care about vitamin A/D and I don't see any point where they're adding third-party omega 3s back in.
It also seems pretty low-quality. "Our oil uses some mysterious process labelled 'oil released in 15 minutes' so it's good! Their process uses a grinder and a centrifuge, and look, we added bloodstains and made the centrifuge brown to show how bad that is!"
Any particular types of fish or sources of that fish fat?
So for what it's worth here's my experience -- generally not super impressed with supplements, tried cod-liver oil, didn't notice much effect, but after starting to make homemade salmon sashimi from costco salmon (Yes it's a thing, youtube it), I started noticing reduced anxiety and better concentration on days when I did so.
I would eat about 2/3rds of a pound of raw salmon and notice this effect (which would be like $60 or more at a sushi restaurant). I've done this at least 20 times now and never had any issues.
Generally I don't mention the mental effects of the salmon to people because I feel like they wouldn't take it very seriously, but since you're asking and it's on-topic, I thought I'd share.
Does it also flatline your positive emotions? Ashwaganda does a similar thing for a lot of people, it tamps down their anxiety and depression but suppresses most other emotions as well (it's called anhedonia).
I would definitely say so. I can still feel happy if I choose to but I don't feel upward swings. Overall I'd say its a net positive as I generally feel content.
It didn't affect me at all when I took it for a few years. No noticeable positive or negative effect.
Well this is a great thing to see an hour after buying some O3s.
I have read though that omega-3 supplements seem to not do much, it's the intake of them dietarily that show results, I'm not sure how current that research is. I've also read that algae as a source might be better? There's a tremendous amount of conflicting information.
> I have read though that omega-3 supplements seem to not do much
afaik that holds for a lot (if not most) commonly used supplements (vitamins are another popular offender). Sometimes the reason is the food matrix effect, where just isolated nutrients are not as beneficial as when they are consumed along with other nutrients. Sometimes (like vitamin D or testosterone), the biomarker is reflective of health status, not predictive.
From this [1] podcast (2y old at this point) I too seem to remember that it doesn't do much most of the time, that supplements are generally untrustworthy w.r.t. dosing and purity and there's also a slight chance of giving yourself afib.
1. https://soundcloud.com/user-344313169/episode-193-fish-oil
There’s never been a better time to be a mouse
Or a worse one. I know you're making a joke, but it doesn't seem that funny to me — U.S. biomedical industry goes through about 111 million lab mice and rats each year [1]. Most mice lives are short and cruel, living their entire lives in tiny plastic boxes and often subjected to horrific experiences. We should be more thankful.
[1] https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-mice-and-ra...
I really appreciate that someone else shares my opinions on this matter. It pains me what we do to animals for our benefit. I suppose there is no other alternative, but that does not diminish the cruelty.
I feel the same way about the "Boar's Head" meat recall in the US due to Listeria. 7 million pounds of meat must be disposed of. That means every single one of the pigs died for that meat died for absolutely nothing at all. It just doesn't sit right with me.
This isn't funny. Mice and rats are among the most intelligent animals used in research, and despite ethical regulations on their treatment, they are often ignored. Many of these animals endure severe procedures without adequate pain relief, or none at all. This widespread suffering also causes mental health problems for many of the researchers who have to regularly euthanize them. These animals sacrifice their lives to improve human health and well-being. At the very least, we should show respect for their pain and suffering, which is undertaken for our benefit.
Have they made any mice immortal yet (with continuous treatments of stem cells and other therapies)?
Right up until any given study with mice concludes...
This is exciting, and should be fairly easy to confirm/deny with a double blind trial in humans. There's no money to be had in it for big pharma, so funding it would have to come from some other means, but it should be possible.
There's already research on Omega 3 supplementation's impact on depression + anxiety symptoms in humans. The results generally show that Omega 3 is roughly as effective as antidepressants, and can be safely taken in addition to antidepressants for an even greater effect.
Examine.com summary:
> Fish oil supplementation has been noted to be comparable to pharmaceutical drugs (fluoxetine) in majorly depressed persons, but this may be the only cohort that experiences a reduction of depression. There is insufficient evidence to support a reduction of depressive symptoms in persons with minor depression (ie. not diagnosed major depressive disorder)
They give it a B for the research and an effect size of moderate improvement. Also a B with a small effect size for anxiety.
https://examine.com/supplements/fish-oil
I’d note it also says:
> A meta-analysis of 35 small, randomized trials found that fish oil can slightly improve depression when compared to control. However, this improvement may be too small to be noticeable. Also, adding fish oil to antidepressant medication seems to be more beneficial than antidepressant treatment alone
In short, sounds like it’s worth throwing in as an adjunct treatment for people wanting to take a kitchen sink approach
> They give it a B for the research and an effect size of moderate improvement. Also a B with a small effect size for anxiety
To be fair, this is among the most highly rated things on the entire site - let not the "B" scare you off. A moderate effect size is pretty substantial, all things considered.
> There's no money to be had in it for big pharma
IIRC there's several patent medicine versions of omega 3 such as icosapent ethyl
as opposed to supplement studies in mice, which are notoriously lucrative
As the other comment mentions, mouse studies are hilariously cheap compared to human trials. We're talking many orders of magnitude. A couple grad students can do a mouse study at costs very much approaching zero.
they are cheaper
There's a study about omega3 supplementation that says that if children in a family supplement it, that the parents have a better relationship, even if they don't supplement. I can probably dig it out, given enough time with a search engine.
Another one is D. over the course of three years i managed to help my wife get above 100ng/ml 25-hydroxy-D on a blood test. Of course every doctor called and said "too high" and her Calcium is too high too, but not from the D3, folks, because she takes K2 Mk7. Her calcium is high because she mostly drinks fortified orange juice and was taking 1200mg calcium per day at the direction of her oncologist. She has a lot of chronic issues and we're slowly trying to mitigate everything possible with diet and supplements. The specialist said "stop calcium immediately" and "reduce D for 1 month" only. for those aware her Ca was 10.9 ("good" range is ~9.0 - 10.2). I guarantee that her calcium will go back to normal because of the K2 between now and her next blood panel. note: they don't actually test D levels unless you ask, in general. One might wonder why that is - i know i certainly do.
In fact, i was just about to go to the pharmacy to get Omega-3 supplements when i saw this post. Her chart shows that she must supplement omega 3, since she won't eat baked salmon. My kid already has vitamins with omegas in them.
What i recommend is actually reading studies - completely - and if you have any questions or doubts, befriend researchers in biology or other life sciences that can skim the paper and tell you "meh" or "hey that's cool". Studies contradict, studies may have bad inputs or methodology, the only way to know for sure is to read as many as you can as thoroughly as you can, and if possible, consult experts. Medical doctors of the "PCP" persuasion are not experts, generally.
When I took omega-3 in addition to duloxetine, I got terrible brain zaps the whole day.
That's interesting, zaps are a withdrawal syndrome of SSRIs (and duloxetine).
Buspirone (an anti-anxiety) gave me brain zaps within an hour of taking it. Didn't seem to help with the anxiety at all though...
Yep. That's where I knew brain zaps from, because I previously experienced them when coming off SSRIs.
I had them after an accidental too big MDMA dose, after which I felt depressed for a few weeks.
High long chain omega 3 and low omega 6 not only revered my hyperlipidemia (through stimulating reverse cholesterol transport) but notably reduces my symptoms of schizoaffective disorder bipolar type (I am assuming this is through assisting with carecholamine receptor function).
I came to the conclusion this diet would help me by noting the polymorphisms in my FADS1 and FADS2 genes linked to needing more long chain PUFAs.
You might also be interested that omega 3 is responsible for making natural Cannabinoid (endocannabinoids) in humans which could be linked to the lower anxiety.
Yeah, I've noticed too much Omega 6 is at least one big cause of my anxiety.
Avoiding vegetable oils (and foods that are cooked with it) and just using coconut oil, tallow, butter etc. reduces my anxiety to the point that it's barely noticeable.
IMHO, Omega 3 increases GABA and Omega 6 increases Glutamate. I am going to guess that if you ever smoked pot that high THC weed makes you severely anxious?
Can you elaborate on the connection you’re drawing here?
Omega 6 creates an endocannibinoid that is more like Delta 9 THC and Delta 9 THC increases glutamate release. This will cause psychosis in people who have high glutamate levels or low GABA levels.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7714685/
Omega 3 creates an endocannibinoid that is more like CBD and CBD increases GABA release.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S10436...
This is great, but why does Omega 3 paradoxically reduce expression of dopamine receptors and dopamine release
The dopamine hypothesis is being heavily debated and revisited these days. Might be worth checking any assumptions against current research.
Because it makes the dopamine more effective.
Does caffeine intake nullify this effect?
It should not be title Omega-3!
The article clearly States Omega-3, 8, and Omega-9!
Anxiety and depressions are feelings. Eating feels good for a little bit. But I could easily make the claim that getting a dog and taking it for regular walks in nature counteracts symptoms of anxiety and depression. Doing Yoga with synchronized breathing...same Taking a hot bath, a sauna session, a massage, sex, a long list. Why do so many people think eating something is the path to good health.
Also knowing how things are encoded in neural networks, where it's a combination of variables that sets off some behaviour. Why do Scientists still persist on trying to isolate a single variable.
Allergies are a thing. Why is it hard to believe that certain types of food affect people in specific ways?
I take it you were never in a psychiatric hospital with people urging you to get ECT?
I was. Hot baths don’t work, but that’s just me. Blanket recommendations are useless and harmful. It turns out I have a genetic issue causing my mood issues and diet is my treatment.
By all means, eat as much healthy food as you can afford. But whatever caused your psychiatric problems, it couldn't have been food. Unless you're so poor that you severely malnourished, or you're eating something severely toxic. And even then, lots of places in this world with malnourished populations that are not depressed.
Improving the quality of your life is not just food. It's all the other things that go into it. Like autonomy, sense of security, friends, social status, finances, physical activity levels, etc.
So be sure to look after improving those things too.
And my suggestion for walking a dog, is a simple and practical suggestion for something that will get you both companionship and exercise.
From personal experience, quitting smoking helped with anxiety. That longing feeling for a cigarette was making me anxious, and that feeling would persist even after having one. So quitting was helpful. But again, smoking is not eating.
> By all means, eat as much healthy food as you can afford. But whatever caused your psychiatric problems, it couldn't have been food
Are there purines, like Inosine and Guanosine, in food?
Did you even ask what my genetic disorder is?
I'm always open to learning things I don't know about ... go on
Cool.
I have a Partial PNP Deficiency that makes it harder for me to break down Inosine and Guanosine (and xanthine). My PNP enzyme only functions at about 12% of most "normal" people.
Image: https://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/538247/fimmu-11-0...
Paper on the topic: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10....
So how does food affect me?
They use Inosine (Inosinic acid) and Guanosine (Guanylic acid) in foods as a food additives to increase the umami.
https://www.eurofins.com/media-centre/newsletters/food-newsl...
These are also found naturally in many foods: https://www.umamiinfo.com/richfood/
When I eat these foods I cannot break these purines down and they not only cause mood issues but also an immune deficiency.
Purinergic System Dysfunction is linked to mood disorders: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4262688/
After going on a low specific purine diet I no longer need any of the three psychiatric medications I was on but for klonopin since there are some triggers I cannot avoid.
Food did this. Food and having a good doctor who did not give up on me. Food and knowing what my genetics are. I get that some people might benefit from Yoga, etc, but to serve a blanket statement like that is just ignorant of the genetic and environmental diversity of humanity. I have these genetics because I have Sami heritage and I am adapted to live in a cold climate and eating low purine, high zinc foods. Zinc also helps me break down the purines by stimulating LACC1, which is a sort of PNP backup. A zinc deficiency when I was young left me with an undecended testicle because of my LACC1 genetics.
Thank you for posting the genetic polymorphism, makes it much easier to cross reference. Glad you've found an answer!
Super interesting, thanks for sharing
Just instruct your personal chef to include more organic eggs, to cure your ego problem, and you'll feel better. Great news for anyone that partied with P.diddy