[HN Gopher] Daily omega-3 fatty acids may help human organs stay...
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       Daily omega-3 fatty acids may help human organs stay young
        
       Author : gmays
       Score  : 78 points
       Date   : 2025-02-09 18:59 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (medicalxpress.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (medicalxpress.com)
        
       | nu2ycombinator wrote:
       | Yep, I haven't aged a day for last 10 years. :)
        
         | aucisson_masque wrote:
         | You aren't taking enough of it. I've gone back 2 years.
        
       | tyronehed wrote:
       | The yellow kind of Omega-3 comes from salmon, and it has a side
       | effects of making a stink and also concentrating mercury.
       | 
       | Instead, you should get your omega-3 from krill oil, which is low
       | on the food chain does not concentrate Mercury is all around
       | better
        
         | mettamage wrote:
         | Will check it out, never heard of krill.
        
         | defactor wrote:
         | Wild alaskan salmon Alaskan people are tested regularly for
         | mercury due to high fish consumption
        
         | safeimp wrote:
         | Good advice. Additionally, I'd recommend that with any
         | supplement you evaluate the source you're buying from. I
         | typically use Nootropics Depot (avoiding linking so this
         | doesn't look like a full blown add - check my history though,
         | not a shill) and they use 3rd party lab testing to back up
         | claims.
        
           | xlbuttplug2 wrote:
           | +1. ND and Thorne I trust blindly.
        
         | kiwiana wrote:
         | There are plant based alternatives too, which are derived from
         | kelp.
        
         | trehalose wrote:
         | Mercury is generally concentrated in the meat, not the fat. (It
         | has an affinity for the thiol groups on certain amino acids in
         | protein.) There's certainly other fat-soluble pollutants like
         | PCBs to worry about, but I'd never heard of any fish oil
         | products having significant mercury contamination. I'd love to
         | see the info you've been looking at?
        
         | xlbuttplug2 wrote:
         | Any decent brand is using molecularly distilled fish oil.
        
         | nicce wrote:
         | For Nordic people, Norwegian salmon is likely the worst
         | possible source. Too many bad things going on with that
         | farming.
        
         | exhilaration wrote:
         | Just eat the right kind of salmon: "All species of Alaska wild
         | salmon have very low levels of mercury."
         | 
         | From:
         | https://health.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/eph/Pages/fish/default.asp...
        
       | dp-hackernews wrote:
       | Opposing claims?
       | 
       | "Vitamin D3 and omega-3 fatty acids not helpful in reducing risk
       | of frailty"
       | https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09-vitamin-d3-omega-fatt...
        
         | jakeinspace wrote:
         | Those are different claims. I don't exactly know what frailty
         | means technically, but this was a 5 year study on the elderly.
         | Preserving organ health with a lifetime of omega 3 consumption
         | is totally different.
        
         | eightysixfour wrote:
         | I'm starting to wonder if Vitamin D and Omega 3s are
         | indicators, not drivers. D is an indicator that you spend time
         | outdoors, in the sun, and that is healthy for your body.
         | Similarly, Omega 3 is indicative of other lifestyle choices,
         | not causal for better health.
        
       | constantlm wrote:
       | How do they separate the impact of the 3x per week exercise?
        
       | nodata wrote:
       | But: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10175873/
        
         | sebmellen wrote:
         | Fascinating.
         | 
         | > _It is unclear how omega-3 fatty acids increase the AF risk.
         | Omega-3 fatty acids stabilize the cardiac membrane and protect
         | against arrhythmias, including ventricular arrhythmias, through
         | both direct electrophysiologic actions and positive effects on
         | biological processes involved in atrial remodeling. However,
         | omega-3 fatty acids have direct effects on the activity of
         | cardiac calcium, sodium, and potassium ionic currents, which
         | can alter the duration of the ventricular action potential.
         | Therefore, omega-3 fatty acids may promote re-entrant
         | arrhythmias, despite being anti-arrhythmic in therapeutic
         | conditions. Several previous studies have evaluated the
         | electrical characteristics of the ventricular wall; few studies
         | have evaluated how omega-3 fatty acids influence the atria._
        
           | jadbox wrote:
           | EILI5? How compelling is this study against Omega3?
        
       | helph67 wrote:
       | This may explain why people who use the Mediterranean diet tend
       | to live long, healthy lives.
        
         | nabaraz wrote:
         | There are different variations of Omega 3 fatty acids. For
         | instance, Avocados is rich in Omega 3 ALA which is considered
         | not as effective as EPA and DHA.
         | 
         | Fish is the only source of EPA and DHA.
        
           | westurner wrote:
           | From "An Omega-3 that's poison for cancer tumors" (2021)
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27499427 :
           | 
           | > _Fish don 't synthesize Omega PUFAs, they eat algae_ which
           | synthesize fat-soluble DHA and EPA.
           | 
           | > _From "Warning: Combination of Omega-3s in Popular
           | Supplements May Blunt Heart Benefits" (2018)
           | https://scitechdaily.com/warning-combination-of-
           | omega-3s-in-... :_
           | 
           | >> _Now, new research from the Intermountain Healthcare Heart
           | Institute in Salt Lake City finds that higher EPA blood
           | levels alone lowered the risk of major cardiac events and
           | death in patients, while DHA blunted the cardiovascular
           | benefits of EPA. Higher DHA levels at any level of EPA,
           | worsened health outcomes._
           | 
           | >> [...] _Based on these and other findings, we can still
           | tell our patients to eat Omega-3 rich foods, but we should
           | not be recommending them in pill form as supplements or even
           | as combined (EPA + DHA) prescription products," he said. "Our
           | data adds further strength to the findings of the recent
           | REDUCE-IT (2018) study that EPA-only prescription products
           | reduce heart disease events."_
        
           | mbil wrote:
           | And algal oil supplements
        
           | throwitawayfam wrote:
           | > Fish is the only source of EPA and DHA.
           | 
           | Algae oil [0] which is plant based is also a source of EPA
           | and DHA.
           | 
           | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seaweed_oil
        
             | pstuart wrote:
             | Technically, it is _the_ source of those nutrients.
        
             | QuantumGood wrote:
             | If you respond better to EPA (many do), you need fish
             | (ideally Krill) oil.
        
           | dgemm wrote:
           | EPA and DHA actually originate in algae and seaweed which is
           | where the fish get it from, so those are good sources too.
        
         | butterlettuce wrote:
         | I'm only going to bring up the life expectancy part, but latino
         | people also live longer despite their cuisine not being the
         | healthiest. I'm not saying that all latinos eat a terrible
         | diet, but the cuisine we all know and love is high-carb and
         | high in saturated fats compared to the olive oils, fishies, and
         | veggies we see in the mediterranean diet.
         | 
         | Metabolic diseases are a different story. But I guess love and
         | family cancel that out.
        
           | adolfojp wrote:
           | Life expectancy in Latin America ranges from 65 in Bolivia to
           | 80 in Chile and the cuisines, genetics, cultures, and
           | socioeconomic circumstances vary greatly from region to
           | region so it's not very useful to generalize _latino people_
           | into one cohesive group with regards to diet and life
           | expectancy.
        
         | gloflo wrote:
         | Or it might be pension fraud https://theconversation.com/the-
         | data-on-extreme-human-ageing...
        
           | 3abiton wrote:
           | I've been following nutrition "science" for the past 10
           | years, and to say it's cluster fudge is an understatement.
        
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