Fish oil and depression

Fish oil and depression has been in the center of research in the past few years. Is there a link between them and if yes, how can people suffering from this medical condition benefit from taking fish oil?

What I will present to you here is a short list of some of the medical findings that indeed all of them point to the same direction: Fish oil and depression are closely linked.

My list is the following:

1. A study of the dietary habits of people all over the world revealed that there is a definite connection between consumption of fatty fish (rich in omega 3 essential acids) and levels of depression. In places where people included large quantities of fish in their diet, the occurrences of depression were low.

What was also interesting to find out, was that among these populations there was a lower rate of heart diseases such as coronary artery diseases. These kinds of diseases are said to have depression as one of their risk factors.

2. As you probably know, there two classes of essential fatty acids: Omega 3 and omega 6. What has been established is that contemporary diet, especially the western type, is deficient in omega 3 acids. What was further confirmed through the studies was that people suffering with depression had lower levels of omega 3 acids than the rest.

3. Apart from the actual quantities of omega 6 and omega 3 acids in the bloodstream, scientists also investigated their ratio. What was interesting to find out was that people afflicted with depression had much higher ratios (much more omega 6 than omega 3) than the rest.

To give you some figures, they exhibited a ratio as high as 30:1, while the normal level is approximately 3:1!

To sum up, all of the findings indicate that there is a clear link between fish oil and depression and people should definitely consider supplementing their diet.

However, beware! Not all that glitters is gold and you should definitely be very careful when selecting the right fish oil product for you.

Essential prerequisites for a high quality fish oil product is that it should be rich in DHA and EPA omega 3 essential fatty acids and that it should be highly purified through molecular distillation. This is a cutting edge advanced technology, which ensures that the fish oil extracted from fish is free from any harmful contaminants that might be present in the fish.