Date: 25/02/2010
Some good reasons to use fish oils
Everybody wants to find a supplement that will give them an edge. For those of us interested in positively and optimally altering body composition and maximizing our training efforts, fish oils offer the following possible advantages:
1. Cell membrane health: Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), insure that cell membranes remain healthy. The membranes are flexible and contain larger numbers of insulin receptors that are more receptive and responsive to circulating insulin. This results in decreased fat storage in the adipocytes (fat cells)
2. Fish oils turn on the lipolytic genes (fat burning genes)
3. Fish oils turn off the lipogenic genes (fat storage genes),
4. Fish oils diminish C-reactive proteins (Blood proteins-produced by liver), a newly identified risk factor associated with various inflammatory diseases, including atherosclerosis, angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure and diabetes. The D.H.A. fraction of the fish oil seems to be one most responsible for that protective effect.
5. Increase utilisation of fat stores from the adipocytes and utilised as energy.
6. Reduced inflammation from physical training.
7. Pain management from the reduced inflammation.
8. EPA regulates blood supply to the brain that is essential in maintaining focus in weight training sessions. DHA is important in brain membranes, memory and cognitive function.
9. Fish oils increase serotonin levels (the happy neurotransmitter). Therefore, fish oils will decrease incidence of depression, anxiety, panic attack and reduce carbohydrate cravings.
10. Fish oils will improve your cardio-vascular risk profile by lowering LDL, triglycerides, homocysteine, fibrinogen and increasing HDL levels. Combining fish oils with plant sterols will improve lipid levels even more than either alone.
11. Fish oils can also decrease blood pressure by increasing the vasodilatory compound, nitric oxide, reducing vascular inflammation, blocking the constrictive elements in the vascular wall such as the calcium channels reducing blood viscosity, and inhibiting a blood vessel constrictor (thromboxane). Lipoprotein (your fat storage enzyme) can be slowed down with fish oil therefore burning more fats as energy.
12. Fish oils are a great stress fighter. omega-3 fatty acids inhibits the adrenal activation of steroids, aldosterone, epinephrine and norepinephrine (catecholamines) elicited by a mental stress, apparently through effects exerted at the level of the central nervous system. Therefore, for the same amount of stress, one will produce fewer stress hormones if consuming fish oils on a regular basis.
