Omega-3: The Effects Of The Important Fatty Acids

Everyone needs omega-3 fatty acids because omega-3 fatty acids are essential for life. While it was not known for a long time whether omega-3 fatty acids were just an advertising ploy or whether they actually had a useful effect, there is now a great deal of scientific evidence for the effectiveness of omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-3: Essential fats

Omega-3 fatty acids are among the essential fatty acids, which means that we have to take in omega-3 fatty acids with food or special preparations since our body cannot produce these fatty acids itself. They are essential to life.

Together with omega-6 fatty acids, which are also essential for life, omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids. The best-known omega-6 fatty acid is linoleic acid, which is found in particularly high amounts in sunflower oil, corn oil, and safflower oil, but also in many other vegetable oils.

Short-chain and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids

When it comes to omega-3 fatty acids, a distinction is made between short-chain and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids:

The short-chain omega-3 fatty acid is alpha-linolenic acid: especially in linseed oil, hemp oil, chia oil, walnut oil, or the corresponding seeds/nuts.
The two best-known long-chain omega-3 fatty acids are called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA): especially found in fatty sea fish or the corresponding fish oil capsules.
Since sea fish only contains omega-3 fatty acids because it eats algae containing omega-3, algae oil and algae oil capsules are also very good sources of omega-3.

Although a number of health-promoting effects of the short-chain omega-3 fatty acids are known, a higher health potential is always attributed to the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, so one should be well supplied with both. We’ll discuss how best to do this below. But first, let’s review the effects and benefits of omega-3 fatty acids.

The effects and benefits of omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 fatty acids are needed almost everywhere in the organism so the tasks of the omega-3 fatty acids in the body alone show how they work and what we can expect from a good supply of omega-3. Omega-3 fatty acids are involved in the following tasks and functions:

• involved in the production of hormones
• in the regulation of blood lipid levels (cholesterol and triglycerides)
• in protein synthesis
• in cell metabolism and the structure of the cell membrane
• in the supply of the joints with lubricant
• in avoiding chronic inflammatory processes
• in the supply of skin and hair with moisture and elasticity
• in the formation of the body’s own defense cells
• in protection against infectious diseases

So if you make sure to cover your daily requirement of omega-3 fatty acids, you will inevitably notice a health-promoting effect and prevent numerous diseases.

Below we present the seven most important properties and benefits of omega-3 fatty acids. You will see that it is worthwhile for everyone to optimize their diet so that sufficient omega-3 fatty acids are ingested. Since it is not easy to get enough omega-3 fatty acids with food (e.g. if you don’t want to eat fish or if you are vegan), you can also easily target your omega-3 needs via cover-selected preparations.

Omega-3 fatty acids protect the heart and improve blood lipid levels

Omega-3 fatty acids have long been promoted as important for heart function and the entire cardiovascular system. Whether this is actually the case is doubted again and again. However, new studies are now being published almost daily confirming that omega-3 fatty acids act at multiple levels to protect or restore cardiovascular health and prevent cardiovascular events (e.g. heart attacks).

For example, Swedish researchers found that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids

• lowers blood lipid levels
• reduces blood sugar levels
• Reduces inflammation in the body
• lowers blood pressure
• blood clotting and thus the tendency to thrombosis is reduced (see also below under 3. Omega-3 fatty acids for thrombosis prevention)
• improves the flow properties of the blood

The regular intake of sufficient omega-3 fatty acids can e.g. B. prevent a heart attack, which is still the most common cause of death in industrialized nations – also more and more in women.

In their study, Anne Nilsson and her colleagues at Lunds Universitet in Sweden examined the effects of dietary supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids on the cardiovascular system in forty participants aged 51 to 72.

For five weeks, the participants took three grams of omega-3 fatty acids daily.

Their cardiovascular risk was then examined. The researchers checked the blood lipid levels and blood sugar levels, blood pressure, and inflammation levels of the test subjects. It turned out that the omega-3 fatty acids massively reduced all of these risk factors.

Further studies show that the risk of heart attack is reduced by 30 to 50 percent if the body is sufficiently supplied with omega-3 fatty acids. A study conducted in Shanghai with 18,000 subjects even found a risk reduction rate of 70 percent.

Omega-3 fatty acids prevent dementia

Cardiovascular diseases, but also cell aging, can lead to memory loss and dementia over the course of life. Omega-3 fatty acids can help here not only through their positive effect on the cardiovascular system and heart functions. They also protect the genetic information in the cells, as scientists from Ohio and/USA found out.

The telomeres that protect the DNA in the cells become shorter and shorter with increasing age, making our genetic information more vulnerable. This increases the risk of dementia, cancer, and numerous other diseases. However, omega-3 fatty acids can counteract this process.

And so it is not surprising that test persons who took a dietary supplement with omega-3 fatty acids performed significantly better in memory and concentration tests than test persons who did not receive any omega-3 fatty acids.

Omega-3 fatty acids for thrombosis prevention

The following health-promoting effects of omega-3 fatty acids also affect the cardiovascular system: Norwegian scientists proved that a diet rich in fish (more than three servings of oily sea fish per week) and an associated high omega-3 level in the blood can prevent the development of thrombosis. A dietary supplement containing omega-3 was also able to reduce the risk of thrombosis in the test subjects – by almost half, according to the results of the study.

The reasons for the thrombosis-inhibiting properties are the mechanisms of action of the omega-3 fatty acids already mentioned under 1. B. the improvement of the flow properties of the blood, the reduction of the blood clotting tendency (blood thinning), and the reduction of chronic inflammation, which also affects the blood vessels in particular and can impair their functioning.

Omega-3 fatty acids against ADHD and aggressive behavior

More and more children suffer from concentration disorders and/or receive the controversial diagnosis of ADHD. A Mexican study showed that omega-3 fatty acids can reduce concentration problems and other ADHD symptoms.

More than half of the children who received omega-3 fatty acid supplementation as part of the study were able to concentrate better and were more receptive. After three months, improvements of seventy percent could be observed.

In the case of ADHD or concentration/learning disorders, in addition to a diet rich in vital substances from fresh food, dietary supplements with omega-3 fatty acids are part of the holistic therapy for affected children.

A study by the University of Derby and Nottingham Trent University (NTU) was published in August 2020. It was found that the more omega-3 fatty acids a person consumed – especially EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), the better this person was able to control their own aggressive and impulsive behavior.

The researchers involved Dr. Alex Sumich, a professor at NTU, who explained: Inadequate intake of certain omega-3 fatty acids is closely associated with depression, aggressive behavior, callousness, and impulsivity. On the other hand, dietary supplements with omega-3 fatty acids are regularly integrated into the therapy of ADHD and depression.

In the EEG, the scientists were able to show that people who are better supplied with EPA were also better able to activate those brain regions that are responsible for controlling the corresponding behavior.

Omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation

Not only diseases such as arthritis, ulcerative colitis, and periodontitis are associated with inflammation, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, tinnitus, high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, and many other diseases are now associated with chronic inflammatory processes – as you can read in our article on inflammation.

Omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation in several ways, e.g. B. by bringing the hormone system back into balance, normalizing the metabolism, and also strengthening the immune system, but of course also by directly inhibiting the formation of inflammatory messengers.

With the now falling inflammation levels in the blood, the risks for the diseases mentioned are also falling. Inflammatory diseases that have already developed also improve or even disappear completely.

Omega-3 fatty acids protect the eyes

Dry macular degeneration is an eye disease in which those affected slowly lose their sight and go blind step by step, without conventional medicine being able to stop this process very much.

As so often, oxidative stress and chronic inflammation play an important role in the development of this disease.

Researchers from Greece and the USA showed that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids can not only stop the blinding process in dry macular degeneration. The eyesight of the twenty-five study participants actually improved again with the supplementation.

Omega-3 fatty acids against insomnia

A scientific study of more than 350 British children, almost half of whom had trouble sleeping, found that higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids helped children sleep better.

The children not only preferred to go to bed if they had enough omega-3 fatty acids in their blood. Their sleep itself was also less disturbed.

Not only the omega-3 level was important here. The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids also seemed to play an important role. An optimal omega-6 to omega-3 ratio would be around 3 to 5 to 1.

Even if the names sound similar, the effects are very different: while omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial to health, omega-6 fatty acids – if consumed in excess – damage the body by constricting blood vessels and promoting inflammation.

Many omega-6 fatty acids are found in cereals and also in meat and dairy products. The risk of consuming too many omega-6 fatty acids is particularly high if the food is mainly prepared with sunflower oil. Like many other edible oils, sunflower oil is very rich in omega-6 fatty acids, while providing only a few omega-3 fatty acids.

The closer you get to the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio above, the better the effects of the fatty acids.

How to promote conversion to long-chain omega-3 fatty acids

Plant-based omega-3 fatty acid sources such as linseed oil, walnut oil, or hemp oil contain the aforementioned short-chain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) as a representative of the omega-3 fatty acids.

Polyunsaturated alpha-linolenic acid also has a health-promoting effect. In addition, we also need the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, especially since the effects presented above are based on exactly these and mostly not on the short-chain alpha-linolenic acid.

However, the body can now convert the alpha-linolenic acid into the long-chain and more biologically active omega-3 fatty acids called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). However, how well the organism can convert ALA into EPA and DHA varies greatly from person to person. For example, in the presence of plenty of omega-6 fatty acids in the form of e.g. B. linoleic acid (sunflower oil, corn oil, etc.) are inhibited.

Because all omega fatty acids compete for the same enzymes, omega-3 fatty acids always fall behind, leaving insufficient enzymes for conversion. An important measure to increase the conversion rate is, therefore: To use fewer omega-6-rich oils.

To be on the safe side, you can still use a dietary supplement at any time. A preparation made from fish oil is then usually taken. But there have long been vegan preparations with the necessary long-chain omega-3 fatty acids.

The right omega-3 preparation: algae oil from microalgae

Vegan omega-3 supplements, which contain long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, are made from algae oils. While vegetable raw materials usually only ever contain ALA, the oils from a special microalgae (Schizochytrium sp.) supply the required long-chain omega-3 fatty acids docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid in large quantities. This alga is counted among the microalgae because it consists of only a single cell. So she is tiny.

Fish oil capsules are therefore not required to supply omega-3 fatty acids.

When buying algae oil capsules, pay attention to the dose they contain. A daily dose should contain around 800 mg EPA and DHA to cover the daily requirement, e.g. B. the vegan omega-3 preparations from effective nature, e.g. B. the algae oil.

The dosage of omega-3 fatty acids

Especially if you want to use omega-3 fatty acids for therapeutic purposes, there is little point in using a little linseed oil from time to time. The preparations mentioned above must then be taken in specific doses. The dose depends not least on the respective complaints or on the personal goal that you want to achieve with the omega-3 fatty acids.