Omega 3 Oil for Athletic Enhancement

Omega 3 Supplementation?
Question from an interview with Charles Poliquin (Nutrition Guru)

Q: What's one supplement that every athlete and basically any active person should be taking daily?
A: Fish oil I was first introduced to fish oil twelve years ago by my friend Mauro DiPasquale. I was over at his house and he had fish oil on the counter. I asked him what he used it for and he said, "Charles, this is the most important supplement ever."
He told me to go to Medline online and punch in any disease known to man and the words "fish oil" beside it. He challenged me to find a study that didn't show how fish oil could benefit in the treatment of any disease. I gave up after 86 studies!

Why is it so beneficial?

It's in our genes. Humans used to consume 300-400 grams of omega-3s per week. If we consume more than two grams a day now it's considered a lot.

Firstly a study published four years ago that showed that if the US government issued three grams of fish oil per day to every American citizen, then the amount of cancer and heart disease would go down by 50% within one year. Even if you don't really care about cancer and heart disease at the minute you may care about this: the biggest limiting factor in hard training athletes to getting leaner and adding muscle is the consumption (or lack thereof) of omega-3s.  When we were cavemen we often ate what predators left, for example a lion would eat from the gut onwards and leave the skull and long bones.  Primitive man would break the skull open and eat the brains. Brains are 60% fat and 60% of that is DHA, the omega-3.  Primitive man would also break the bones of the prey and suck the marrow, also rich in omega-3, DHA particularly. DHA is the omega-3 most responsible for brain development while EPA is most associated with reducing inflammation.  

I am not suggesting you start doing this though.

Anyone who wants to put on a lot of muscle and lose fat should be on 30-40 grams of fish oil per day. That's just three tablespoons of Udo’s Choice oil. It is a pain in the arse with capsules though because that's around 45 capsules per day, but it's easy with simple oil. 

The best one available is Udo’s Choice, created by Dr Udo Erasmus after years and years of research

Finally, for those of you interested in positively and optimally altering your body composition and maximizing your training efforts, fish oils offer thirteen possible advantages:

1. Cell membrane health: EPA and DHA insure that cell membranes remain healthy. This results in decreased fat storage in the adipocytes (fat cells).

2. Fish oils switch on the lipolytic genes (fat burning genes).

3. Fish oils switch off the lipogenic genes (fat storage genes).

4. Increase utilisation of fat stores from the adipocytes. (Brown fat also known as “baby fat”) for energy supply.

5. Reduced inflammation from training.

6. Pain management from reduced inflammation.

7. EPA regulates blood supply to the brain which is essential in maintaining focus in weight training sessions. DHA is important in brain membranes, memory, and cognitive function.

8. Fish oils increase serotonin levels (the happy neurotransmitter). Therefore, fish oils will decrease incidence of depression, anxiety, panic attack, and reduce carbohydrate cravings.

9. Fish oils will improve your cardiovascular risk profile by lowering VLDL (bad cholesterol), triglycerides, homocysteine, fibrinogen, and increasing HDL (good cholesterol) levels.

10. Fish oils can also decrease blood pressure. 

11. Fish oils are a great stress fighter. For the same amount of stress, a person will produce fewer stress hormones if consuming fish oils on a regularbasis.                                                           

12. Research has shown that supplementation with fish oils can markedly reduce interlukin-1beta production and results in a significant reduction in morning stiffness                                               

13. Fish oil regulates insulin and its response and so you WILL get a body fat reduction