For centuries, fishing communities all over the world have used fish oil for various purposes. In 16th century England, it was very commonly used by fishermen to treat a plethora of health issues as varied as wounds, body-aches, common colds and even skin diseases.
The current upsurge in its popularity is thanks to an early 1970’s Danish study on Greenland Eskimos. The researchers observed that in spite of the extremely high-fat diet of the Eskimos, incidence of heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases was very low. They concluded that the real reason for this was ironically, the high-fat fish diet that the Eskimos consumed. They found that this diet had a high concentration of a particular type of unsaturated fatty acid called Omega 3 fatty acid.
As fish oil is extracted from fish tissue, it contains high concentrations of Omega 3 fatty acids as well as Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DPA), which are known to have powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Here are some of the many fish oil benefits:
- Adequate presence of these essential fatty acids helps in preventing cardiovascular diseases, many forms of cancer and even depression.
- Various studies have shown that adequate fish oil supplementation has a strong therapeutic effect in the treatment of a large number of illnesses. Some examples are diabetes, ulcerative colitis, asthma, autism and ADHD etc. Moreover, it has also been proven to aid normal neurological development in infants and better brain function and focus in adults.
Recently, due to extreme marine pollution, heavy metals like mercury (which is a known neurotoxin) and cancer causing PCB’s have been found in significant proportions in many brands of fish oil sold worldwide. Hence, experts suggest that consumers should only opt for the best fish oil which is usually pharmaceutical grade fish oil. Good quality fish oil is properly distilled and purified making it heavy metal and PCB free.
Thanks to the many significant health advantages of regular fish oil supplementation, one can only hope that its use becomes more and more popular with every passing day.