I'm a firm believer in rational, evidence-based decision-making. I'm trying to understand the rationale for taking Omega 3 supplements, and the more I look into it, the more tenuous it seems to be.
I naively expected to find some kind of clinical evidence that beneath certain levels, people start to show certain health problems, but that does not appear to be the case. Rather, dietary recommendations appear to be based on the median intake levels of populations that generally appear to be healthy. Actual clinical problems associated with ALA deficiency are extremely rare and have occurred only in unusual circumstances, like severely-restrictive diets.
This was kicked off for me by a recent NYT article showing that several large studies have failed to find clear benefit to supplements, though most of the studies didn't focus specifically on vegetarians.
So this gives me pause. I've been dutifully taking flax seed oil daily for many years, but now I'm thinking, there seems to be no clear, unambiguous reason for doing so, other than dietary recommendations that now seem to me to be tenuous, and the fact that all of my vegetarian/vegan friends do likewise. It's not burdensome or anything, but I hesitate to do anything without having an actual clear reason for doing it.
Any thoughts or comments, or information I don't know about? I freely admit I know very little about all this, this is just what I've turned up over a couple of days.
by Ap0phantic
9 Comments
Omega is necessary yes. You need to get it somehow. Algea oil is the best cleanest source you can get. Norsan is the best I could find.
Most capsules have 1/4 or less of the recommended daily dose. And don’t have the complete spectrum.
https://norsan-omega.com/omega-3-vegan-products/
Many aspects of health and especially nutrition don’t have rigorous scientific evidence tbh. It’s both hard to study and not a priority for science funders to figure stuff like this out. It’s usually in the extremes when something causes illness that there is both more evidence and more motivation to study it.
I don’t know if it is known to be necessary or not. I think an easier to answer question to try to answer is, is it likely to be more beneficial than harmful?
There is no evidence that I’ve seen supporting the necessity or value of supplementing omega 3. Most studies (as The NY Times article suggests) indicate little to no benefit for the vast majority of people.
There have been some small studies that found lowered inflammation and less damage to telomeres with supplementation, but they’re not large enough to be statistically significant.
Personally, I find my hair and nails grow faster and thicker with my algal oil supplement so I keep taking it.
As things have grown tight over recent years, I’ve had to cut back on supplements, protein shakes, etc. All the good stuff…
Quite frankly, I don’t miss any of it, I don’t think my body misses any of it. My skin looks borderline flawless, my fitness is on point, and even my blood work is pristine. – HRT monitoring.
People have been saying supplements are a scam forever. But I’m starting to realize that it’s pretty much true. As long as I’m eating eggs, beans, cheese, some veggies I’m pretty much good with fats.
Vegetarians can be quite short on DHA, which is an necessary Omega-3 for brain, eye, and heart health.
The problem is that DHA synthesis is extremely inefficient in the body, so after many years of being vegetarian, it’s usual beneficial to supplement it. You have to take algal oil, since ALA supplementation via flax oil will not result in higher DHA stores.
I recently came across some information and watched a video suggesting that Omega-3 has anti-aging effects on both men and women. I’ve personally always felt the benefits of taking it. Since my vegetarian diet doesn’t provide enough Omega-3, I take supplements.
If you believe that blood based levels are at least directionally correlated with brain based levels then you could simply get tested.
I did and supplements clearly moved my levels from border line deficient to a bit into the “normal” range.
I used [OmegaQuant.com](http://OmegaQuant.com), it was $100 for the test.
As others have said, this issue isn’t tested the best, we don’t actually know how blood levels and brain levels line up, we believe there are sex based differences in the conversion of DHA to ALA etc. Your individual diet will drastically effect the omegas you get, which is just a different form of “supplement” really. But even then, if you [don’t crack whole flax seeds they’ll pass through you](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/flaxseed/faq-20058354), so there’s just so many factors.
[Heart DHA turnover is faster in female compared to male ALA- and EPA-fed mice – PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12519242/)
[Increased dietary α-linolenic acid has sex-specific effects upon eicosapentaenoic acid status in humans: re-examination of data from a randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel study – PMC](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4274685/)
The study is great to have but it also is not complete for all people or testing conditions, and doesn’t test vegetarians or vegans who eschew fish.
The NYT linked article did a few sub studies I believe,
They only tested healthy people.
For one part of it they tested people eating fish already, and “only” followed up a 3 years later.
>In VITAL‐Cog…….. Also, the 2‐ to 3‐year follow‐up period may have been too short to allow for detecting effects of n‐3 supplementation, particularly in a population at relatively low risk for cognitive decline. Our trial focused on well‐educated individuals free of cancer and cardiovascular disease at enrollment and who consumed a median of 1.5 servings of fish per week