SHR

Fish and fish oils are one of the few foods that appear to be universally accepted as healthy, and a massive analysis of all published meta-analyses and systemic reviews from 1950 to 2013 found fish consumption to be one of the most protective food groups against all diet-related chronic diseases, especially cardiovascular disease (CVD). Much of the focus has, however, been on fish oils and the fatty fish that contain them in appreciable quantities. But what if there are other aspects to fish that make it beneficial? Preliminary findings have suggested, for example, that the addition of fish gelatin to a fish oil supplemented diet enhances the cardioprotective effects. To answer this question, researchers from the National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research, Norway, recruited 19 healthy middle-aged Caucasian men and women from the local area to participate in a crossover design RCT comparing identical diets differing only in their primary...

There is a vast body of literature evaluating the health effects of fish oil and the quantity needed to benefit. Although therapeutic approaches can be taken, such as using high-doses of fish oil to battle fatty liver and reduce triglycerides, fish oil’s benefits generally come from balancing our body’s n-3/6 ratio. In this regard, many authoritative bodies have put out recommendations for EPA and DHA intake, either as a weekly or daily goal. To date, only two studies (here & here) have compared daily vs twice weekly supplementation of fish oil and found no difference when blood levels were used as a proxy for bioavailability. However, when referring to nutrients, bioavailability is used to describe how much of an orally administered nutrient is actually retained in the body after being digested and absorbed. According to Schuchardt and Hahn, LC n-3 FA can be detected in the blood in various forms. These include...

Statins are quickly becoming the front-line method for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) due to their outstanding ability to reduce LDL-cholesterol levels, and the most recent Cochrane Review indicates that statins are effective at reducing all-cause and CVD mortality. Of particular concern, however, was the fact that all trials were either fully or partially funded by pharmaceutical companies (five by Bristol Myers and Squibb, three by Pfizer, four by Astra-Zeneca, two by Merck and one by Bayer, one by Bayer and Merk, one by Pfizer, and the remaining by Sankyo Co Ltd). Moreover, the reporting of adverse events in these trials was generally poor, with failure to provide details of severity and type of adverse events or to report on health-related quality of life. There really is no doubt that statins are effective at doing what they were designed to do – lower LDL-cholesterol. However, statins don’t target LDL-c directly;...

In a previous article I wrote about one of the first clinical trials to evaluate the effect of DHA supplementation on indexes of fatty liver in adolescents. Needless to say, the results were quite impressive. But what if you don’t catch non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) quickly enough? Over time, oxidative stress, lipotoxicity, insulin resistance, and central inflammatory signaling pathways drive a transformation from NAFLD to the more serious condition called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH; literally “fatty inflammation”). At this point, would fish oils still help? If we trust the results of a recent double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial from Brazil, the answer is no! But there’s a catch. Fifty adult men and women with diagnosed NASH supplemented with three pills per day for six months before being readmitted for another liver biopsy to gauge any changes in liver health. What nobody knew (double-blind), was whether the pills supplied a mineral oil...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is exactly what its name says – the abnormal accumulation of fat within the liver (steatosis for the nerds like me) from causes other than alcohol. The more severe form of NAFLD is called non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH; literally “fatty inflammation”), which can eventually progress to cirrhosis, permanent liver damage, and cancer. Nonetheless, even simple NAFLD can cause widespread metabolic problems within the body, which should be no surprise considering the tremendous role the liver plays in detoxifying the body and managing nutrients. Anyway, NAFLD prevalence has been increasing over the past few decades and is currently estimated to be around 30% in the U.S. population, with causes ranging from excessive caloric intake and muscular insulin resistance to genetic abnormalities. We can’t really do anything about the genetics, but it is no coincidence that the only tried and true methods for reducing liver fat include weight loss...

Every day new research is published and the unfortunate truth is that it would be impossible for me to write an article on everything I come across. Plus, in all fairness, not every study deserves a full article. Therefore, I decided to write a weekly Super Human Roundup series that briefly touches on some of the research I can’t or don’t want to address in length. This way you don’t miss out on anything that may interest you. Sahni et al. from Harvard Medical School was interested in understanding the role of dietary protein on muscle mass and strength in older adults. They looked at data on over 2600 men and women from the Framingham Offspring Study who had valid dietary assessments and measurements of quadriceps strength and body composition (DXA). The subjects averaged 60 years of age and statistical adjustments were made for age, height, total energy intake, physical activity,...