Your Brain on Fish Oil - Many Studies Later.

do omega-3 fats from fish oil or otherwise improve your brain health and performance I analyzed at least seven studies to find out the answer for you so we'll cover if it does some of the proposed mechanisms some potential differences in the results between men and women and some nuances on what aspects of brain performance it seems to help and other aspects that it does not seem to help you might already know this but omega-3 fats are polyunsaturated fats with a distinct uh kinked chemical structure it's believed according to this study that omega-3 fats lead to changes in the cell membrane of your cells specifically your brain cells it also encourages neuroplasticity and improves synaptic transmission if that all sounded like a bunch of mumbo jumbo have no fear this is what it looks like omega-3 fats can be incorporated into the cell membrane of your brain cells if that's the cells that communicate amongst themselves for you to have thoughts your neurons or other cells like G cells so what does that do well the greater incorporation of omega-3 fats in the cell membrane changes the fluidity the flexibility of the cell membrane which in turn means the proteins like receptors and channels that interact with surrounding molecules are better able to function this improved function of these receptors allows the brain cells to communicate more efficiently and effectively with other nearby cells in addition it changes the makeup of the cell membrane so it has a different distribution of lipid rafts lipid rafts are these sections of the cell membrane that contain high concentrations of cholesterol other fats proteins and sugar molecules these lipid rafts can act as anchoring points for signaling proteins so these are proteins that translate information across the cell these proteins when in closer proximity with one another are more likely to interact again increasing the efficiency of the cell's internal communication Omega-3s have variable effects on these lipid rafts from increasing their concentration in certain areas of the cell to eliminating their presence but either way the net effect is typically positive for the cell so some Omega-3s are wanted in the cell membrane those fancy words that I used earlier neuroplasticity and synap transmission are the fancy terms for saying that the brain is more malleable more adaptable and mechanistically speaking Omega-3s have a role in that process we'll see if it actually pans out in the clinical evidence in a minute I'd also like to point out that certain types of omega-3 fats are also precursors for the molecule neuroprotectin D which is believed to have a number of functions in protecting brain cells essentially omega-3 fats can be released from the cell membrane as free omega-3 which are then turned into neuroprotectant D this neuroprotectant D molecule diffuses across the cell membrane and either interacts with receptors on nearby cells called a paracrine action or it binds to receptors on or in the same cell that released it called an autocrine action once bound to the receptor the receptor changes its shape allowing it to activate multiple of these signaling proteins that I discussed earlier in doing so these signaling proteins continue a Cascade of activation until eventually causing reduced activation of pro-inflammatory molecules like nfca B pathway as well as changing the concentration of proteins responsible for cell death called the BCL family proteins they're a deadly family at least some of them okay there are several more mechanisms of foot but we need to get into the clinical human data so these mechanisms are really Nifty but does supplementation with Omega-3s actually yield better cognitive performance for that we can look at an analysis of 17 studies and in this analysis the researchers separated out multiple measurements of cognition from memory executive function Global cognition and so on if we take a peek at the data here we're looking at executive function which is similar to critical thinking ability the individual studies are on the left side the Z value and P value are statistical measurements and what I'd like to turn your attention toward is the visual representation on the right there's a middle line above the 0. 0 and that line indicates there is no effect of Omega-3 supplementation anything to the right indicates a likely effect of supplementation and anything to the left indicates worsening results of supplementation the squares and lines are the individual study results and the Black Diamond at the bottom is the averaged effect the overall effect when combining all the studies together if you know anything about statistics you'll see that many of the individual studies do not reach statistical cut off to indicate there is an effect it's usually set to 0. 05 so any number under 0.

05 would indicate a likely effect interestingly only two or three studies show an effect and yet the overall analysis with all the data pulled together indicates there's a likely benefit of Omega-3 supplementation the researchers have used a standardized system for quantifying the degree or amount of the effect this is called a Hedges G if you know anything about Hedges G which you should if you've taken my course on how to read studies and apply them to your life then I'll mention the effect was 0. 22 after excluding three studies due to a poor methodological quality for you normal people that don't speak stats that means the effect is very small but interestingly the effect was greater in one other area and worse in others and there are some differences between men and women before I get to that I also Quantified the ideal amount to use the upper threshold and the type of Omega-3 most thought to cause these benefits I covered that in the extended version of this video which is included in the physionic insiders if you're interested in joining the link is in the description now back to the results it turns out that omega-3 supplementation does help with memory however we can see the effect seems to be a bit greater too which it is with an effect of 0.