Astral Codex Ten

fish oil

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fish oil

Article

fish oil is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between May 25, 2021 and December 06, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as “Tryptophan/5-HTP, SAM-e, fish oil and St. John’s Wort may also be helpful”; “Fish oil is various omega-3 fats, especially EPA and DHA”; “before answering, read my posts on fish oil”. It most often appears alongside FDA, 2002 meta-analysis by Cochrane Collaboration, 5-HTP.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: May 25, 2021
  • Last seen: December 06, 2023

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Peer Review Request: Depression
May 25, 2021 · Original source
The most-studied and best-supported supplements for depression is l-methylfolate. Tryptophan/5-HTP, SAM-e, fish oil and St. John’s Wort may also be helpful. Less-well-studed but promising supplements including Zembrin and polygala tenuifolia. I am currently avoiding discussion of tianeptine, a foreign antidepressant which is sometimes sold as a supplement in the US, until I figure out the legal gray areas around it, but you might consider looking into it on your own. Going through the others one by one:
Fish oil is various omega-3 fats, especially EPA and DHA, found in oily fish like salmon. Some people noticed that cultures that ate lots of fish had less depression, and ever since scientists have been trying to prove that fish oil treats depression, with wildly varying results. Liao et al analyze 26 studies totalling 2160 people and find it does, with effect size of 0.5, better than most antidepressants. Deane et al study analyze 31 studies totalling 41470 people and find it doesn’t. I can’t overemphasize how much great work by brilliant scientists has gone into this question, nor how totally useless and conflicting all the results have been. Oily fish are a generally healthy food, so you might as well eat them just in case. In terms of taking fish oil supplements, the jury is out. If you do choose to take them, the type and brand and dose become more important, since some of the debate centers around whether fish oil dosing might just be very hard to get right. Versions with higher EPA than DHA seem to fare better in research, and higher doses might be better than lower. Also, you should strongly consider refrigerating your fish oil so that it doesn’t get rancid, which aside from being gross will make it work less well. This brand is probably a reasonable choice, with one pill/day being a low dose and two/day being higher. If you are vegan, you can get this from algae rather than fish, but it’s harder to find the right EPA/DHA ratio (high) – this brand is the best I can do.
Inline links: Liao et al, 31 studies, This brand, this brand
Regimen 3A: As 2A above, but add 2g EPA-dominant fish oil every day. Start light therapy, 10,000 lux from 8 – 8:30 AM every day. Replace 20 minute walk with 20 minute jog. In addition to cutting out junk food, switch to a strict modified Mediterranean diet. Read Feeling Great and do all exercises listed in it. If no improvement after six weeks, ask your doctor what to do next.
Beyond "Abolish The FDA"
December 06, 2023 · Original source
(before answering, read my posts on fish oil and melatonin)
Inline links: fish oil, melatonin