[nickparker]

I have a fun omega-3 anecdata point going right now. A friend of mine researches the stuff in mouse models and told me it's extremely beneficial, but you need to buy a fancy brand to avoid rancid oil or heavy metal contamination both of which ~null out the benefits. She recommended Sports Research.

I bought some and started taking it and my 1:1 bullet chess ELO jumped from 850 to ~1070 over the next couple weeks.

I play chess a bit like sushi ginger for the mind - purge working memory with a short intense task to context switch. I intentionally don't study openings or anything so I can use it as a benchmark for mental horsepower with a reasonably slow drift in the baseline from 'actually learning chess'.

My friend says this effect is way too big to actually attribute to the vitamins and it has to be placebo etc but I'm thoroughly enjoying the idea that omega-3 Nick would win 3/4 bullet matches against deficient Nick.

https://www.chess.com/member/nickparkerprint/stats/bullet?da...

[theologic]

Consumer Labs offers as a subscription service testing of various vitamins Including fish oil. They perform a great service, and I think it's economical in terms of determining if what you're buying is really what you want.

Heavy metal contamination is classically not a problem because the fish oil is distilled. My guess is your researcher friend has fallen victim to the marketing of the pharmacological industry-- Although I do want to indicate they do have value, probably not the 500 percent markup that they put on what in essence is a generic product.

Some natural fish oils are not distilled and do have this problem-- These are normally marketed as natural or cod liver oil or something that should hit your radar pretty quick. Your friend's concern about rancidity is clearly a problem And pretty well understood by people for years if you have any familiarity with chemistry. Omega threes get their name from the fact that you have a weird bend on the end of a long carbon molecule. This is susceptible to oxidation. This is true for any Omega 3 molecule regardless of its length Or it's sourcing.

This includes omega-3 "drugs" like Vascepa (pure EPA) and Lovaza (EPA and DHA combination).

Fortunately in testing, they have not found widespread issues with rancidity, although they definitely have found pockets. My normal suggestion to everybody is by a high volume manufacturer that you know is tearing through the product quite rapidly. My top suggestion is Costco. Then make sure you keep your fish oil in the refrigerator, and churn through it on a regular basis.

[p1esk]

If I eat raw salmon (sashimi) a couple times a week, would I still benefit from consuming fish oil?

[wahnfrieden]

Isn't algae DHA better than fish oil for several reasons?

As I understand it the fish oil only has it because the fish consumes the algae, also.

[pers0n]

Why not just get omega3 from flaxseed? No worries about mercury

[bnycum]

I also started taking the Sports Research omega-3 capsules early this year. Seems the consensus for taking any omega-3 is that it's single-source and wild caught which is why I chose that brand. My biggest benefit has been my eyesight with way less floaters.

However I started taking creatine this summer to help with my recovery from running now that I'm older. I will say I feel it's done more for my cognitive function than the omega-3 did.

[RankingMember]

> biggest benefit has been my eyesight with way less floaters.

Huh, did you also have to get any laser surgery done to get rid of them totally? My research always indicated that once you had floaters, they were basically just there forever and your brain just learned to work around them.

[adastra22]

> wild caught

Wouldn't wild caught have more heavy metals?

[maxboettinger]

How much do you take? Evidence-based dosage guidance for supplements is hard to find. Pointers to primary sources with empirically supported dose ranges for common supplements—magnesium, zinc, and multivitamins—appreciated!

[theologic]

This really is a good use for Perplexity. I suggest a prompt along the lines of "what is the pubmed indications for what somebody should take for omega-3 or n3 pufa for X". This way your pull the primary research and you can have a conversation to your needs.

With that written, generally the literature indicates that somewhere around 1-2G daily of EPA/DHA is in the range of what is fringe mainstream. There is a lot of variance around this and a lot of debate. For example, you'll get a debate about the ability of the body to convert 22 EPA into 24 DHA, so some will push DHA as the preferred source for the body.

[j45]

Ask Claude Opus to search, verify, source and then quote back passages and provide a link back the information for the supplement and any particular health needs and start reading.

Keep modifying the prompt until you don't need to review it as much, but still review it. I have a pretty long one like this now and it almost doesn't seem real. Still double check what it returns. It's easy enough to take the retrieved studies to your doc for verification too .

For example, if targeting the brain, levels can be much higher.

Magnesium Threonate crosses the blood brain barrier, which is great, leaving Magnesium Biglycinate for the rest of the body.

[FollowingTheDao]

I believe you. People really don’t understand how important omega-3 is for the transport and metabolism of neurotransmitters.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16963244/

[trehalose]

How long was your bullet chess elo stable at 850 (and how often were you playing) before this experiment began? I'm asking because the act of playing constitutes practice, which could itself cause a rise in your elo. Bit of a confounding factor there, potentially.

[Qem]

> but you need to buy a fancy brand to avoid rancid oil or heavy metal contamination both of which ~null out the benefits

I didn't know about the rancidity problem, thank you. Knew about the contamination issue. To avoid it, I tried to source oil derived from sources lower in the food chain, either vegan algae oil, or krill oil. But krill oil is super expensive, when compared to fish oil, with lower levels of EPA/DHA per capsule. The problem with algae oil it's that those I've found contain only DHA. Not sure about the relative importance between EPA/DHA, although.

[adrian_b]

The so-called "algae" are not algae.

"Algae oil" is a marketing term that has been chosen for sounding better, especially to vegans, than "Schizochytrium oil" or "oil from stramenopiles".

Schizochytrium is an organism somewhat similar to a fungus, but which is not a fungus and it is distantly related to brown algae and diatoms (but unlike those, it is not an alga; it never had chloroplasts acquired by symbiosis).

The first cultivated strains of Schizochytrium produced only DHA, but now there are strains that also produce EPA. At least in Europe, you can easily find Schizochytrium oil that contains DHA + EPA in a 2:1 proportion. For most humans, especially for most males, both DHA and EPA are needed, because the capacity of interconversion between them is typically insufficient in comparison with what is needed.

However, even if it has become cheaper in recent years, Schizochytrium oil remains about 3 times more expensive than fish oil, per its fatty acid content. There are also many vendors that try to deceive their customers by selling diluted oil at about the same price as the decent vendors, therefore at a price many times higher per the fatty acid content.

In Europe, in recent years I have preferred Möller's Pure Cod Liver Oil, which is quite tasty, either alone or added to food. Using bottled oil is much better than using capsules. Besides being cheaper and not ingesting garbage capsules, tasting the oil makes certain that it neither is rancid nor has any suspect content. This is also true for Schizochytrium oil. Many decades ago, cod liver oil had a reputation of something that children were forced to eat, despite its bad taste. This is completely untrue nowadays, when the oil is made either immediately after catching or from fish that have been frozen immediately after catching, so the oil has not degraded and it retains a pleasant taste.

If Schizochytrium oil will become cheaper, i.e. with a price not more than double in comparison with pure cod liver oil, then I will switch to it, removing from my diet the only ingredient that is obtained by killing animals.

[j45]

Reviews help move towards rancidity or away from it.

Some DHA/EPA is better than no DHA/EPA.

It's also worth seeing what people mix it with to help with the taste.

Since Omega-3 goes down well with fat and better absorbed and bioavailable, there's some options there potentially.

[rainworld]

Revealed: many common omega-3 fish oil supplements are ‘rancid’

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/17/revealed...

[j45]

Kirkland Omega 3’s seem to be decent, hope they are.

[rpozarickij]

I used to take Nordic Naturals EPA Xtra for a long time in the past and when taking them I'd sometimes have days when my thinking was unusually fluid and clear, something I have never experienced while taking my current brand of Omega 3 (the European Moller's Omega 3 Extra). (There could definitely be other reasons too besides Omega 3 intake.)

The Sports Research Triple Strength capsules just like the Nordical Naturals have much more EPA than DHA (but the ratio is different), so I might give these a try too.

Another piece of personal anecdata related to Omega 3, is that I recently started taking most of it with dinner, and my sleep subjectively feels slightly better than when I used to take them earlier in the day.

[JumpCrisscross]

> I play chess a bit like sushi ginger for the mind - purge working memory with a short intense task to context switch

I use it as a stupidity meter. If I play a series of bad bullet games, I’m more cautious about my decision making that day.

[bobbylarrybobby]

You can also get Omega-3 from algae oil (which is where fish get it) to alleviate concerns about heavy metal content. Algae may have heavy metals but should have less than any fish. I know nothing about this particular product, but they came up when I searched for it: https://www.norsan-omega.com/algae-oil/

[partiallypro]

I do the same thing, except I subscribe to Thorne. I haven't noticed an uptick in perceived brain capacity, etc, but I can tell that my skin and hair are healthier. I started taking it because my cholesterol was all over the place and I desperately want to avoid taking a statin later in life. I'll be retesting that early next year. I've also started eating smoked salmon and canned sardines.

[FollowingTheDao]

I’d really be interested in hearing what your heritage is, specifically on your mother side. If you read my other post, you’ll understand why I’m curious.

[j45]

Appreciate the anecdata. There could have been a bit of a deficiency compared to baseline.

I have heard of that brand too - quality matters.

Omega 3 containing sufficient DHA is studied to reduce inflammation in the brain as well has help with other cognitive processes.

Another one I had read is the insulin spike after a meal can be lowered significantly by having one omega-3 with each meal.

I’ll try to circle back with a few of the studies.

[da02]

Your life sounds amazing. What other discoveries have you found? Do you publish anywhere online? (social media, Youtube, etc.)

[storus]

Omega-3 together with vitamin B2 repolarizes microglia from pro-inflammatory state to healing state, so no wonder your brain got a boost. Now, how can I tell if Omega-3 capsules are rancid?

[adrian_b]

If you buy bottled oil instead of capsules, you can feel its taste, so you can sense whether it is rancid or it has any other suspect taste.

Good omega-3 oil has a pleasant taste, there is really no need to eat capsules made from chemically-modified cellulose or who knows what other material that is not suitable as food.

The omega-3 oil can be mixed with whatever oil you add to your food, e.g. to a salad.

[mettamage]

Playing chess as a baseline thing to know how your cognitive processing is seems like a good idea.

[64718283661]

Eat sardines. Good protein, high omega 3, high in other vitamins too.

[Finnucane]

Or just eat foods that have it.

[adrian_b]

That would be a great solution, except that such foods are usually much more expensive than an equivalent amount of omega-3 oil.

Moreover, due to the great human stupidity of dumping everything where "it becomes the problem of others", now it has become the problem of everybody that what were previously among the healthiest foods, i.e. most food items of marine origin, nowadays carry significant health risks, due to possible mercury content.

[bongodongobob]

Eh, I could see it. When I look at my rating graph it's really easy to correlate with life events. Bad stuff at work, rating drops. Went on vacation, goes way up etc. Just being in a bad mood will fuck up my game, so I def think it's very possible it did affect your game that much. Not to mention that that level of chess is very volatile. A 2200 player would definitely not see the same effects.