Fish oil supplements prevent mental illness

Fish oil supplements prevent mental illness; safe and effective alternative to antipsychotic drugs

Wednesday, February 03, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) An important new study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry reveals that fish oil supplements beat mental illness. The study involved 81 people deemed to be at high risk for psychosis. The randomized, placebo-controlled study provided fish oil supplements to half the study subjects for just 12 weeks (the other half received placebo supplements). The results? While 11 people in the placebo group developed a psychotic disorder, only 2 in the fish oil group did.

Although the study was relatively small, it helps demonstrate the wide-ranging benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to be the key nutritional factor in fish oils. We already know that omega-3 fatty acids / polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) help protect people against cardiovascular disease. We also know they can play a role in preventing diabetes and cancer. It's little surprise that they also protect against mental illness, given the importance of healthy fatty acids for the functioning of the nervous system.

As the BBC reports, Alison Cobb, from the mental health charity Mind, said in response to this study: "If young people can be treated successfully with fish oils, this is hugely preferable to treating them with antipsychotics, which come with a range of problems from weight gain to sexual dysfunction, whereas omega-3s are actually beneficial to their general state of health."

She's exactly right: Antipsychotic drugs actually cause diabetes. They promote blood sugar disorders and weight gain, among other problems. Some psychiatric drugs have also been linked to school shootings and violent outbursts (suicides, murders, etc.). They're also expensive and they pose an environmental hazard, since many of the chemicals used in those drugs pass right through the body and end up in waters downstream.

Fish oils have none of these negative side effects. In fact, they have positive effects throughout the body. That's why fish oils are such a remarkable solution to replace antipsychotic drugs: They're safer, cheaper and they work better!

You're supposed to keep taking drugs, says Big Pharma
The drug companies, of course, are terrified that people might learn this truth. They want to keep patients on expensive, patented antipsychotic drugs while discrediting "natural remedies" like fish oils or nutritional supplements. The entire war being waged against nutrition and supplements is, of course, nothing more than the pharmaceutical industry trying to protect its own turf by destroying the competition.

Because, let's face it: For (virtually) every popular pharmaceutical on the market, there's a nutritional supplement that works better (and that's also safer and more affordable). Antipsychotic drugs can be replaced with fish oils. Cholesterol drugs can be replaced with B vitamins. Anti-cancer drugs can be replaced with vitamin D and medicinal mushrooms. Diabetes drugs can be replaced with a healthy plant-based diet and targeted supplements. The list goes on and on...

Nutrition works so well that in this study, subjects experienced a protective effect from fish oils for an entire year even though they only took those fish oils for 12 weeks! Imagine how much better the outcome might have been if they continued on the fish oils for the entire year...

Get quality fish oils

Of course, when it comes to fish oils, don't settle for just any cheap fish oil supplement. Many of the cheaper store-bought brands are largely made of olive oil filler combined with a tiny amount of fish oil extract. Search out quality supplements or oils from companies like Moxxor, Nordic Naturals or Carlson Labs.

Make sure your supplements are free from heavy metals, pesticides and other residues. Make sure they are harvested in a truly sustainable way, and make sure you can trust the source to provide consistent quality.

SOURCE

Hey mate there is a great doco around regarding the scientist that originally discovered this. I'm not sure if its on youtube or I watched it on TV (when I had one, or a damn working TV card on my PC lol)

The general gist of his findings which I think were conducted back in the 20's or 30's were based on what he found regarding people living in icy cold areas who ate a load of fish as a staple. I think his interest was orginally piqued by the low heart disease rate in those people compared to other regions with less fish in their diet.

The Doco even showed him doing the experiments on himself which consisted of only eating some kind of fish/sea animal which I forget now. He would then get a razor and cut himself and time how long the cut would take to clot. *note here* would be nice to monsanto do a bit of this with Roundup LOL.

The longer he stayed on that strict diet, the longer it would for his blood to clot. As usual he findings were dismissed, yet now its all systems go.

Due to my support of the Sea Sheps and looking at some of the science of the oceans I gave up eating seafood. The amount of seafood domestic cats consume is frigging scary to say the least. But in saying so that my own choice and one I do not expect anyone else to adhere to, and I only mentioned that because of my choice to to use Hemp Seed oil instead.

I hope no-one thinks I am throwing up an enviro banner here as I am not, this was just one choice I made, and I'm sure I make choices which are not good for other areas aswell so I am in no position to throw rocks whilst living in a glass house :)

I would love to find that doco as it was educational on many levels.