
Erythrocyte omega-3 index, ambient fine particle exposure and brain aging - bookofjoe
https://n.neurology.org/content/early/2020/07/15/WNL.0000000000010074
======
purplerabbit
Fish oil seems to be one of a very small set of supplements that's proven
itself to be more than hype. If this article piques your interest, or if
you're interested in brain health in general, I'd definitely suggest reading
more about it.

Sometimes I wonder how much more happy and productive the world would be if
everyone put a bit of regular effort into brain health. 30-40 minutes of
cardio 3x/week + fish oil supplementation seems like a big easy win on that
front.

~~~
ianai
Importantly, fish oils are not the only source of decent omega3/omega6 ratios.
Walnuts are roughly 1:4, everyone knows about flaxseeds, etc. as someone else
said, too, cutting back on omega6 sources is as important or may just offer
greater correction toward the target ratio.

~~~
corysama
I used to consume a lot of flaxseed oil as a cheap source of Omega 3. But,
then I heard on HN that Om 3 is not very bioavailable in that form. But,
that's my only source of info on that.

~~~
codemac
It depends on what you're looking for I guess, my understanding is:

There are 3 major omega 3 fats people mostly talk about, ALA, DHA, EPA.

ALA is transformed to DHA & EPA through different mechanisms in the body,
whereas DHA & EPA are usually only found in other animal sources.

If you eat enough ALA (maybe more than recommended to increase probability of
production?), your body will produce all the DHA & EPA you need.

I haven't read through this study yet but it may be interesting:
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9637947/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9637947/)
It seems to indicate eating less saturated fat increases your ability to
convert ALA ~5x

~~~
chrisco255
[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016378271...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163782715000223)

"table isotope methods have typically resulted in estimates of percent
conversion of ALA to DHA being less than 1% of the ingested stable-isotope
ALA, although estimates vary widely, ranging from 0–9.2% (Table 1). Also,
there is typically no increase in plasma total lipid or phospholipid DHA when
ALA intake is increased in humans (reviewed in [10], [11]), supporting the
conclusion that DHA synthesis from ingested ALA is not an efficient process in
humans."

~~~
codemac
The very top analysis though shows:

"This review summarizes evidence that DHA synthesis from ALA can provide
sufficient DHA for the adult brain by examining work in humans and animals
involving estimates of DHA synthesis and brain DHA requirements. Also, an
update on methods to measure DHA synthesis in humans is presented highlighting
a novel approach involving steady-state infusion of stable isotope-labeled ALA
that bypasses several limitations of oral tracer ingestion. It is shown that
this method produces estimates of DHA synthesis that are at least 3-fold
higher than brain uptake rates in rats."

So it seems it's not super efficient, but it's probably far more than
sufficient, and we were under estimating how useful ALA is by 3x.

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DiabloD3
As a reminder, the supplements community has a great guy that runs a lab that
checks for the content and, in the case of Omega 3, oxidization of
supplements.

[https://www.consumerlab.com/reviews/fish_oil_supplements_rev...](https://www.consumerlab.com/reviews/fish_oil_supplements_review/omega3/)

You have to pay to read the reports, but you're paying access to a good lab
that has accurate results, ran by a guy who very purposely has no industry
ties. The dude drops bombs, when necessary, and he isn't afraid of idiots
attempting to lawyer him.

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abeppu
> Based on prospectively collected and geocoded participant addresses, we used
> a spatiotemporal model to estimate the 3-year average PM2.5 exposure before
> the MRI.

In broad terms (not specific to PM2.5 exposure), I've heard that indoor air
quality is often much worse than outdoor air quality. Is geolocation a good
way to estimate PM2.5 exposure? I.e. is most of the variance in exposure
captured by where you live, as versus stuff like how you cook, heat your home,
whether you live with smokers, etc?

~~~
graeme
You can get a pretty cheap sensor that works well. I got a laseregg.

Indoors was consistently better for outdoors for pm 2.5....except when
cooking. Then, pm 2.5 is often 20-100x worse. Exhaust fans help but are not
nearly sufficient. Often opening all windows is required to even get the
number down.

Co2 is higher indoors, you can measure that with a separate sensor. It is a
proxy for various VOC’s which are harder to measure directly with consumer
available devices.

~~~
phyzome
Cooking will reliably send CO2 over the 3000 ppm threshold that my sensor can
detect and report. I always use the extraction fan now.

~~~
graeme
Co2? You must have a gas stove.

Note that this effect doesn’t apply to stoves that don’t involve directly
burning carbon. Normal cooking produces pm 2.5 but not co2.

~~~
phyzome
Yep, natural gas. I feel so mixed about it. I grew up with electric, and the
responsiveness of gas is wonderful. But piping an explosive substance into the
house such that a leak can destroy this house and the neighboring ones is
pretty dodgy!

I think there's something to be said for its energy efficiency (it doesn't
suffer the same transmission losses, right?), although of course if you can
get electricity from renewables, electric is better. Best would be having a
local biogas digester.

I find it a little silly that you say "normal cooking" doesn't burn carbon.
Normal cooking is over wood fire, don't you know. :-)

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sawaruna
Not sure if I'm getting enough omega-3 as a vegan but hopefully. Eat quite a
bit of nuts, and ground flax every morning. I take an algae-oil supplement for
EPA and DHA, but not sure if there's some other easy addition to my diet.

~~~
mkskm
This is my biggest uncertainty with a vegetarian diet as well. Algae oil seems
like the best bet but has much less DHA than fish oil, is more expensive and
doesn't have as many studies yet from what I can tell.

~~~
marton78
It's that true? Opti-3 has lots of DHA + EPA.

~~~
mkskm
That does look a lot better than the other ones I've come across, thanks for
sharing. It is about twice as expensive as some of the other options I've
found though, e.g. [https://www.amazon.com/Jarrow-Formulas-Supports-Health-
Softg...](https://www.amazon.com/Jarrow-Formulas-Supports-Health-
Softgels/dp/B0013OSJ2I), [https://www.amazon.com/Jarrow-Formulas-EPA-DHA-
Odorless-Caps...](https://www.amazon.com/Jarrow-Formulas-EPA-DHA-Odorless-
Capsules/dp/B017F9JMN4), [https://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Naturals-Ultimate-
Omega-SoftGe...](https://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Naturals-Ultimate-Omega-
SoftGels/dp/B07QHP2ZNQ/).

