

Fish Oil Use in Pregnancy Didn’t Make Babies Smart - seshagiric
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/health/research/20fishoil.html

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pyre
It's more important to get vitamin d than to worry about loading up on omega-
fatty acids so that you're baby will get into a good university. I forget if
it was something submitted to HN or not, but I've seen suggestions that
vitamin d deficiency _might_ be a cause of Autism.

It certainly doesn't seem that far-fetched, but IIRC the study was only based
in Oregon (or at least some of the data being quoted was).

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adammichaelc
The vitamin D theory of autism [http://alliancept.us/vitamind/articles/Autism-
Cannell1107.pd...](http://alliancept.us/vitamind/articles/Autism-
Cannell1107.pdf) (recently this theory was accepted by a team of Harvard
researchers; more research needs to be done but it looks quite promising)

~~~
blueben
This is interesting. One might also assume an increase in autism rates among
babies developing in the womb during winter months and babies developing in
northern climates. Is this true? Do spring and summer babies have a higher
rate of autism?

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adammichaelc
Babies born in March have the highest autism rate, and black children have
higher rates than whites, due to (if the theory is true) vitamin D production
being lower in blacks due to high melanin content in the skin. There are
several other data points in the study -- it's a good read, albeit quite
technical. I'm still pre-med, so much of it is above my head.

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robchez
Omega3 (Specifically DHA) Fish Oil has so many other benefits its ridiculous.
If you are not getting enough (chances are you aren't) you should really add
them to your regime.

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nodata
Can you back this up please? The science says Omega3 is not worth it:
[http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-
supplem...](http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplements/)

~~~
robchez
The Omega3 PUFA's found in Fishoil (Specifically DHA) have many benefits. But
the key one, as mentioned, is the balancing of the Omega6 : Omega3 ratio found
in our diets. The Omega6 PUFA, another essential fatty acid is pro-
inflammatory and over consumed these days. This is due to mainly the
consumption of the vegetable franken-oils and the consumption of grain fed
meats. Where we should actually have a ratio of omega6:omega3 of roughly
2-3:1, most people actually have ratios somewhere in the order of 30:1.

Now eating a diet with little vegetable oils and opting for grass fed meat,
you are able to bring your Omega6 consumption down drastically, which, with
some fresh wild caught salmon every now and then will remove the need for you
to supplement. But unfortunately, we cant do that all the time, so every now
and then its good to take some fishoil.

Anyway some studies:

[1] <http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/70/3/560S>

[2] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18370801>

[3] <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17607361>

[4]
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18483335?ordinalpos=1&...](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18483335?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=4&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed)

If you jump on Pubmed or DailyScience and search for omega3, you will find a
plethora of studies.

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geekman
I don't have an issue with the conclusions about making babies smart.

However it's different with maternal depression. If you read the original
study, there was a 91% probability that the DHA reduced severe maternal
depression. In the study the reduction in severe depression was 15%. However
because 91% probability is less than the gold standard of 95% probability it
was not conclusively proven.

Given the study design, a reduction of 35% would have been required before it
would have been found to be proven ie statistically significant.

Unfortunately, showing an innumeracy that is common in the medical world, they
claimed they had shown there is no relationship, which is plainly false.

It is also worth pointing out that the study was prompted by earlier studies
that showed eating fish had all sorts of benefits. But in the study they only
gave one component of fish oil (DHA) in substantial quantities. Fish also
contain protein, minerals, other vitamins, Omega3 EPA and many other
beneficial nutrients. So by no means did they show no benefit from eating
fish.

Finally the study did have a major reduction in the incidence of pre-term
deliveries. Some of the "no results" statistics were only obtained by
artificially removing the effects of this reduction in premature births from
the analysis. If you are concerned about, or have a history of pre-term
delivery it is worth considering fish oil for this benefit alone.

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jseifer
Ray Peat has some not so positive things to say about fish oil:
<http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/fishoil.shtml>.

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CamperBob
Is there a tl;dr version of his thesis anywhere?

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baddox
Maybe they should try snake oil.

