

Fish Oil may prevent severe mental illness - cwan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204575039590838522222.html

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Frazzydee
"according to a _preliminary_ study of 81 patients in Austria."

Keep in mind that it is not rare that findings made at the preliminary stage
don't hold up when more rigorous studies are undertaken.

There was a total of 81 patients in this trial. What is the statistical
significance of the finding?

~~~
vomjom
If you have a statistics background, it's pretty easy to tell that it's
significant given the numbers (2 of 41 in the fish oil group and 11 of 40 in
the placebo).

The exact p-value is in the paper (0.007), or very significant. It's often
difficult to get those kind of p-values in real world settings:

[http://archpsyc.ama-
assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/2/146?l...](http://archpsyc.ama-
assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/67/2/146?lookupType=volpage&vol=67&fp=146&view=short)

~~~
Frazzydee
Thank you for that. I don't have a statistics background, so I was a bit
unsure of how seriously I should take the findings given that it was described
as "preliminary."

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cmars232
This is completely subjective from my own experience, but it seems whenever
I've tried taking fish oil supplements before, on more than one occasion I've
felt kind of depressed and lethargic after a few days of taking them so I
stop, then everything's back to normal. It's happened enough to suspect a
pattern.

I'll stick with natural sources for these oils. Eggs, walnuts, etc. no
problem, I eat lots of foods with omega-3s. Maybe there is something unnatural
about swallowing a big concentrated dose of the stuff?

I don't really care to repeat the experiment to find out...

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coretanned
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/opinion/16greenberg.html>

tl;dr: menhaden is an awesome fish the ecosystem depends on and it's about to
go extinct because of stupid studies about fish oil.

~~~
chrischen
Flaxseed oil is not necessarily an alternative.

Fish oil contains EPA and DHA type omega-3 acids and flaxseed (and walnuts and
hemp seed) contain ALA, which the body converts to EPA and DHA, but
inefficiently.

Source:
[http://www.supplementquality.com/efficacy/fishoil_flaxoil.ht...](http://www.supplementquality.com/efficacy/fishoil_flaxoil.html)

~~~
coretanned
What the hell. Even if there isn't a viable alternative you shouldn't support
fish oil if it's at the cost of the environment.

~~~
chrischen
Everything humans do will somehow take a toll on the environment. So unless we
all go kill ourselves, we're going to affect our environment one way or
another. We can instead be _responsible_ and make sure we don't strain a
specific resource, and be educated consumers (it might just happen). So a
solution would be to find alternative fishes and balance it out, cut out other
fish oil uses.

That being said the article stated that fish oil is only one of the many
things contributing to this. I think we could cut out lipstick before we cut
out treating mental illnesses.

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chrischen
Fish oil is also recommended for ADHD, though I can't get myself to take them
regularly yet so I can't testify to its effectiveness.

~~~
electromagnetic
I heard this too and I've seen it 'working' in a few children before. However,
I know of those children, getting them to take a pill daily and following a
routine without outside intervention from a parent was 90% of the battle
anyway. So from observation, I can't really say what worked more, the pill or
getting the child to take it.

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bhousel
... as long as you're not taking the kind that has mercury in it.

~~~
vomjom
Almost all of the fish oil you can buy actually comes from 1 company and have
been tested for mercury (by ConsumerLab.com and Consumer Reports):

[http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-12-15-fish-oil-
usat...](http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-12-15-fish-oil-usat_x.htm)

None of the major brands had significant amounts of mercury.

I'd just get the cheapest kind, given that it's likely from the same company.

~~~
rarrrrrr
FYI: For a very expensive, but pristine fish oil (actually from green lipped
mussels in New Zealand): <http://moxxor.com/>

(I'm an investor)

~~~
aresant
I know the Moxxor guys - Noel Turner is an incredible entrepreneur story -
recently started taking the product how have you found it vs. fish oil?

~~~
rarrrrrr
Indeed. I didn't notice much change myself, but I already get a healthful
portion of omega3s and antioxidants from my food. My parents had reduced joint
pain/inflammation.

