Fish oil has been the subject of thousands of discussions, untold articles, hundreds of clinical trials and anecdotal research.
Contrary to the vast amount of positive reports concerning fish oil, the Journal of the American medical Association (JAMA) published a report that fish oil does not significantly reduce abnormal heart rhythms which are primarily responsible for sudden cardiac death.
Many medical professionals have taken this information as the failure of an over-hyped dietary supplement.
However, because of the limited scope of the study its relative benefit for the entire population is jaded.
Fish oil benefits have been noted for centuries and as clinical testing has shown, this supplement contributes to a healthy heart, body, and mind.
There is no better source of the essential fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), then fish oil.
These two omega-3 fatty acids, often called essential fatty acids, cannot be made by the body and must come from the of the food we eat or from supplements that we take.
In most cases, the natural form of these two nutrients would best come from food.
However, taking fish oil either by capsule presently equipped supplement may possibly be a better option since the supplements in most cases will have been purified and any contamination such as mercury or lead will have been removed.
Most health practitioners and the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends a dosage somewhere between 1 and 2 grams of fish oil per day.
Because there are so few dietary sources of these omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) other than cold-water fish such as salmon, Lake trout, herring, cod, mackerel, anchovies, and sardines most Americans do not get enough of these nutrients in order to maintain good health.
100% grass fed beef, chicken and turkey that have been properly fed, can provide some of these essential fatty acids from their meat and from the eggs of the chicken.
Prior to the introduction of entirely grain fed beef, the red meat of cattle that have been completely grass fed was one of the best sources of omega-3 fatty acids available to land locked communities.
There are numerous vegetarians sources of essential fatty acids such as flax seed, Chia seed, sunflower oil, most tree nuts, and safflower oil.
Although the essential fatty acid provided by the sources is the nutrient alpha linolenic acid (ALA) and must be converted by the body into DHA and EPA.
The conversion process in the body is very inefficient and will only convert approximately 20% of the ALA into the final essential acids DHA and EPA.
This is due to the high level of omega-6 fatty acids that are so common in the Western diet.
The essential fatty acids have nothing to do with the prevention of an abnormal arrhythmia.
Their primary function in the body are geared toward reducing inflammation, thinning the blood, establishing a better balance in blood chemistry, inhibiting abnormal cell production, and improving neural transmission within the brain.
It is in this capacity that fish oil helps to prevent disease rather than correct an already in progress disease.
The subjects of the JAMA study were patients already scheduled to have defibrillators placed in their chest in order to control potentially fatal heart rhythms.
The patients were studied in order to determine if the fish oil would reduce the need for the defibrillators.
In this case fish oil was not effective because the disease process in these patients was too far along.
Regardless of how well the study was conducted the authors were forced to conclude that it showed no evidence about the significance of fish oil in the prevention of disease for those patients not already diagnosed.
The American Heart Association and most medical professionals, from both traditional and natural fields of study, continue to encourage their clients and patients to eat a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids or to supplement their current diet with a minimum of 1 gram of fish oil per day.