Omega-3: benefits for mood disorders
These products seem to work wonders against mood disorders.
One would have to be deaf, blind and have lived as a hermit for a year not to know that Omega 3s act on mood. Throughout the year, they have been in the headlines, and the market of food supplements has been enriched with numerous products offering these famous essential fatty acids. Proof if it were needed that depression, the blues and low spirits disturb our moods and that happiness pills, despite their mass prescription, are not the only answer to malaise.
Neuropsychiatry's interest in omega 3s dates back to the 1980s and 1990s. One of the first studies carried out in humans concerned the use of omega 3 in bipolar disorders (manic-depressive syndrome). The thirty patients in the study who were under medication were divided into two groups, one receiving a placebo and the other receiving omega 3 for three months. In the placebo group, there were 10 cases of aggravation of the disease out of 15 patients, against only 3 among the patients of the omega 3 group.
It would seem that it is EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), an omega 3 found in fatty fish, that acts on mood disorders. Another quasi-certainty is that omega 3 prevents seasonal depression by activating the secretion of melatonin. Lastly, omega 3 could also be effective in the treatment of post-partum depression.
In parallel with this work, other indications have come to reinforce the interest in omega 3. Epidemiological studies have not failed to observe that for about 50 years, in westernized countries, an increase in depression has been paralleled by major nutritional changes, characterized in particular by a decrease in omega-3 intake. For example, the province of British Columbia has experienced a high incidence of depression as its population has turned away from fish, a pillar of the traditional diet.
To take life in stride and get through difficulties with serenity, let's put oily fish and rapeseed oil on the menu. When morale turns to the blues, when "what's the point" disturbs any initiative, when doldrums grip the heart and when dark thoughts chase away any trace of optimism... think omega 3! A small cure of happiness to drive out the greyness and to see the life in pink!
Source: Doctissimo.fr