Mood

Omega-3 Supplementation Linked to Healthier Mood and Better Cognitive Function

Low-fat diets are all the rage in the Western world, with many trying to follow medical advice to keep fat consumption low and avoid fried foods. However, there is one fat that many people actually need to consume more of: omega-3 fatty acids. These fatty acids are important to brain and joint function and play a vital role in almost every area of the body.

What Is are Omega-3 Fatty Acids?

Omega-3 fatty acids are unsaturated and present in a variety of naturally oily foods, such as fish, nuts and flaxseeds. The best known omega-3 fatty acids are DHA and EPA, both of which can be found in fish. Another omega-3 fatty acid is ALA, found in nuts and seeds such as flaxseed.

Omega-3s have a variety of positive health effects, but they are not present in large enough amounts in the Western diet. This is why physicians often recommend that people take a supplement with these healthy oils. They have been found to support good joint function in people with arthritis, improve cardiovascular health and protect against cellular inflammation. While these are all positive effects, new studies are suggesting that the real benefit of omega-3s may be related to brain function and mood.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Depression

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is one of the most severe types of clinical depression, as well as one of the most difficult to treat. People who suffer from this disease feel a pervasive sadness that affects every area of their lives. While there are many antidepressants available, it can be difficult to find a dosage high enough to treat the effects of this disease yet low enough to minimize side effects. A new study suggests that taking an omega-3 supplement can help people suffering from MDD.

In this study, researchers found that omega-3s had an effect similar to antidepressants on people with MDD. Even better, these long chain fatty acids can be taken along with antidepressants, potentially doubling the mood-boosting effects. Most antidepressants increase the amount of circulating serotonin, the hormone associated with happiness. Omega-3s appear to increase the sensitivity of cell receptors to serotonin, allowing the higher circulating levels of this hormone to have an even greater effect. In addition, the effect of omega-3 fatty acids on serotonin receptors can improve the mood of people who are not even taking antidepressants.

Unsaturated Fats and Alzheimer Disease

A slight decrease in memory and cognitive skills is normal in aging. However, people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia suffer losses that are abnormal and have negative effects on almost every area of their lives. In Alzheimer’s disease, most of the effects are caused by loss of neurons, especially those with acetylcholine receptors. Acetylcholine is essential to brain function, so the inability to respond to this neurohormone can affect cognition and almost every aspect of a patient’s life.

New research is giving hope for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, finding that taking omega-3 fatty acids appears to have a protective effect on neurons. People who take an omega-3 supplement perform better on memory tests and show fewer symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive decline. This study suggests that we all may be able to protect our brains from both natural aging and degenerative disease by taking a simple fish oil supplement.

There are many amazing new drugs on the market, but research is finding over and over that the keys to managing some health concerns are already available to the public. Certain dietary supplements can improve health comparable to some “miracle drugs,” but with fewer side effects and less expense. Omega-3s appear to be important in maintaining a good mood and high cognitive function, so this supplement should be part of your daily health regimen.

How Sleep Restriction Can Sabotage Your Health

Mar 30 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

How do you feel when you don’t get enough sleep? If you are like most people, you feel fatigued, achy, out of sorts and a bit duller than usual. As much as sleep restriction obviously affects your health and mood, it can have even more severe effects on your hormone levels, cell metabolism and other less visible aspects of health.

Sleep Restriction and Your Metabolism

A recent study has found that sleep restriction can effectively ruin your metabolism. Participants who slept 5.5 hours or less every night experienced a variety of ill effects. Their glucose metabolism was severely impaired, which could lead to type 2 diabetes over time. These people also made less leptin, the hormone associated with feeling full and satisfied, which led to increased hunger. Last, there was an effect on testosterone levels, with the sleep-deprived subjects showing lower amounts of this important male hormone. Surprisingly, the research subjects for this study were young healthy men, perhaps the healthiest population. If sleep restriction can affect these men so drastically, it may have even greater effects on older or less healthy bodies.

This is not the only study to identify sleep habits as a key regulator of metabolism and health. Other studies have found that sleep truly is essential to good health and especially to maintaining a healthy weight. Sleep restriction can cause you to lose fat-free body mass like muscle while packing on fat. Because of these findings, getting the right amount of sleep should be part of every weight loss plan.

Is Our Obesity Epidemic Caused by a Sleep Restriction Epidemic?

Another study published in the journal Obesity suggests that sleep deprivation may be one of the most important factors in weight gain and obesity. When forced to sleep only four hours a day, half the recommended amount, volunteers had a sharp increase in both hunger and ghrelin levels.

Ghrelin is a hormone that produces that gnawing, ravenous hunger feeling that most of us have experienced. This hormone is normally released only when we haven’t eaten for a long interval, but it is expressed continuously in people who are undergoing sleep restriction. It takes an enormous amount of self-control, more than most people have, to resist eating under the influence of ghrelin.

How Much Sleep Is Not Enough?

Sleep restriction has been established as an independent risk factor for obesity, which means it can cause obesity even in the absence of other variables such as genetic predisposition or sedentary lifestyle. However, how much sleep is enough? Many people in the Western world simply do not get enough sleep, which has changed our perception of how much we need. Seven to eight hours is the optimal amount for most people, and as much as five and a half hours can cause negative biological effects. Millions of Americans do not get the sleep that they need to maintain optimal health. Many doctors are recommending better sleep habits as a way to combat obesity and other common diseases.

Our culture almost has reverence for people who go without the sleep they need. Whether it is a medical student studying into the early hours of the morning, a businessman working 20 hour days, or a mother up at 2 a.m. caring for a baby, we treat the sacrifice of sleep as though it is a sign of a person’s willpower. However, these studies suggest that we should treat sleep restriction instead like the dangerous and unhealthy behavior it is. In order to maintain good health, modern people need to make sleep more of a priority and allow others to get that sleep as well.

Good Bacteria and Digestive Health Determine Disease Risk

Mar 24 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Inside your intestines live billions of bacteria and other microorganisms. These are not parasites, but rather an important part of your body and your health. New research has found that these microorganisms are integral in disease prevention, emotional health and other areas. However, we live in a world filled with antibiotics and antimicrobials that may be affecting the important functions of our digestive system’s “good” bacteria.

Are All Bacteria Bad?

While we usually associate bacteria with infections and illness, not all bacteria are bad for our health. Our digestive tract is filled with a variety of bacteria that play many roles in maintaining health. For example, there are certain vitamins that we can only absorb after they have been broken down by bacteria. In addition, maintaining ideal levels of beneficial flora in our digestive tract keeps our immune system healthy and protects us from deadly infections.

Researchers are beginning to discover more about the microorganisms that inhabit our digestive tract, which are known collectively as our microbiome. Every person has a slightly different microbiome, although there are several organisms such as Bacteroides that are common to most people. Not only does our microbiome include thousands of species of bacteria, viruses and archaeans, but these organisms are incredibly diverse even within their own species. We are only just beginning to discover the integral role that our microbiome plays in our health.

Good Bacteria and Your Health

New research suggests that the benefits of gut bacteria extend far beyond the digestive tract. The bacteria in our intestines play an important role in regulating both our brains and our immune system. Proteins made by these microscopic organisms have a variety of beneficial effects on our bodies, including releasing proteins that have been found to prevent cancer and other serious diseases. There are new studies almost every week proclaiming a new and previously unknown function of our microbiome.

What Happens When You Lose Your Microbiome?

Most people in the modern world have taken antibiotics. Although antibiotics can save lives, they also compromise our microbiome, killing off good bacteria along with the dangerous bacterial invaders. Some researchers believe that this lack of healthy good bacteria in much of the population may be one cause for the recent increase in metabolic syndrome, obesity, and certain types of cancer. In addition, the presence of good bacteria in our intestines crowds out bad bacteria and makes it hard for them to cause a true infection. Certain pathogenic bacteria, such as c. difficile, have caused deadly infections after people took broad spectrum antibiotics that killed other beneficial organisms in their microbiome that were helping to keep the pathogens at bay.

Maintaining a Healthy Microbiome

Maintaining a healthy range of good bacteria in your gut is essential to good health in a variety of ways. However, our world is so filled with antibacterial products that this can be a challenge. One way to encourage a healthy microbiome is to take a supplement that includes both prebiotics and probiotics. Probiotics are the good bacteria that provide key health benefits, while prebiotics contain the fiber and other compounds that these good bacteria need to live and thrive. Taking a combination of prebiotics and probiotics can encourage your microbiome to flourish with a variety of bacteria that support good health.

Our modern world is very different from the one that we evolved in, creating health challenges that we have never known. While we no longer live in fear of dying from infectious disease, we now face an entirely new set of diseases to fear. Taking a supplement that includes both prebiotics and probiotics is one way to keep your body healthy and strong.