As a dad, you share the responsibility for the well-being of the family. That includes your own well-being, since your kids depend on their parents for a roof over their heads, food in the pantry and the clothes on their backs.
How, as a parent, can you help ensure your own health and well-being? Especially if your genetic makeup predisposes you for a condition such as heart disease or cancer?
Exercise and diet are the key, of course, but there is one other thing you can do that will give you a better chance in the war against most chronic diseases. What is it? Take fish oil supplements daily.
Early man’s diet had a balance between omega3 and omega6 fatty acids, since fish were plentiful and more easily snared by women and children. Also, the meat animals our ancestors killed dined on a natural diet, so they also had higher omega 3 levels available in the meat. The modern diet, in most cases, is woefully out of balance in this regard, especially since most people eat meats raised on factory farms, where the cattle and pigs are fed a diet of corn and other grains instead of their natural diet. This means those meats are out of balance and contain much omega6 and very little omega3 fatty acids. And with the mecury advisories out about fish, we get even less of the important omega3 fatty acids in our modern diet.
Eating fish once or twice a week helps, but does not give us all that we need to create a balance of these two types of omega acids. So taking a supplement is the best alternative. Testing done by consumerlab.com found that none of the 41 fish oil brands they tested contained unsafe levels of mercury, PCBs or dioxin. Molecular distillation during the manufacturing process removes these contaminants, making it the safest way to include omega 3 in your diet.
Though certain plants do contain some omega3s, they’re in the form of alpha-linoleic acid (ALA) rather than the more potent forms eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) which are the forms that give you a broader range of benefits.
What are the benefits of Fish Oil omega3?
- Protection against heart attack and strokes
- Protection against prostate cancer, and possibly other cancers
- Better fertility in the form of higher sperm count and motility
- Protection against depression
- Protection against Alzheimer’s disease
- Boosted immune response and decreased inflammation
- Pain relief from rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
- Protection against gastric ulcers
The decrease in inflammation and subsequent boost in immune response is what leads to better health. Alzheimer’s disease, twenty percent of all cancers, and most forms of heart disease are initially caused by chronic inflammation, which triggers the release of artery blocking plaque. The joint pain of rheumatoid arthritis is also a chronic inflammation. Lessen the inflammation and you decrease the likelihood of these diseases forming or escalating to a critical stage. Also, if your immune system isn’t busy fighting chronic inflammation, it isn’t constantly stressed and is more available to work on causes of potential health issues, such as fighting the bactera which may have caused some of these inflammations in the first place.
For heart health alone, fish oil supplements have a huge benefit. Omega3 fatty acids lower triglycerides and have an effect on the elasticity of blood vessels. They also improve communication between cardiac cells, which prevents arrythmia.
When purchasing fish oil supplements pay attention to the expiration date, and purchase a fish oil capsule that has an enteric coating. While you’re reading the label you want to look at the amount of EPA and DHA in the supplement. A minimum of 500 mg per dose of these two omega 3 fatty acids is what you need to get those great benefits. If you take blood thinners, speak first to your doctor prior to taking fish oil.
Store fish oil in the fridge, or, better yet, the freezer. The benefits of fish oil can be enhanced by taking it along with Vitamin E.
Take your fish oil omega3 supplement daily and protect your health and well-being. You owe it to your family and yourself.