Interesting Study About Dangers of Fish Oil

[Traderj]

I cut and pasted this article from a mailer that I have. It quotes a scientific study about problems with using fish oil and what it does to the liver. Let me know what you guys think:

How this specific fat (palm oil) fixes your liver

The liver is the biggest organ in the body, and before you can fix the other things that are wrong, you need to fix the liver.

In most people with any kind of weight problem or physical problem, their liver has become fatty.

There are various stages of fatty liver. Collectively it's known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

The end stages of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease are cirrhosis, where the liver becomes fibrous and stops working. But don’t worry, we’ll fix it!

That's what makes this study so very interesting.

It shows how easy and quick it is to fix your liver.

If you've ever eaten a piece of liver, worked on one even better yet, you know what a healthy liver looks like.

So take a look at the left side of this picture which is the before picture of a liver sample. And then look at the right side.

The right side looks like the kind of liver that you would buy in the store, LOL? Put it this way, if they served you the left side liver in a restaurant, I doubt you’d eat it!

This patient went from A to B, by doing some simple things and went from cirrhosis of the liver to a fully healthy non-fatty liver





How to fix your liver.

This important study showed how to fix even a really bad alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver.





They divided rats up into six groups. They were given alcohol (lucky or unlucky rats, depending on your tastes) and various oils.

Rats in group 1 were fed a fish oil and alcohol diet for 6 weeks.

And rats in groups 2, 3, and 4 were fed fish oil and alcohol for 6 weeks.

Now, after 6 weeks, they STOPPED giving the rats alcohol.

And the rats were switched to glucose with fish oil (group 2), palm oil (group 3), or medium-chain triglycerides (group 4) as the source of fat for an additional 2 weeks. By this time, it was presumed their livers were pretty bad off.

And rats in groups 5 and 6 were fed fish oil-ethanol and fish oil-dextrose, respectively, for the full 8 weeks. So groups 5 and 6 had the alcohol the WHOLE TIME, not just the first 6 weeks.

Did you follow all that? Don't worry, here's the cheat sheet.

Here's the point of what they did. Some of the subjects were given fish oil, and some were given palm oil and MCT oil. Along with alcohol.

And this was tested with sugar, or without sugar. Got it? Fish oil, palm oil, or MCT Oil, with or without sugar. That's all we need to know.

So let's see what actually reversed liver disease

The worst livers were the rats fed fish oil. Groups 1 and 5. Not a surprise, if you been reading what I've been saying about how bad fish oil really is. It's all in the study.

Group 2 had no improvement. Fish oil and alcohol just don't make a great combination.

Groups 3 and 4 recovered full liver function and virtually 100% healthy livers

These are the rats that were given palm oil, or MCT oil, for two weeks FOLLOWING the dreadful 6 week period of being fed alcohol.

So palm oil and MCT oil made these rats fully recover from terrible alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver. And presumably coconut oil would do the same thing -- coconut oil is very similar to palm oil and MCT oil.

Wow, medium chain saturated fats fixed these diseased livers

A DIET ENRICHED IN SATURATED FATTY ACIDS EFFECTIVELY REVERSES ALCOHOL-INDUCED LIVER INJURY, INCLUDING FIBROSIS.

So why did saturated tropical oils cure cirrhosis of the liver so well?
Let's turn back to the study for an explanation:

THE THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS OF SATURATED FATTY ACIDS MAY BE EXPLAINED, AT LEAST IN PART, BY REDUCED ENDOTOXEMIA AND LIPID PEROXIDATION, WHICH IN TURN RESULT IN DECREASED LEVELS OF TNF-ALPHA AND COX-2

So first of all, it's been shown that coconut oil or palm oil can virtually get rid of endotoxins in the body. Endotoxins are fragments and waste products from bacteria that grow in the gut, and enter the body.

The liver has to deal with these endotoxins. Tropical fats make it much easier for the liver to process endotoxins.

Secondly, Lipid peroxidation is the breakdown of fats, causing free radicals. Tropical oils keep down Lipid peroxidation. Fish oil and vegetable oil increase Lipid peroxidation. Not good.

And then, the study points out that this results in decreased levels of TNF-alpha and Cox-2.

These are highly inflammatory markers of disease in the body. Tropical oils have a very positive effect on the body.

This article shows you two things.

Number one, once again, the dangers of fish oil.

And number two, the benefits of tropical oils such as coconut oil, in becoming healthier, and specifically in a healthy liver.

The rats went from disease to healthy liver in two weeks. It has been shown that in human beings, recovery from a diseased to a healthy liver can also happen in a matter of a few weeks too.

What to do next?

Fix your liver. Eat a lot of coconut oil. Make sure that you don't have a disease liver.

The liver is responsible for storing blood sugar in the form of glycogen, so you have ready energy without crashes.

The liver processes toxins from the gut.

The liver creates thyroid hormones that you can actually use immediately, in the form of T-3.

The liver makes hundreds of chemical processes possible.

You can't be healthy without a healthy liver. This newsletter shows how a healthy liver is possible even if your liver is currently diseased.

 

[norenred]

How you make the jump from THIS study to "fish oil in humans in normal amounts is dangerous" is a mystery to me.

 

[Vince]

I have my liver tested regularly, at least twice a year. I take high doses of fish ( EPA and DHA ) 2600mg twice a day, along with some cod and skate liver oil. I should also mention that I'm an APO-E 3/3, so my body process fat efficiently. I think a lot of studies should show the people in the studies, what their genetic makeup is.

 

[Traderj]

I am not making a jump to anything. Just showing an interesting article. No need to react so sarcastically. I would think that anyone that is concerned about their liver health and taking fish oil would want to be fully informed. Many clinical research studies are done with laboratory animals and sometimes they are done with humans also. I am not a research scientist so I cannot make specific claims on its applicability to humans.

Do you know of any studies showing the benefits to humans?

 

[torrential]

This study is not a general condemnation of fish oil, but it is very clear on the real danger of combining polyunsaturated fats with alcohol. Paul Jaminet covered this a while ago:

http://perfecthealthdiet.com/2010/09/is-it-smart-to-drink/

quote from the article:

"For Perfect Health Dieters, perhaps on salmon days alcohol should be limited to a single glass of wine. In general, however, moderate drinking should hold no concern.

Oh, and for you alcoholics, a little friendly advice: If you value your liver, remove polyunsaturated fats from your diet. The safest foods? Red meats and seafood; starches (rice, sweet potatoes, potatoes); vegetables; butter/cream and coconut oil."

 

[torrential]

I have my liver tested regularly, at least twice a year. I take high doses of fish ( EPA and DHA ) 2600mg twice a day, along with some cod and skate liver oil. I should also mention that I'm an APO-E 3/3, so my body process fat efficiently. I think a lot of studies should show the people in the studies, what their genetic makeup is.

Vince, this an excellent observation. File it under YMMV, right? Natural genetic variation plays large but generally unmeasured role.

 

[norenred]

Context matters. To go from a very, very specific study in rats to the name you chose for this thread is misleading. Hopefully no one is eating a diet that consists of only polyunsaturated fats (which is the problem here most likely, not O-3 in particular, effect would have been the same or worse on omega-6 fatty acids) and alcohol.

Just one example of how fish oil in normal amounts can help:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26765633
Effect of Docosahexaenoic Acid on a Biomarker of Head Trauma in American Football.
Supplemental omega-3 DHA (2g/day) decreased a blood marker for traumatic brain injury in NCAA football players.

 

[Vince]

After diet, omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil are a first-line defense to reduce VLDL and triglycerides. EPA + DHA intakes of 3000 or more milligrams per day (not fish oil dose, but of the omega-3 fatty acids, EPA and DHA, contained within and specified on the label) usually reduce triglycerides by 30-40%.

 

[Vince]

https://www.excelmale.com/forum/showthread.php?5626-Studies-on-fish-oil

 

[torrential]

I have high triglycerides and recently started taking fish oil as part of the solution. But not when I'm boozing (;-/). As Vince mentions, the documented reduction in triglyceride levels can be profound. Will have new labs in next month so that'll be another N=1 report.

@Traderj, there are more links to human studies here:

https://examine.com/supplements/fish-oil/

 

[Vince]

Triglycerides are among the most helpful values on a standard cholesterol panel. The additional VLDL values provided by lipoprotein testing, reflect the quantity of these triglyceride-rich particles. VLDL particles are composed mostly of triglycerides and the two therefore track each other closely. They are so closely linked that we will consider them together, even though they are reported as separate measures on lipoprotein panels.

VLDL particles (containing one Apo B per VLDL particle) are the first lipoprotein particle released by the liver into the bloodstream after eating. An enzyme in the bloodstream, lipoprotein lipase, removes triglycerides from VLDL and converts most VLDL particles to LDL particles. Although a meal rich in fat (i.e., triglycerides) increases VLDL, the dominant factors in determining VLDL and triglyceride levels are insulin status and carbohydrate intake. People who are poorly responsive to insulin, such as in the common metabolic syndrome (“pre-diabetes”) and diabetes, manufacture greater quantities of VLDL particles in the liver. Excess VLDL leads to formation of small LDL particles that increase risk for heart disease. Lipoprotein reports distinguish several classes of VLDL, though the importance of these distinctions is not well sorted out.

 

[maxadvance]

Personally I take 1000mg of EPA, no DHA. EPA and DHA compete for absorption, and EPA is the primary inflammation fighter of the 2, DHA is more important in child development and in the later years in life to retain cognitive function. My Triglyceride count dropped over 100 points with this protocol since I started it.

That being said, the best acknowledged method of fighting non alc fatty liver is a strong combo of Choline/Inositol. Hence one of the reasons I take Defy's Lipo-C injections. No worry about bioavailalibilty thru the digestive system, but rather thru the bloodstream and a more direct route to my liver.