I have known about and taken the omega-3 oils essential fatty acids supplements for some years now. When I was in my local pharmacy getting some more essential fatty acids supplements I was interested in trying to see the difference between the different suppliers of omega-3 oils supplements.
I knew it was important to have more DHA than EPA and that a fish oil source of omega-3 oils, compared to something like flax seed oil, tends to be the best. However, I recently read about getting my omega-3 essential fatty acid oils not only from oily fish, but also from the stuff whales eat, krill. So I thought I’d write a little bit about the different sources of omega-3 oils, like krill oil, and why you may look to supplement with omega-3 essential fatty acids to improve your health.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids Fish Oil Sources
The traditional Eskimo diet of eating lots of oily fish and marine fats seems to have given them some protection from dying young from the typical western civilised lifestyle diseases like heart disease. A traditional Eskimo would eat whale or seal skin with the fat in the diet. So this prompted researchers to look further into the what was in their diet that helped their health.
Omega-3 essential fatty acids seemed to be the answer to how Eskimo’s stayed so healthy.
Whale fat contains omega-3 oils which are essential fatty acids (a.k.a EFA’s) that can help protect against vascular disease. Omega-3 oils are an essential fatty acid and can act like aspirin causing blood to be thinner. It has been said Eskimos are prone to nosebleeds. It is important to know omega-3 oils help thin blood, because if you are on prescribed blood thinners medication the omega 3 oils would thin your blood even more so you should be cautious taking both.
I’m not an Eskimo so I don’t have access to whale and seal in my diet, but I wouldn’t want to eat a whale or a seal either because they are under threat from over killing. So where else can you get a renewable, healthy source of omega-3 essential fatty acids?
I have always taking cod liver oil supplements or eaten mackerel, tuna, sardines etc… However, the stuff whales eat, krill, could be the answer to the question.
Only 1% of krill is supposedly used for human consumption. So we definitely are not over-farming krill populations for human food, unlike fish quotas for cod or hake.
So maybe you should ask your local health food store or pharmacy if they have a krill oil. Make krill oil your daily source of omega-3 oil to et those heart helping essential fatty acids.
Health Benefits From Taking Krill Oil
Dr Mercola explains nicely in this video the difference between omega oils from plants like flaxseed and fish like krill.
Doing research online I found most krill oil supplements contain NKO® krill oil from a company called, Neptune Technologies & Bioressources Inc.
Some of the health benefits claimed by NKO® krill oil are:
- Powerful Anti-oxidant Supplement with Astaxanthin
300 times greater than Vitamins A & E. 48 times greater than Omega-3 Fish Oil.34 times greater than Co Q-10. - First and Only Clinically proven Omega-3 Marine Phospholipids.
- Omega-3 EPA/ DHA functionalized marine phospholipids and potent antioxidants
- Proprietary Composition
- Sourced from Antartic Krill (most abundant biomass)
- Superior bioavailability
- Clinically proven health benefits at recommended daily intake
- Validated safety and long term stability
- No trans fat
- No reflux
- No heavy metals / no dioxins
- No detected allergen
- Low therapeutic dose starting at 300mg, superior compliance
- Validated safety and long term stability
- Clinically proven efficacy
Cholesterol management (Phase IIIa), Inflammation & osteoarthritis (Phase II), ADHD (Pilot), Premenstrual syndrome (Phase II)
Omega 3-Oils For Pain Relief
The one study I see NKO® Krill oil done was on inflammation by reducing C-reactive protein. This would be relevant for low back pain, neck pain and osteo-arthritic joint pain sufferers.
It looked interesting that taking 1 soft gel capsule of 300mg krill oil per day reduced c-reactive protein by 19% within 7 days, 29% after 14 days and 30.9% after 30 days.
So all you need is 1x300mg NKO® krill oil per day for reducing inflammation.
So just one capsule of 300mg krill oil per day produced a health benefit. This is quite different from the study done using high dose omega 3 oils for nerve pain relief.
Where Can I Get Krill Oil
Below I have added a link to NKO® krill oil you can buy directly through Amazon UK. It looks like you can buy 30 softgels or 60 softgels.
DHA vs EPA
DHA stands for docosahexaenoic acid and EPA stands for eicosapentaenoic acid. They are the omega-3 oils.
DHA & EPA are apart of the unsaturated fatty acids family and are polyunsaturated. The Durham study advocates using more EPA than DHA, however, my biochemistry lecturer at chiropractic college was always a fan of more DHA than EPA. EPA is made from DHA anyway. So when I look for my essential fatty acids supplement I like to see lots of DHA.
There is currently no recommended daily allowances (RDA’s) for omega-3 oils. So be cautious to not to take handfuls of supplements thinking more is better. However, like what I mentioned in the vitamin D and chronic lower back pain. Taking supplements can be toxic for your body, but eating lots of fish like Eskimos doesn’t give you a toxic omega-3 oil problem.
So if you are worried how much omega essential fatty acid oils to take maybe look at getting omega-3 oils from eating fish and not buying supplements instead.
Image Credit: Some rights reserved by jonrawlinsonFurther Reading:
- “The Inuit Paradox – How can people who gorge on fat and rarely see a vegetable be healthier than we are?” Discovery Magazine October 2004 issue by Patricia Gadsby
- Alexandra J. Richardson and Paul Montgomery The Oxford-Durham Study: A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Dietary Supplementation With Fatty Acids in Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder Pediatrics 2005 115: 1360-1366.
- “Essential fatty acids and eicosanoids” from The Third International Congress on Essential Fatty Acids and Eicosanoids, Adelaide, Australia, March, 1-5, 1992 By Andrew Sinclair, Robert Gibson, American Oil Chemists’ Society
- Do you Know Why Krill is your Best and Most Sustainable Source of Omega-3 Fat? by Dr Joe Mercola
