Why Athletes Need
Omega-3s
by: Jeff S. Volek,
Ph.D., R.D.
This article expands
on the many reasons why Omega-3s are beneficial to human health and especially
to athletes. In addition to improving heart health, Omega-3's decrease
inflammation so that athletes can have a faster recovery and less muscle
soreness and swelling. Omega-3's also increase insulin sensitivity which allows
quicker fat burning and less fat storage within the body, which maximizes
weight loss due to decreased blood triglycerides and increased high density
lipoprotein. These Omega-3's can be found in fish and fish oils and krill oil
has been researched to be the most effective form, although it is expensive so
fish oil softgels have become the most common way of consumption. Cod liver and
flaxseed oils also provide Omega-3s but research shows that it is best to take
these with an antioxidant because they are highly unsaturated and can be
degraded by reactive oxygen species. Therefore, there are many important
benefits to taking fish oils because the Omega-3s that they provide can enhance
athletes' performances.
The common ground between this article and mine was that the Omega-3 pills improve/augment the flow of blood as a benefit. Other articles focused on older people, but this one gives attention to young athletes. It shows that these fatty acids have a use for everyone. It's quite amazing. This article mentioned about DHA and EPA but never talked about actual testings done. Another article mentions that injections (pills in this one) had only been done on mice with DHA & EPA. It would be nice to have all these fatty acids allowed. I'm just confused if some of these are official already or not, but there seems to have no negative effects so far.
ReplyDeleteThese are great benefits - and probably the ones most relevant to you and your friends since many WCS students are athletes. Did it say if there were certain omega-3s that had more positive effects than other omega-3s?
ReplyDeleteAlso, can you please add a link to your article to this blog post?