8 replies to this topic

[rvdvaart]

Seems like contradictory evidence:

http://www.dailymail...o=feeds-newsxml

Fallacy of fish oil revealed as study finds supplements DON'T boost children's brain power

Parents who buy fish oil tablets to boost their children’s brain power are wasting their money, the largest study of its kind suggests.
An analysis of primary school pupils found that reading, spelling and handwriting were not improved by taking omega-3 ‘clever capsules’.
It contradicts a raft of other research which has credited the pills and powders with boosting mental ability and exam grades.

[Ghostrider]

Seems like contradictory evidence:

http://www.dailymail...o=feeds-newsxml

Fallacy of fish oil revealed as study finds supplements DON'T boost children's brain power

Parents who buy fish oil tablets to boost their children's brain power are wasting their money, the largest study of its kind suggests.
An analysis of primary school pupils found that reading, spelling and handwriting were not improved by taking omega-3 'clever capsules'.
It contradicts a raft of other research which has credited the pills and powders with boosting mental ability and exam grades.

Every single study is confusing cause with correlation. If a parent is investing in supplements for their children's health, then they obviously care about their child's health. There will be other things they are doing to help the child as well and one of those effects, probably just giving the child attention, will give that child an advantage.

[recitative]

This experiment was for only four months. My understanding is that fish oil is much more of a long term supplement.

[nameless]

Here is the same study mentioned, in a different article.

http://www.ukwiredne...of-Amanda-Kirby

Notice the difference in tone:

The head of a study into whether omega-3 supplements improve "mainstream" children's learning and behaviour says more research is needed to determine their effectiveness.

"What we found is that things like reading and spelling and co-ordination didn't really improve.

"We did find that teacher scores on attention did improve in the active group."

"We wouldn't expect to see dramatic changes [in behaviour and learning] because the children didn't have a disorder," said Prof Kirby.

"The fact we saw some some changes in the behaviour and learning of the children is significant and we need to understand more.

"The fact we can alter [fatty acid] levels with supplements is also significant."

----

So they found that fish oil did improve attention span, which basically backs up other ADD studies using fish oil. And 4 months of supplementation didn't improve reading and spelling, but based on the lead researcher, they didn't expect it to from the start, seeing as the children had no disorders. And 4 months isn't an especially long time anyway, as noted by the poster above.

Edited by nameless, 12 May 2010 - 06:00 PM.

[chrono]

My impression about fish oil is that you should be taking it for supporting the general health of your brain (among other things), not expecting a direct enhancement of specific cognitive functions over a relatively short period of time. Seems a little silly to either market or study it in that way...

[Imagination]

I get heart palpatations from taking fish oil.

[Guacamolium]

DHA/EPA work WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY slower than that. They should be regarded as the "ion exchange whey protein" of brain cells, IMO. That study is just missing length and knowledge.

[rvdvaart]

DHA/EPA work WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY slower than that. They should be regarded as the "ion exchange whey protein" of brain cells, IMO. That study is just missing length and knowledge.

Can you elaborate on this. Are you saying fish oil does boost brain power?

[chrono]

DHA/EPA work WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY slower than that. They should be regarded as the "ion exchange whey protein" of brain cells, IMO. That study is just missing length and knowledge.

Can you elaborate on this. Are you saying fish oil does boost brain power?

"Boost brain power" is kind of a silly phrase. Ingesting the correct levels of any number of nutrients or substances essential for brain function could be said to do this, though they won't give you powers like Magneto Searching the forum would yield some answers about what might be reasonable expectations, as would searching pubmed for a combination of fish oil substances and cognition/learning/memory/attention.

Edited by chrono, 15 May 2010 - 01:00 PM.