What Is The Link Between Fish Oil And Diabetes?
Diabetes is on the increase in the US, and every year somewhere around a million people are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. It isn’t usually fatal, but can be and can have serious impacts on the lives of sufferers. Is there any fish oil and diabetes link? Or can fish oil help reduce the impact of diabetes?
Scientists are worried about the rate of diabetes in our society. There are also enormous costs imposed on sufferers as well as the impact on their families and on the health system. So what can be done to reduce the impact of this explosion on diabetes rates?
Certainly there are a range of lifestyle factors which can help with the reduction in diabetes, such as dietary changes, levels of exercise and losing weight. However I normally analyse the benefits of Omega 3 fats, so today I want to look at Omega 3 and diabetes.
There is now little doubt that there is clear evidence supporting the link between fish oil and diabetes relief. Fish oil is of course the major source of Omega 3 fatty acids, and almost all good Omega 3 supplements utilize fish oil for their Omega 3. The main fats that are of benefit to diabetes are known as EPA and DHA. We have written about these elsewhere on this site.
Type 2 diabetes is a disease that results in insulin in the blood being unable to sufficiently deal with sugar in the blood, resulting in excess levels of sugar.
Not only is the insulin unable to deal with the sugar but it is also less able to deal with the uptake of fats in the blood into the cells, so the levels of bad fats in the blood rise too. HDL, (good cholesterol) goes down and triglycerides go up, and the result is that the figures for heart disease amongst diabetics is scary. Risk of heart attack is 6 times normal, and the risk of heart disease is up to 8 times higher.
So is there a link between fish oil and diabetes risk reduction? It seems so. Scientists are now finding that increasing omega 3 fish oil and diabetes relief are linked. That taking fish oil lowers the risks associated with diabetes.
Why is there a fish oil supplements and diabetes link? Because fish oil is a polyunsaturated fatty acid, and studies have shown that polyunsaturated Omega 3 fats reduce the amount of triglycerides in the blood, reduce abnormal heart rhythms, reduce blood pressure by small but significant amounts, and improve blood clotting regulation.
One large study studying the fish oil diabetes link found that one gram of fish oil a day reduced deaths from cardiovascular events by up to 30% and reduced the risks of death by heart attack by up to 45%. That’s pretty impressive.
A number of studies have now confirmed that diabetes and fish oil intake are linked, that more omega 3 in the diet helps reduce the negative effects of type 2 diabetes.
How should you be getting your fish oil? Well of course eating fish high in fat is a good way, the American Heart Association recommends eating 2 fish meals a week, but there are also warnings for certain people of eating too much fish due to the incidence of some heavy metals and in particular contaminants like mercury in fish.
The best way to get the right levels of Omega 3 fats in your diet is by fish oil capsules. The very best ones use fish from the cleanest ocean in the world, the southern ocean, and also use fish that are the highest in DHA, so their Omega 3 supplements are extremely high in DHA. And they don’t have any contamination, firstly because the fish are pretty clean to begin with, and secondly because they undergo a process known as molecular distillation that renders them so clean that contaminants are undetectable.
So clearly there is good evidence that if you suffer from type 2 diabetes there are reasons to take Omega 3 fish oil supplements daily. You lower your risks from the diabetes, including lowering your risk of sudden death.
Head over to my website to find out which Omega 3 supplements are the best fish oil supplements.















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