Depression and EPA fish oil. Does it really work?

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Title: Depression and EPA fish oil. Does it really work?

Word Count: 554

Author: McEvoy

Email: davemcevoy2004@...

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Depression and EPA fish oil. Does it really work?

Copyright 2005 McEvoy

It is now no secret that people all over the western world

are turning to high grade ethyl EPA omega 3 fish oil to

treat a number of conditions, but can it really work

against a problem that knows no boundaries of age, race or

gender. It is a condition that affects millions of people

at some time in there lives, it’s called depression.

Depression

So can high grade ethyl EPA fish oil help with depression

and low moods, lets take a look at the evidence. In one

study involving 20 people with recurrent depression,

researchers studied the effects of the specific omega 3

fatty acid known as pure EPA.

Patients involved in this study randomly received either

the ethyl EPA fish oil capsule or a sugar pill in addition

to the anti depressant medication they were taking. After

only four weeks, six out of ten patients receiving EPA had

significantly reduced symptoms of depression.

The leading researcher in this study Boris Nements said “

the effect of the fatty acid EPA was significant from week

two of treatment” he also noted that “ the symptoms of

depressed mood, guilt feelings, worthlessness and insomnia

had all improved by week three.”

This particular study was carried out at the University of

the Negev in Israel and was published in the American

journal of psychiatry 2002.

Another very high profile study using the essential fatty

acid pure EPA was carried out in Scotland by doctors Peet

and horribin. This study involved seventy patients who were

suffering from depression that was persisting despite

ongoing treatment with standard antidepressant drugs.

The study lasted twelve weeks, and the background anti

depressant drugs the patients were receiving was not

altered during the trial. The results showed that the

patients taking EPA showed significant improvement after

only four weeks in all symptoms of depression, when

compared to the group who were administered a dummy pill.

This study was published in the Archives of general

Psychiatry.

Pure Ethyl EPA

Omega 3 fish oil is high in two key compounds DHA and EPA.

In both studies mentioned above they used ultra pure ethyl

EPA that contained zero DHA. The reason for this was that

they found that the purer the compound of EPA then the more

effective it seemed to be.

The brain has much more DHA than EPA but the studies found

that EPA is much more important when it comes to responses

to nerve stimulation. It appeared that the DHA maybe more

important for structure and the EPA for function.

Blood samples taken from people in the USA, Europe,

Australia and Japan showed that depressed people have

especially low levels of EPA, when compared to blood

samples of people who were not suffering from low moods or

depression.

The lead researches from the study in Scotland both

concluded that EPA is the most important essential fatty

acid in the treatment of depression.

These findings are backed up with two randomised controlled

trials from Sheffield and Baylor universities involving DHA

only, which showed no improvements in the symptoms of

depression. In fact the results were significant and showed

the DHA controlled groups to be slightly worse than the

placebo controlled groups.

Conclusion

People all over the western world are successfully using

pure ethyl EPA without the DHA to treat depression and

related disorders.

About the Author:

The Author

Dave mcevoy: A great resource for high grade omega 3 Ethly

EPA fish oil in a vegetable shell with a 90% concentrate of

EPA and Zero DHA visit http://www.mind1st.co.uk