Brain Health and Fish Oils
Our brain is the most complex organ of the human body, it is made of different types of cells but the primary functional unit is a cell called the neuron. All our body’s feelings, thoughts, behaviours, habits, memory, movements, and actions are controlled by our nervous system originating from our brain – the command centre. Everything from walking, speaking, digesting, breathing, temperature control, our motor skills, hunger sensations and more are controlled by our brain.
At birth, we arrive with an estimated 100 billion neurons, many of which await connection to other neurons via fibres called axons that allow impulses to be sent from one neuron to another to form a neural pathway. Synapses are spaces between two neurons that enable a chemical or electrical signal to be sent and received. A baby has much fewer synapses at birth, they are formed as they grow and learn which allows for trillions of neural connections.
Our patterns of behaviour, habits, walking, balancing, talking etc have developed from neural pathway development. The more we use these pathways the stronger they get, for instance, you don’t have to think about how to pick up your knife and fork and transport the food from your plate into your mouth, we do this automatically as our neuronal pathways signal the body movement to follow this task with ease.
Neuroplasticity
Our brain eliminates neural connections that are seldom used by a process known as synaptic pruning, this is a natural process that occurs in early childhood and adulthood to allow for more efficient brain function and to learn new more complex information.
It was once believed that the adult brain is hardwired and not capable of growing new neurons. Recent research has shown that the adult brain is in fact, able to create new neurons in the region of the brain called the hippocampus by a process called neurogenesis even into our advancing years, and therefore can support our older brain and its cognitive function well into old age.
We now understand that the brain is also modifiable and that it can create new neural connections and pathways, a term which is called neuroplasticity which, they once believed did not continue after early childhood. The old expression that “you cannot teach an old dog new tricks” is not true in this sense.
Neuroplasticity is defined as the brain’s ability to change, remodel and reorganise itself through the process of forming new neural connections throughout life. This makes our brain much more resilient and allows the brain to heal from injury/trauma as well as learn new skills in life, even in our older years such as learning a new language, playing an instrument, learning to play golf etc, the term “use it or lose it” springs to mind here!!
Fish Oils
We need to look after our brain health as much as we do the rest of the body, lifestyle factors are key to maintaining our magnificent brain’s ability to carry out these functions to help reduce the rate of cognitive decline in our advancing years. Ageing is known to lower the rate of hippocampal neurogenesis, whilst exercise has been shown to enhance the maturation of new neurons[i]
Many nutrients are known to support brain health in particular omega-3 fatty acids as research has shown that they can upregulate adult neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. Omega-3 fatty acids are the essential fats we need to bring in from our foods as the body cannot naturally produce them, they are crucial for our brain function and the development of new neurons. They are a family of polyunsaturated fats made up of Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), commonly found in fish oils.
The hippocampus represents one area of our brain in which adult neurogenesis occurs, exposure to omega-3 fatty acids has been shown to enhance adult neurogenesis associated with cognitive and behavioural processes as well as promoting synaptic plasticity.[ii]
EPA and DHA come from various sources, with fish and seafood offering the highest levels, we can also take them in supplement form from pure sources such as marine fish oil as well as from highly bioavailable and sustainable natural krill oil.
Fish, like humans, do not naturally produce EPA and DHA, they instead obtain them from ingesting the algae. Many of my vegan clients say they want to cut out the middle man – in this case, the fish, and obtain their EPA and DHA from algae sources.
EPA and DHA can also be made from ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) so eating plant foods such as chia, flax, walnuts and other good sources of ALA can help us produce healthy levels. It must be noted though that these conversions require enzymic pathways for their conversion to EPA and DHA which are dependent on nutrients such as zinc, B6 etc so our overall nutrient status is very important.
[i] Yang TT, Lo CP, Tsai PS, Wu SY, Wang TF, Chen YW, Jiang-Shieh YF, Kuo YM. Aging and Exercise Affect Hippocampal Neurogenesis via Different Mechanisms. PLoS One. 2015 Jul 6;10(7):e0132152. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0132152. PMID: 26147302; PMCID: PMC4493040.
[ii] Crupi R, Marino A, Cuzzocrea S. n-3 fatty acids: role in neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. Curr Med Chem. 2013;20(24):2953-63. doi: 10.2174/09298673113209990140. PMID: 23746276.
