Omega 3 fatty acids and their correlation to mental health - Essay Example

The media and fad dieticians have promoted diets that are low in fat. While there is a basis for reducing our intake of fat, the elimination of the essential omega-3 fatty acids may be responsible for the increasing rates of mental illness in the United States. A primary source for the omega-3 fatty acids is from cold water fish. Researchers have been aware that countries with a high percentage of seafood in their diet were less prone to having numerous mental disorders. Noaghiul & Hibbeln (2003) reported that countries with a diet high in seafood consumption such as Iceland and Korea, had far lower rates of bipolar I disorder, bipolar II, bipolar spectrum, and schizophrenia (p.2224). The study found that Germans, who consumed approximately 25 pounds of seafood per year per person, had a prevalence rate for bipolar spectrum disorder that was over 30 times greater that the population of Iceland where the average seafood consumption is almost 10 times that of the Germans (Noaghiul & Hibbeln, 2003, p.2223-2224).

Intermediate countries such as the United States, Korea, and Puerto Rico all showed a strong correlation between the amount of seafood consumed and a lower rate of these major mental illnesses (Noaghiul & Hibbeln, 2003, p.2224). Though they could not demonstrate the activity and causal relationship of omega-3, Noaghiul and Hibbeln (2003) concluded that the studies findings were, "…consistent with the hypothesis that an insufficient dietary intake of omega-3 essential fatty acids increases the risk of affective disorders" (p.2225). Increasing the consumption of seafood may help to prevent some forms of mental disorders.

Some of the predisposition to the affective disorders may be treatable by increasing the intake of the omega-3 essential fatty acids. Andrew Stoll, director of the pharmacology research laboratory at Harvard