Hook, Line & Thinker: How Eating Fish Helps Protect Your Brain

I like seafood. Quite often when I go out to dinner somewhere nice with my wife, I will order the fish and she will order the steak. Then, inevitably, when the food runner delivers the food, he or she will give me the steak and my wife the fish. I’m not sure why fish is inherently a woman’s meal and steak a man’s but it’s OK, I’m not offended. I love the restaurants in Stone Harbor, but I think we could use some more seafood. We are, after all, on the ocean.

There are a lot of benefits to eating fish. Omega-3s are fatty acids abundant in fish and have many benefits for the human body. Every cell in the human body has a lipid (fatty acid) membrane. Ideally 8-11% of those fats in your membranes are omega-3s. Research has formed that range based on improving cardiovascular and neurometabolic health. I supplement with omega-3s year-round.

I don’t eat as much fish in my regular diet as I would like. I can prepare a nice salmon or grill some tuna or swordfish steaks, but beyond that my culinary expertise in seafood is limited. One benefit of omega-3s that I just recently learned is that elevated levels can help mitigate damage from concussion or mild traumatic brain injury.

There are a lot of kids out there playing contact sports. There are an estimated 1.6 to 3.8 million concussions annually in youth sports. That number has such a large range because most aren’t even reported. Girls are twice as likely to suffer concussions as boys of the same age. Youth athletes are more likely to suffer a concussion than collegiate or professional athletes.

Even head trauma that is not severe enough to be classified as a concussion can cause long-term damage. Across the NCAA, it appears the average athlete lands well below the optimal range for omega-3s. A study that recently tested 404 college football players found 0% landed in the optimal 8-11% range of the omega-3 index. The more intense and energy-demanding a season is, the more the omega-3 index decreases over the season.

In research published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (June 2016), author Jonathan M. Oliver conducted the first large-scale study examining potential prophylactic use of DHA (an omega-3) in American football athletes, include identification of optimal dose of DHA, suggesting a neuroprotective effect of DHA supplementation.

Your brain is mostly fat; 10-20% of that fat is omega-3, 97% of those omega-3 fatty acids is DHA. He dosed NFL players with different amounts of DHA throughout a season and at intervals tested biomarkers associated with concussion. Basically, the study found that having omega-3 levels at a certain level before injury can reduce damage from concussion. It can also set the brain up for more efficient healing post-concussion.

In animal studies of concussion, we see DHA levels decrease after injury. Animals who were “deplete” (~70%) in DHA had more protein breakdown, cell death, slower motor-control recovery, more anxiety, and cognitive deficits than the animals “replete” in DHA. Unfortunately, most of the data we have on brain injury is from animal studies. Apparently, it’s unethical to concuss people in the name of science.

Aside from mitigating concussion risk, omega-3s have many other far-reaching positive effects for sports performance. Fish oil has been proven to reduce muscle soreness, reduce muscle breakdown and inflammation, provide better motor control and better reaction times, as well as better membrane stability. There are tests you can purchase online that will determine if you are in optimal range for omega-3s if you’d like to get that serious about it. If not, if you or your kids participate in contact sports, I would think about supplementing anyway. It’s pretty hard to overdose on fish oil. There may be some contraindications such as blood thinners. Consult your doctor. If not supplementing, at least go eat some fish at one of the many great restaurants on Seven Mile Beach. There may not be a plethora of “seafood restaurants,” but a vast majority have some seafood on the menu.

I don’t care what the food runner thinks, real men eat fish. My only question: Can fish get concussions? I’m pretty sure their cell membranes are 100% fish oil.