Want Muscle? Take Fish Oil.

For years, I’ve been spouting off like a ‘broken record’ about the benefits of working out and taking fish oil. You can imagine how pleased I was when I read the latest clinical study on the same subject. You may have also heard there are many beneficial effects of taking fish oil, such as its anti-inflammatory, cardio-protective and obesity benefits, just to name a few, but mainly I’m concerned with its muscle-building effects.

In addition, the muscle protein concentration and the muscle cell size were both greater after supplementation in the recent test group consisting of nine 25-45 year old healthy subjects.

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Are Essential Nutrients
Polyunsaturated fatty acids are essential nutrients with tons of potential health benefits to you. The general consensus appears to be that is has anti-inflammatory properties and reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, there is good evidence from studies in animals that fish oil improves the sensitivity of whole body and muscle glucose metabolism to insulin.

Abstract. http://www.clinsci.org/cs/121/cs1210267.htm

“…Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (fish oil) augment the muscle protein anabolic response to hyperaminoacidemia-hyperinsulinemia in healthy young and middle aged men and women.” Clin. Sci. (Lond) 2011 Apr 19. Smith GI, Altheron P, Reeds DN, Mohammed BS, Rankin D, Rennie MJ, Mittendorfer B.

Increased dietary long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake stimulates muscle protein anabolism in individuals who experience muscle loss due to again or aging or cancer cachexia. (Cachexia is the physical wasting with loss of weight and muscle mass caused by disease, such as cancer, AIDS and some other major chronic progressive diseases.

There is also evidence for a muscle anabolic effect of LCn-3PUFA. For example, lower dose supplementation alone or in combination with amino acid supplementation, has been reported to help maintain whole-body protein synthesis, whole-body protein net balance, and muscle mass in burned rats and tumour bearing mice. The study also demonstrated that supplementation in older adults (65+)