More Omega 3 fats can benefit your eye health in several ways.

There is a steadily growing list of studies attesting to the health benefits of increasing the amount of Omega 3 essential fatty acids in your diet. A whole range of health conditions, it seems, may well be amenable to a little more of the essential fatty acids DHA and EPA in your diet.

The Omega 3 essential fatty acids are found most commonly in fish, and a good way to increase your intake of the Omega 3 fats is to increase your intake of fish, or as is now more common, through taking quality fish oil supplements.

It is quite clear now that increasing your intake of the Omega 3 fats reduces your risk of death, because it reduces your risk of heart attack which can cause death.

Less commonly understood is that the Omega 3 fats DHA and EPA are prevalent in your eyes.

It is now becoming apparent that babies and infants should be getting plenty of the essential fatty acids in their diet to help improve the development of their visual accuity.

And it is also clear from a number of studies that more Omega 3 can help people at the other end of life.

There is an eye condition called macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is characterised by a slow degeneration of vision, and can ultimately lead to total blindness.

In fact macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in elderly people. Fortunately it now seems, as a result of a number of studies, that the progression and onset of macular degeneration can be slowed by a diet high in Omega 3 fats.

And it now seems that there are other eye diseases which can also be beneficially impacted by getting more Omega 3 fats in your diet. One of these is a condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa.

This is a hereditary condition which, it is estimated, affects somewhere around one in 4000 people. Often it’s affects are discovered early in life, and can affect the sufferer throughout their life leading to tunnel vision and worse, including blindness.

Currently there is no known cure for Retinitis Pigmentosa. However there is encouraging evidence about the impact that increasing your intake of Omega 3 may have on slowing the gradual progression of the disease.

Studies are showing that, when used in conjunction with vitamin A, more Omega 3 in the diet may reduce the rate at which eye deterioration is observed.

As there is no cure for the disease this is good news, firstly because anything which slows the progression of the disease has to be good, as well as because there is always the likelihood of a cure being discovered, and if one is discovered it’s better for sufferers if they are less progressed along the path to visual deterioration.

Whether or not you suffer from Retinitis Pigmentosa there are powerful health reasons for increasing the amount of Omega 3 fatty acids in your diet. It is commonly accepted amongst health professionals that more Omega 3 fats are very good for your heart, veins and much more, and a reduction in the risk of dying from a heart attack has to be good for anyone.

Sometimes it can be a little problematical getting more Omega 3 in the diet. Sources which were higher in Omega3 in the past, such as beef and eggs, are now not so high in Omega 3 because of modern farming practices, and in particular because of the low Omega3 foods now commonly eaten by our livestock.

And whilst fish are an excellent source of Omega 3 fish are becoming extremely expensive, and many of them are now contaminated with various industrial chemicals leading to warnings by our government about how much we eat.

The most common way to get more Omega 3 in your diet is by taking high quality Omega3 supplements, though not all Omega 3 supplements on the market are high quality.

There’s a host of reasons why you should be increasing your intake of DHA and EPA, the essential fatty acids known as the Omega 3 fats. That’s independent of whether you have Retinitis Pigmentosa or not.

Ageing and memory loss seem to go together

You get older, your memory gets worse. Just about everyone notices it. But do aging and memory loss really have to go together? Is memory loss inevitable as you age?

However aging and memory loss needn’t necessarily go together. I know someone who is over 100 years old who has cognitive faculties and a memory as sharp as a tack.

Memory loss with age is probably genetically determined. However there are lots of conditions which are genetically determined which are also dramatically affected by other factors. It seems from recent research that memory loss may be one of these.

A recent study discussed recently at the American Academy of Neurology’s Honolulu meeting considered research done at the University of California in San Francisco.

The research was designed to investigate how inflammation in the brain could impact on the onset of age-related memory loss.

Inflammation just means swelling, and inflammation is at the root of so many health conditions that affect so many of us, particularly lifestyle conditions. And as science moves forward more and more researchers are beginning to link inflammation with more and more health complaints.

A clinical professor of neuropsychology from the University of California found in a study that older people with higher levels of inflammation were found to have poorer levels of memory.

The study examined a group of older people with an average age of over 70, and these people were tested for inflammation in the brain as well as their ability to remember a range of words.

The results demonstrated that those who had more inflammation in the brain also exhibited a lower level of memory.

What does all this have to do with fish you may ask? The oil found in fish contains the Omega 3 essential fatty acids. The Omega 3 fats, particularly DHA and EPA, the most important of the Omega 3 fats, are extremely effective anti-inflammatories.

And research is showing that it is this anti-inflammatory effect, amongst others, that makes the Omega 3 fats so essential to the correct operation of our body. The Omega3 fats are more effective as anti-inflammatories than some anti-inflammatory drugs.

And here’s the rub. The only way to get more Omega 3 fats in your body is to get more in your diet, because the only way they get in your body is through what you eat. If you don’t eat foods with enough essential fatty acids in them you won’t be getting enough, there is no other way.

Fish is by far the best known source of the Omega3 fats, but unfortunately fish is expensive and, as is being more and more understood, also contaminated to a degree by industrial toxins.

If you eat more fish you will increase your intake of the essential fatty acids. Changes in our dietary habits over the last century have resulted in a significant decline in the amount of fish in our diet, and there is clear evidence that virtually all of us are now deficient in the Omega3 fats.

The best fish is oily fish. Even better is to take quality Omega 3 supplements, the best of which are quite free from contamination and are much more cost effective to take daily.

There is no guarantee that if you increase your intake of the essential fatty acids you’ll have a perfect memory right up to the age of 100. Like all these things there are other contributing factors. However it seems clear that there are so many other health benefits from increasing your intake of the Omega 3 fatty acids that you should be doing so regardless, for your general health.

One of the most important things about staying healthy is to be proactive. Eat a better diet, exercise more, don’t smoke and so on. You know what you should be doing.

One to add to the list, that is simple, not that expensive and effort free, is taking Omega 3 supplements every day, and eating more fish.

You just have to remember.