Pregnant mothers may get advice from the doctor to partake of fish oil for their babies’ development. Many mothers buy their children fish oil in order to improve their learning. Some people take it under prescription for chronic health conditions such as allergies and hyperlipidemia. Others consume fish oil to combat high risks of heart disease and some just take it of their own free will after much research.

One of the important benefits of fish oil is that it reduces inflammation, which leads to physical degeneration. In this sense, fish oil promotes anti-aging and this is why many people consume it for beauty purposes.

However, many people are still suspicious of the efficiency of fish oil. Their questions include: Does it really work? What brand should be chosen? How much should be consumed?

First of all, let’s learn the different types of fish oil.

3.  Concentrated fish oil in Triglyceride form.  This is the ethyl ester form that is converted back to triglyceride form.  The problem with this form is that during the process of ‘reconversion’ the structure of the triglyceride form can vary so it is no longer a natural triglyceride and it’s bio-availability can be suspect.

Some fish oil sellers present an experiment by leaving fish oil from several brands in Styrofoam containers for a short time and seeing if the fish oil burns the containers. The sellers’ descriptions for this test vary: some claim that foam-melting fish oil is effective – it performs the function of clearing clogged blood vessels that lead to atherosclerosis and hypertension; and some say that foam-melting fish oil is poor quality oil that may harm the gastrointestinal tract.

The truth in this case is not the issue to which consumers like us should pay attention, as the experiment is not a scientific one that can definitively prove the quality of fish oil. It cannot explain how the fish oil reacts to the substances in Styrofoam and one cannot surmise that fish oil that melts foam causes any danger to the gastrointestinal tract. Also, the substances in the Styrofoam should not be compared to the gastrointestinal tract as they are not structured similarly to cells or tissues in the human body.

To prove the quality of fish oil, reliable scientific experiments must be performed; for example a clinical study carried out to show that fish oil decreases inflammation or significantly boosts the volunteers’ memory. The research results affirming that it helps improve your health significantly prove more satisfying than the foam-melting test.

Apart from trustworthy research results, you can use the following as a rough gauge for quality fish oil:

1. In which form is the fish oil? It should be in the easily-absorbed triglyceride form and contain enough important ingredients of Omega-3 fatty acids.

2. How pure is the source of fish? Fish with shorter lifespan collect fewer toxins than those with longer lifespan. How many toxins will large fish that eat other smaller organisms for their whole life contain? The smaller fish should have fewer chances to absorb toxins, compared to larger fish.

3. It would be ideal if a certificate is provided proving its freshness, so you will not get mercury, lead or PCB that may remain in the sea fish.

4. It does not irritate your stomach and you do not burp excessively after consumption.

- Fish oil has been proven to increase fat loss while maintaining lean muscle mass in humans. (ref From The American journal of Nutrition)

- Omega-3s  are clinically proven to promote cognitive brain function

- Omega-3s help avoid age related memory loss and absent mindedness

- Fish oil helps maintain your heart health and cardiovascular function

- According to Harvard study, higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in blood stream were shown to reduce heart related mortality by 37%

- According to The Ohio State University, college of medicine, Supplementing with EPA and DHA Omega-3 fatty acid slows the rate of telomere shorting.