New Findings on Fish Oil's Big Benefits

We’ve seen over recent years increased attention to fish oil as a beneficial dietary component for its apparent disease fighting power. A new medical study, announced in an article at PhysOrg and currently published in the journal Nature, uncovers how the body converts the substance into one particular and potentially powerful compound that already begs for further exploration.

A team of American and British doctors, exploring the incorporation of fish oil into treatment for arthritis, found that when the body processes fish oil, a compound called Resolvin D2 is created. The research team subsequently isolated this compound, targeting its precise chemical composition, once it became apparent that this metabolic byproduct possesses remarkable anti-inflammatory properties.

Inflammation is explained as the injury or distress that our body’s tissues exhibit when our immune system targets healthy tissue instead of just the unwelcome agents of illness. Inflammation is at the root of arthritis, as well as a host of other diseases including cardiovascular conditions.

What is particularly compelling about Resolvin D2, the research team found, is that even in small doses it is a powerful and effective anti-inflammatory agent, but unlike most currently prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs, it does not suppress the body’s immune system.

The possible isolation of the compound that battles inflammation while keeping our beneficial and necessary immune system chugging along nicely may have major implications for the development of treatments for a full range of ailments that have inflammation at their root.

Photo courtesy of D'Arcy Norman, via Flickr