Fish oil supplements made headline news on 2 fronts this month.  The largest clinical trial ever undertaken to test the efficacy of fish oil for the treatment of depression revealed some very promising and happy results.  For study subjects with unipolar depression (depression without an anxiety disorder), the fish oil supplement relieved depression on par with conventional antidepressant medications.  The dose of fish oil used in the study provided 1050 mg of EPA and 150 mg of DHA each day for 8 weeks.  (Journal of Clinical Psychiatry [Online], June 15, 2010).  (For more on this topic, check out my Brain Health Grocery List)

In the second report, investigators evaluated the potential benefit of 15 different “specialty” supplements on breast cancer risk in 35,000 post-menopausal women.  Fish oil was the only one that showed a benefit.  Women in this evaluation that took fish oil supplements were 32% less likely to develop the most common type of breast cancer. (Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, July 2010)

For my advice on the use of fish oil supplements for health click here.