Fish oil, polyphenols, and physical performance

Abstract

Due to dietary changes since 1900, including reduced intakes of oily fish and the commoditisation of plant oils, Omega 6/3 ratios rose consistently from around 1-2:1 and now the average is 15:1 in the United Kingdom and 25:1 in the United States of America. These abnormally high ratios create an increased tendency towards chronic inflammation and provide a significant cause of chronic degenerative diseases. As chronic inflammation involving skeletal muscle and articular tissues hampers sporting and athletic performance, we identified a Norwegian professional team of football players, which had a significant absenteeism rate due to infection and injury, as a candidate for a pharmaconutritional program designed to reduce the 6:3 ratio. We hypothesised that such a change would reduce players’ burden of chronic inflammation and contribute to various types of performance enhancement. Initially, we tested the blood of all players in Lillestrøm Sports Club (LSK) and found that their average Omega 6:3 ratio was 12.5:1. Then we implemented a dietary program, which included an Omega-3 / lipophile polyphenol blend and which was continued over a 6-month period. This duration was necessary as it was already known that changes in cell membrane lipid populations would take at least 3 months to achieve, due to the slow rate of turnover of the phosphatidyl phospholipid components in cell membranes. By the end of the intervention period, we were able to reduce their average Omega 6/3 ratios from 12.5 to 3.5. Rates of absenteeism, due to infection and injury, were reduced by 85 and 57% respectively, contributing to improved performance, morale, and position in the league. The Omega 3 / lipophile polyphenol pharmaconutritional intervention provided an extremely cost-effective way of optimising individual and particularly team performance leading to expressions of interest from many other clubs both in Norway and abroad and from the representatives of many other team sports. This initial study has inherent limitations as it was an open design without a control group and as such was vulnerable to the placebo and Hawthorne effects. It may be argued that the duration of the study is long enough to minimise such effects but, from a purist perspective, those potential confounders cannot be excluded. Accordingly, we are planning to follow up this initial study with more rigorously designed trial utilising placebo control and longer duration, possibly, as long as 12 months. We hope to be able to report on this trial in Q1 2017.