This segment speaks to incredible healing power of using food as medicine to literally make or break a person's experience of life for the rest of their life. Learn how to use fish oil to dramatically reduce swelling in the brain and to repair and heal the brain. If you know someone who has had a brain injury, brain tumor, a stroke, concussion, or a virus like meningitis or encephalitis, please share this with them.
This Food As Medicine topic is going to reveal some of the incredible healing properties of fish oil. First, I want to talk about Grant Virgin who was actually in a coma and came out of it because of fish oil. It’s an incredible story.
Grant Virgin was in a very serious hit and run car accident, was airlifted and went through multiple surgeries and ended up in a coma. The doctors told his mom, J.J. Virgin, who is very big into health and wellness, to let him go. As a parent can you imagine someone telling you that? JJ believed that there had to be something they could do so all of her health and wellness family rallied around her and brought all of their knowledge and research together to put a plan in place to help Grant. They started giving him 20 grams of high quality fish oil through his feeding tube and within two days he was able to call his mom and a year later he is living a normal life.
This is such a great example of the healing power of fish oil. Have you heard of Dr. Barry Sears? He's a very popular integrative medical doctor and he's done a lot of research on brain health. Fatty acids make up 30 percent of our brain. So, if you're in a coma and you have brain swelling (this goes for strokes, M.S., any kind of brain injury and even altitude sickness) you need these omega-3 fatty acids. In 2006 after a terrible mining accident, Dr. Sears helped one of the miners (all of which had brain damage) make a full recovery by utilizing therapeutic fish oil. That miner was the one person who survived and could walk and talk. It is incredible!
So how does fish oil help swelling?
If you bump your knee and it swells, that is inflammation, it's the body's reaction to injury. If that happens in the brain that could be fatal or that could be long lasting where you could never speak again. Because of all the high-powered anti-inflammatory compounds in fish oil and because your brain is made of fatty acids if it's damaged and you give it fatty acids, it can start to regenerate. So the swelling starts to shrink considerably, but then also regeneration can happen so the neurochemical messengers can communicate.
So how much fish oil should I take and how frequently?
On a regular basis I would suggest 1000mg a day. It’s important to look for fish oil that's darker in color because the ones that look very pale yellow, had a lot of toxicity and metals in the fish so that means they've distilled out all the metals and so that you come up with this lighter yellow color, but you want to find fish oil that doesn't have any toxicity occurring so you don't have to purify it and then you get all the antioxidants as well and you have to take less.
In today's world, we're not getting enough high-quality omega-3 fatty acids. It wards off depression, which people have in high amounts. It helps our digestive system function better. And it helps with regulating cholesterol and minimizes full body inflammation, which so many people are dealing with on a regular basis.
Here are a few brands that I recommend:
Pure Encapsulations O.N.E. Omega
Nordic Natural Arctic Cod Live Oil
What about pregnant or nursing women?
If you are taking a high quality fish oil without toxicity and heavy metals then you are safe.
Let’s talk a little bit about other ways you can protect the brain and your central nervous system. I suggest everybody put Ceylon cinnamon in their coffee, in their smoothies and however you can get it. In a study done with stroke victims where oxygen was cut off to the brain from the stroke the victims brains were starving and they were losing brain cells very, very quickly. With the control group they were watching this decline in brain cells and then with the experiment group they added cinnamon to it and they had a 40 percent slower decline in brain cells.
This is incredible information!
Garlic is great if you have a sinus infection, meningitis or encephalitis. Eat as much as you can stand. Walnuts are also very high in omega-3 fatty acids. A handful every few days is great for your brain.
Good quality oils are also fantastic for your health and brain. Avocado oil is great to cook with because it has a high smoke point than olive oil so save your olive oil for dressings instead and you’ll be much healthier.
