It’s week three of my omega-3 study (first 4 weeks is cleansing, 8 weeks on fish oil, flax oil, or a placebo). For the duration, no fish, no flax, no walnuts, and limited soy.

My fiance and I having been working through our food, eating all the stuff that has piled up over the year. Yesterday, I opened up the freezer…pretty much all we have left is some frozen green beans, fish sticks, and some tilapia. Fun for me. On the plus side, we have plenty of walnuts…oh wait.

Later on, I walked by Sushi Rock…not the greatest sushi in the world, but boy did it look good today. Saw someome slowly popping a Tuna Roll w/tobiko…I’m a sucker for tobiko. Pained me.

It had me wonder…I’m struggling to avoid omega-3s 3 weeks in…how the heck do they get 150 people to do this without failure? I’m asking on my next visit. I have to imagine they account for “cheating” somehow in the statistical analysis. The holes in the study being to emerge….

Until next week…I’m off to stare at those year old fishsticks.

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This week I started a 12 week trial on the efficacy of omega-3s in lowering inflammation. The trial is being run by Dr. Christopher Gardner, our speaker for the July science cafe. Over the next 12 weeks, I’ll be detailing my experience so you’ll be able to put a human face to all these food studies. I’ll be posting weekly notes, hopefully without too much complaining.

And for those who are curious, I am getting no compensation for this study (other than access to my detailed bloodwork).

Background on the study:
Chief reason behind the study is heart disease. We’re used to the bad cholesterol to heart disease relation (LDL), but in recent years that view has changed slightly. Most experts think inflammation (moderate long term inflammation) has a significant role in heart disease (atherosclerosis) as well.

Well where does inflammation come from? It’s not from bumping your knee….its a long term situation. The symptoms are varied but most will sound familiar: high LDL, elevated triglycerides, high blood pressure, etc. Sources are poor diet, smoking, genetics, smoking, poor environmental health conditions, smoking.

Fast forward to Omega-3s. There are two different omega-3s in a typical diet: linolenic acid (found in flax, walnuts, soy) & EPA/DHA (found in fish). Through a complex (and not totally understood series of reactions), the omega-3s mimic hormones…the result reduces inflammation, coagulation, and they don’t trigger immune response…all very good things when considering heart disease.

/End Background

On my initial screen, I came out with slightly elevated triglycerides, an indicator of some oxidative stress. Woo hoo…my stress may be the study’s gain. So I went to an hour long informational session. For the next 12 weeks, I will have to take pills at lunch and dinner (up to 12/day!) with either Fish Oil (EPA/DHA), Flax (linolenic acid), or a placebo (safflower oil). In addition, I can’t have any fish (shellfish included), flax, and reduce my intake of soy & walnuts. 12 WEEKS!

Day 1 was Tuesday. Went in for a quick blood draw, 20 ccs (BTW A normal blood draw is about 200ccs). Of course, nurse missed my vein, so I have a nice bruise to show for it. But another nurse came over and cleaned up the mess and I was on my way. I’m in the “clean out” phase, a 4 week period before I start to take pills. So far it hasn’t been too tough, but I’ll be aching for sushi soon I’m sure.

On Science Friday this past week, Holly Ingraham of UCSF was interviewed on her new study of atrazine’s impact on human placental cells. This builds on our conversation with atrazine, starting from March’s discussion on atrazine in frogs. In the study, they showed atrazine (& its metabolized products) increased activity of a gene that results in abnormal baby weight. Also they found amplification of a gene that is highly active in infertile women (no direct association yet).

Science Friday interview with Holly Ingraham

Holly also studied atrazine impacts on zebrafish, a widely used animal in developmental studies. She observed some genetic changes at doses as low as 2 part per billion (EPA’s drinking water limit is 3 ppb). In terms of human effects, she started to see genetic changes at 200 ppb (syngenta called these levels environmentally irrelevant). The chief effect in humans was changing hormone signaling mechanisms, which is fairly significant.

Future studies will focus on how atrazine affects the brain, specifically areas that control metabolism. This will hopefully shed light on why atrazine affects endocrine cells.

A quote from Holly:

These atrazine- sensitive genes are central to normal reproduction and are found in steroid producing tissues. You have to wonder about the long-term effects of exposing the rapidly developing fetus to atrazine or other endocrine disrupters.

Her research was funded by the National Institutes for Health.

Takeaway:

More Info:
Paper in PLoS One
Science Friday chat with Holly
UCSF Press Release on Study
Recent Paper Questioning Reproducibility of Atrazine Effects in Frogs

KQED Quest ran a great piece tonight detailing the rapid decline in frog population, especially here in the Bay Area. Frog population declines have been happening for over 10 years. Our March speaker, Dr. Tyrone Hayes, detailed the rising data indicating severe stress on frogs, from climate change to pesticides. The resulting immuno-suppression is scientists’ best guess at the decline.

Check out the piece below. It also indicates how a newly discovered fungus is playing a role in the decline.

And here’s an additional web only piece featuring Tyrone Hayes.

One of the goals of my science cafe and blog is to humanize the science and the scientist. But I often get asked about all these studies I often quote. Who are these people? How do the researchers find these subjects?

It was probably a touch simpler to just interview some past study participants, but where’s the fun in that? So I took part in a meditation/anxiety study in February.

The study focused on emotion processing & anxiety and how these might change with mindfulness based stress reduction or cognitive-behavioral therapy i.e. how meditation affects anxiety.

The process was similar to the one shown in this vid (courtesy Science Friday)

Day 1 was relatively simple…just a phone screen making sure I was capable of taking part in the study. I’m not pregnant, I meet certain demographic criteria, I’m not currently in any other studies, yadda yadda.

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