Striking Oil

The other day I received the following text from my 16 year old son:  "Do we have omega-3 oil at home and if not can we get some?" This was rather different from his usual: "can I have 4 friends for a sleepover?" or "there are only 3 girls downstairs"  or "OK I'll turn the music down." An unusual text from an adolescent is not unexpected, however this one immediately brought to mind Twain's aphorism: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

A Brief Detour

Before saying more about the text, I need to tell you about my obsession with omega-3 oil, a substance without which our brains could not exist. Back in my youth my mother would give me a teaspoonful of cod-liver oil. Cod and other cold-water fish, have plenty of omega-3s in their flesh and cod-liver oil is an excellent way to get concentrated omega-3.  One of the omega-3s, docosahexaenoic acid -- also known as DHA -- is not only the dominant omega-3 fatty acid in the brain but is also essential to brain function and this is because it is a major component of brain cell membranes and it influences the way that brain cells talk to each other. You would think that over millions of years of human existence we would have evolved multiple ways to manufacture and accumulate this essential element of brain structure and function and yet despite its critical role in how the brain works, humans cannot make DHA and the only way to get omega-3s is through our diet.

Of particular interest, DHA accumulates in the areas of the brain associated with learning and memory. DHA regulates the formation of new nerve cells, new connections between nerve cells and impacts the speed of messages between neurons. It is also a key component of the covering that surrounds and protects nerve cells, a substance known as myelin.

Myelin, is a fatty substance that wraps around the nerve cells in our body. Scientists have found that the more myelin around a nerve cell, the faster and stronger a message travels down that nerve cell. Most myelination happens naturally and most of it during childhood. Myelin forms when nerve cells fire, and they fire when they are being used. Children generate more myelin than adults do because they tend to be more active, both physically and mentally, than adults are.The way that myelin forms is the more an activity is repeated the more the nerves that control that activity get myelinated, and with the more myelin that wraps around those nerve cells, the quicker and easier the activity becomes. 

Understanding the role of myelin means not only understanding that repeating behaviors (quantity) improves the activity, whether it is walking or Olympic running, but repeatedly doing it correctly also improves the quality of the practice. Practicing doing things repeatedly, but incorrectly means becoming good at doing the behavior incorrectly! When I trained in Judo many years ago, my coach used to say, "It's not that practice makes perfect, it is that perfect practice makes perfect." It is important to make corrections before myelination wires the "incorrect" way of doing the behavior. Myelin is essential in all of this and so DHA is essential.

My 16 Year Old as a Child

Because of how critical omega-3s are and because the only way to get them is from our diet, many of the foods we bought for the children were rich in omega-3s. As they got older I felt that they were not getting enough in their diets and I bought all sort of supplements and tried to get my kids to take them. For my 16 year old, as a young boy he found that most omega-3 pills were too big. He refused the cod-liver oil liquid form and he said that the gummies "tasted yucky". Eventually found a cream form and told him that he had to take it saying: "You have to take this. It is good for your brain, heart and nerve cells." When he was very little I would hide it in ice-cream or yogurt, and at times simply put it in a spoon and told him he had no choice. He was a good sport and agreed, though with great disgust, but eventually he didn't care how good it was for him. He started to hate the ordeal so much that he increasingly fought me on taking the stuff and by age 7 it was not worth forcing the issue so I gave up even trying.

Back to the Text

Fast forward to the text. I was sitting at my desk at my outpatient clinic when his text came in. I texted back that I was sure we had some and that I would find them when I got back home. That evening I asked him what the omega-3 thing was all about. "Well do you know how good they are for you? My wrestling coach was telling me. They make you faster, with better reflexes and help your memory and everything! Even your heart! Do we have any? I have to start taking them."

Sam Levenson was right: "Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children!"