Omega 3 supplements are the best treatment after a brain injury, and the sooner after a brain injury you start it, the better (research shows that starting Omega 3 a few days after a concussion reduces brain damage by 98%). Of course other supplements are also important for brain recovery and metabolism after an injury (see Mark in Idaho's sticky thread for some good recommendations), but if Omega 3 is started soon enough (a few days or a week) after a brain injury, the recovery will be amazing (it still helps after a few months or years, but it helps less than after a few days and a higher dose is needed for a longer time).

Anyway, if you have done some research about Omega 3, you probably heard only of benefits and positive outcomes of use. And you might have also heard that very high dose Omega 3 brought people with severe TBI to normal daily functioning. All of these sound great, but there are some things you won't hear on these stories of amazing recovery.

First of all, Omega 3 greatly suppresses the immune system. That happens because one of the fats in Omega 3, EPA, is a potent anti-inflammatory agent. After some time of using high dose Omega 3, your immune system will be weak and inefficient. This is because the immune system relies on inflammatory processes to fight off viruses and bacteria, and EPA prevents these inflammatory processes. Also, EPA accumulates in your body and stays there for a long time (it binds to fat cells), so the weakened state of your immune system can persist for weeks after stopping high dose Omega 3 and this can be very dangerous.

Another risk is oxidative stress. Omega 3 fats, EPA and DHA, are highly sensitive to oxygen and will oxidize easily inside your body, damaging cells and causing a large variation of health issues - some may be irreversible or show up later in life (though this can be avoided by taking an anti-oxidant together with Omega 3, such as Vitamin E). Oxidative stress is a serious issue, especially after a concussion.

The major problem is that your body needs balance between Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils. When taking high dose Omega 3, you are completely messing up with that balance and that can cause very serious health issues, at some rare cases even cancer.

And if you are interested in how I've been personally physically harmed by Omega 3, here is my story:

I started taking 18 grams of Omega 3 per day for a few days to speed up recovery from my mTBI (started taking the Omega 3 exactly one week ago). I'm taking this high dose because I've heard that higher doses contribute to faster PCS recovery and aren't dangerous. Anyway, from the first day I noticed a great improvement - finally the symptoms of my PCS are much, much milder and less noticeable (they still come up during times of stress, though). I'm much less confused, less dazed and feeling generally better. My daily headaches (which is a common symptom among PCS sufferers) have almost completely vanished. It feels as if I've already recovered 70% from my PCS (last week before the Omega 3 it was maybe 20%). I have not completely recovered from PCS, but I feel like the Omega 3 have made me much closer to recovery from it!

Sounds great, right? It is great, but sadly I notice some other scary side effects from the use of that high dose. The biggest thing that scares me right now is hearing loss.

Yesterday morning, I woke up nearly deaf in my left ear. I first noticed it when I spoke to my sister, and this was frightening to feel that I can hear myself speaking only in the right ear! The day prior to this, I took 21-24 grams of Omega 3 (18 grams at the morning and another 3-6 grams 30 minutes before going to sleep).

Such a rapid hearing loss never happened to me. I've started researching online, and have seen that sudden hearing loss might be caused from a few different causes, one of them being a virus that attacks the ear. I then checked a little bit about Omega 3 and its possible dangers (thought it might be related, and found out that it is immuno-suppresive. When I started taking the Omega 3 last week, I had a very bad cold which was probably caused by a virus. It didn't take me a lot of time understand that this hearing loss may be indirectly related to my use of very high dose Omega 3. I think that this high dose Omega 3 regimen have greatly weakened my immune system, and as a result the virus spread much more easily in my body and attacked more organs, including my left ear. In other words, the Omega 3 just depressed my immune system and let the virus spread more aggressively in my body, possibly causing the virus to attack my ear and cause that sudden hearing loss (I've read that this sudden hearing loss is most common in the winter, meaning that a cold/flu virus causes it in most patients).

I took my Omega 3 high dose today too and it just worsened my hearing loss. I feel a great difference right now in my hearing in the left ear, and am pretty sure that it a result of the high dose Omega 3 use.

This might sound strange or exaggerated to you, but don't forget that I am using huge doses of Omega 3, enough for it to be a serious hazard for my body. I'll stop the Omega 3 for a while (or at least reduce dosage), see my ENT soon and hope for well... The fact that my hearing loss only started a little bit after taking 24 grams of Omega 3 makes me believe that they are related to each other.

My point here is - Omega 3 is good and even essential for recovery from brain injury, but if you are taking high doses you are going to wreck havoc on your body. My personal advice is to never go over 5-6 grams of Omega 3 per day, and absolutely not 15-20 grams per day.

Are you taking Omega 3 supplements daily to aid the recovery from your concussion? If yes, at what doses and for how long have you been taking it?

Also, do you agree that too much Omega 3 can be hazardous?

Thanks,
-ProAgonist