Is fish oil a waste of money?

I recently received an email with the subject line: “Exposing the fish oil myth: Why Americans are wasting their money on today's hottest supplement.” The email was all about how so many Americans are wrong about taking fish oil supplements.

Apparently, they and all of the thousands of doctors and cardiologists who take and prescribe fish oils are just wasting their time and money. And then, not surprisingly, it urged readers to buy an altogether new oil made from the “South American calamari” because of its “superiority” to fish oil. “Oh,” I thought, “A new product I have never heard of before. Great! Let’s look it up.”

So I Googled “South American calamari.” I got nothing except a website selling this new wonder supplement. No scientific information. No clinical information. No references. Not even a nutritional analysis.

Indian spice revs up your memory

If you have memory problems, or a risk of Alzheimer’s, I’ve mentioned several nutrients that might help you. Among them are niacinamide and green tea. Now there’s new research that another very popular nutrient improves memory as well.


In this study, researchers gave mice 3-30 mg/kg of curcumin. The nutrient “salvaged” expression of key memory pathways in the hippocampus. This is a site in the brain for long-term memory. The researchers found that the nutrient significantly enhanced memory.

Why Alzheimer’s patients should take this nutrient for diabetics

On Wednesday, I mentioned that Alzheimer’s is very similar to diabetes? It’s so closely related, in fact, that I call it another form of diabetes (type-3). So it makes sense that helping insulin metabolism might improve your brain function.

As you may know, a great nutrient for treating diabetes is chromium. So is it possible chromium might also treat Alzheimer’s? A research team from the University of Cincinnati wanted to know.