Omega-3s increase lung function during sports

Omega 3 sports: fish oil improve lung activity during and after physical exertion

Intake of Omega 3 during a period of intensive training can improve the function of athletes' lungs. The action of these fatty acids, demonstrated by research published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, is effective during and after exercise. This is why marine-derived Omega-3s are finding a place in thesports nutrition and supplement market. The research published in the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport was conducted by an international team of researchers from the University of Urmia (Iran) and the University of Tübingen (Germany).

Omega-3 and exercise, a winning combination for the lungs

The study involved 40 nonprofessional, nonsmoking athletes with an average age of 18.6 years, all practicing wrestling. Participants were randomly assigned to one of 4 possible experimental groups. The first 10 were assigned to train 3 sessions per week for a total of 12 weeks. At the same time, the researchers asked them to take 1 gram per day of an Omega-3 supplement containing 180 milligrams of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and 120 milligrams of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) for the same period. Another 10 athletes, who formed the so-called "active control," followed the same training program, but instead of the Omega-3 supplement they took a placebo. The 10 individuals in the "inactive control," on the other hand, did not perform any training, but received the same dose of Omega-3 taken by the first group of athletes. Finally, the remaining participants trained 3 times a week for 12 weeks without taking either the Omega-3 or the placebo. The researchers assessed each participant's lung capacity at the beginning of the trial and at the end of the 12 weeks of training. Parameters measured included forced vital capacity (FVC), which is the volume of air forcibly exhaled after inhaling the largest possible amount of air, and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), which is the volume of air exhaled in the first second of a forced exhalation. These 2 parameters made it possible to: 

• To determine the volume of the lungs and the airflow within them;
• demonstrate that the combination of intensive exercise and Omega-3 improves both of these factors.

In particular, it was possible to observe a 53% increase in FVC compared with that of other athletes, while in the case of FEV1 the increase was 41%.

The benefits for sportsmen and women

The authors of the research stressed that the results obtained in this study constitute the first evidence of the benefits of Omega-3s for athletes' lung function during training programs. Although further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms behind this efficacy, the researchers highlight the implications that this finding may already have on the work of coaches, personal trainers and physiologists who develop training programs for both professional wrestlers and those who play the sport at an amateur level.