[quote]AllTraps wrote:
Highlights from www.ast-ss.com/articles/article.asp?AID=275
which is entirely about the bodybuilding and health benefits of both the EPA and DHA compounds in Omega 3 fatty acids
- In terms of cardiovascular health, both EPA and DHA omega-3s appear to be very important. Scientists aren?t sure whether one is better than the other. Therefore, to ensure cardiovascular health, just make sure you get plenty of both. Eating fish and supplementing with fish oilcapsules should provide enough of these omega-3s to promote cardiovascular health. However, for building muscle and promoting faster recovery from intense exercise, one of these omega-3s stands alone in terms of the benefits it provides.
Powerful anti-catabolic
Based on the research, EPA appears to be an incredibly powerful anti-catabolic within muscle. This means that EPA prevents excessive breakdown of muscle proteins. One important reason why EPA is so effective at reducing muscle tissue breakdown is that it down-regulates the expression of the genes that control key regulatory components of the major pathway that leads to contractile protein break down in muscle. EPA effectively blocks the molecular pathway that results in excessive muscle breakdown
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For bodybuilders, the benefits of EPA don?t stop there. As an active ingredient within fish oil, EPA is one of few compounds shown in research to reduce inflammation within muscle and connective tissue. Overtraining and chronic joint pain are attributed to excessive inflammation within these tissues that is caused by intense exercise training. A reduction in tissue inflammation (and muscle damage) provides the athlete with a big head start in terms of recovery.
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Omega-3 fats such as EPA enhance fat metabolism (oxidation) during exercise. The results of a recent study suggest that regular use of fish oil containing a high ratio of EPA significantly increased fat oxidation during exercise
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The only draw back is that a rather high dose of EPA is required to achieve these effects, in particular, this compound’s powerful anti-catabolic effect. At least two grams of EPA per day may be required to achieve this effect. Consider that your average fish oil capsule only contains about 180 milligrams of EPA. Do the math and you?ll be swallowing at least 12 capsules of fish oil everyday to obtain the bare minimum amount thought to promote this anti-catabolic effect.
The gastric reflux effects of swallowing this amount of fish oil capsules every single day have some rather unpleasant repercussions. If you don?t know what I mean, take 12-15 caps of fish oil, half an hour later stand near someone when you inevitably belch. Be sure to stare straight ahead, pokerfaced as their expression turns from a look of surprise to complete disgust as they get a whiff of your new dietary habit.
So let’s look at cost’s associated with getting minimum 2000mg EPA.
Biotest’s Flameout:
Requires 8 a day (to get above suggested 2000mg of EPA daily). That means a bottle lasts you 11 days. For a month, that’s a cost of $75. Seriously. For freaking Omega 3 fats. Added benefit: CLA content.
AST Myo-D:
Requires 8 a day (to get suggested 2000mg of EPA daily). Even thier own product suggested usage doesn’t meet their own requirements listed in the article they produced. That means a bottle lasts you 15 days. For a month, that’s a total cost of $62. Added benefits: added L-Luecine.
Costco’s (Health Balance Brand) “Super Concentrate Omega-3” who uses Meg-3tm (www.meg-3.com) as a manufacturer. Each capsule has 400mg of EPA and 200mg of DHA. So to get that elusive 2000mg of EPA, you guessed it…only 5 easy to swallow capsules a day (they are enteric coated). Cost? $30 (Canadian) for 240 capsules. That’s $19 a month.
Obviously cost wise, Costco (Meg-3) blows everyone else out of the water.
Hope that clears it up.[/quote]
FLAMEOUT was specifically designed to have a much higher ratio of DHA to EPA. I suggest you read the product thread for more on this.
It would have been much easier, and less expensive, to produce a product higher in EPA, but it wouldn’t have had the inflammation-fighting properties that are found in FLAMEOUT.
If all you’re really concerned about is EPA, you should buy another product.