Ask a Researcher: Exercise physiology expert Dr. Stephen Cornish explores whether omega-3s truly ease post-workout recovery.
In the Ask A... series, experts from across the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management will answer your questions about sports, recreation, kinesiology, community development and more.
A: Omega-3s are fatty acids that are found either in plant-based products or animal-based products, particularly fish or fatty fish. They've been known to act as an anti-inflammatory in a number of metabolic processes within the body. When we think about fatty acids, we think the omega-3s are there to be anti-inflammatory.
But the corollary to them is omega-6s, which are considered more pro-inflammatory. When we're thinking about these, we want to think about the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in our diets. Lots of the research recently has shown that the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio is more important than just having one or the other.
A: One of the things that's important to note is that when we do hard exercise, or high-intensity exercise for a long period of time, we can have a small inflammatory response. So, whether omega-3s actually help with that inflammatory response, once the exercise is done, is a good question.
The research on that is actually quite equivocal, or open to interpretation. Some studies show that it can help with inflammation. Some studies show that it can't help with inflammation. A some studies aren't sure in terms of what the results actually show.
So we have to be able to take this with a bit of a grain of salt and understand that, yes, they can help in certain instances under certain conditions. But in other conditions where the exercise may be different, it can be less effective.
One of the things that has been shown more predominantly, though, is that the subjective rating of delayed onset muscle soreness, or how much you're feeling sore after an exercise bout, has been shown to be decreased. So subjectively, you might feel better.
Dr. Stephen Cornish has dedicated his career to understanding the effects of exercise and nutritional interventions on various physiological systems particularly in older adults. His most recent research ventures have focused on the crosstalk between skeletal muscle and the immune system. Cornish's current work seeks to understand the relationship between these two systems as skeletal muscle recovers from resistance-based exercise.
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