Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past ten years, you know that fish oil has many benefits: It accelerates recovery, reduces inflammation, and supports all aspects of health. Now, new research from the University of Valencia, Spain, shows that supplementing with fish oil can significantly improve complex reaction time and complex reaction efficiency.
This is good news if you want to improve performance, respond faster, and be able to sustain your neuromotor skills when fatigue sets in. Whether you are a novice or elite athlete, you can’t go wrong supplementing with fish oil if you want to improve your decision-making abilities.
This study compared supplementing with 3.5 g a day of DHA fish oil with a placebo of olive oil in elite female soccer players. Results after four weeks found that the players taking fish oil improved their accuracy and reaction time. Not only were the reaction time and efficiency results significant, but the performance improvements were seen on elite athletes that already had good perceptual motor performance, a group that is probably near their genetic potential in regards to skill and physiological training.
You can assume that for novice or recreational athletes, improvements may be more significant. Researchers suggested that the neuromuscular improvement was due to the DHA in the fish oil having a modulating effect on the functional activity in cortical attention networks.
The health benefits of fish oil don’t stop there. Other benefits include better cardiovascular health, lower blood pressure, less depression, slower cognitive decline, greater protein synthesis, and more muscle. When you combine these advantages with increased neuromotor skills, fish oil can go a long way towards keeping you young and preventing aging. Make sure you’re getting enough to ensure a faster execution on the court or playing field!