Health & Science

By now you’ve probably heard all about the health bene ts of omega-3 fatty acids, but as a quick refresher: “Omega-3 essential fats are very important in our diet to support skin, eye, brain, and immune health,” says Jefrey Bland, PhD, a clinical biochemist and co-founder of the Institute for Functional Medicine. e need for us to have an adequate intake of omega-3 fatty acids can n to be overemphasised. Our bodies can’t produce omega-3s, and so you must obtain them from either your food or supplements.

“ ere are three main types of omega-3 fatty acids— docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA),” says registered dietitian nutritionist Alice Figueroa, RDN, CDN, founder of Alice in Foodieland.

“It’s necessary to consume between 250–500 mg of combined DHA and EPA on a daily basis to stay healthy, and the adequate intake (AI) of ALA is 1.1 grams for women and 1.6 grams for men. Unfortunately, in general, most Americans do not meet the daily adequate intake,” she says.

Currently, there’s no standardised test for omega-3 de ciency, so it can be hard to detect, though there are certain signs and symptoms that indicate you may need to consume more sources of omega-3s like nuts (walnuts in particular) and seeds (chia seeds pack an entire days worth of ALA), seafood, fatty sh like salmon, cod, sardines, or mackerel, algae (aka sea greens), or supplements like sh or algae oil.

“Because omega-3 oils are members of the dietary fat family, they are best absorbed when taken with foods that contain some fat,” Dr Bland says.

While not all indicators of omega-3 de ciency are visible—like chronic in ammation and heart problems— there are some common ways your body will clue you in that it’s running low. Before starting any new supplement or food protocol, though, it’s always best to check with your doctor.

Here are seven signs of omega-3 de ciency:

The importance of a healthy omega-3 intake

1. Skin irritation, rashes, or acne

It’s easy to dismiss dry skin for a few di erent reasons (dehydration being a common culprit), but it is associated with omega-3 de ciency, both Dr Bland and Figueroa say. Fatty acids help keep cell membranes healthy, which includes helping them retain moisture. So dry skin can be an early warning sign that you’re not consuming enough omega-3s to make this happen.

ere’s even been some research that indicates that omega-3 supplementation can help with skin conditions like eczema and psoriasis because of this, and their ability to reduce in ammation in the body. People who took sh oil containing 1.8 g of EPA saw a reduction in eczema symptoms after 12 weeks, according to one study. And an increase in acne is also a symptom of low omega-3 levels; it’s believed to be caused by an elevation in in ammation as well.

2. Brittle/thinning hair

Similar to your skin, if your hair starts to become dry, dull, frizzy, and the ends begin to split —or it starts falling out—these can all be signs of omega-3 de ciency, according to Figueroa. Studies have shown that omega-3 supplementation has reduced hair loss in women.

3. Joint pain and sti ness

Because omega-3s produce an anti-in ammatory response in the body, it’s believed that joint pain and sti ness, particularly the kind caused by in ammation like rheumatoid arthritis (RA), can be a sign of omega-3 de ciency. And studies have found that proper supplementation eases symptoms for people with RA and joint pain associated with lupus.

4. Brain fog and loss of cognitive function

“Some clues that you are not getting enough omega-3s include di culty concentrating or memory issues,” says registered dietitian Maya Feller, RD. Alzheimer’s disease and dementia have also been connected to omega-3 de ciency.

5. Depression

Low levels of omega-3 fatty acids are also associated with depression, as well as other psychiatric disorders like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and attention de cit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to research.

6. Dry eyes

About 14 percent of all adults in the West su er from dry eyes, which is at least in part caused by in ammation. In a large study of women 45 to 84 years old, those with the highest level of omega-3 intake saw a 17 percent reduction in dry eyes.

7. Fatigue

Both Feller and Figueroa note that fatigue is a common sign of omega-3 de ciency, and research conducted on the e ects of omega-3 supplementation on lupus (which is characterised by joint pain and fatigue), found that omega-3 fatty acids were able to alleviate both symptoms.

Robots will have living skin and hair

Scientists, for the rst time learned to grow humanlike skin on a robotic nger using cells, a new study revealed.

According to a CNN report, unlike arti cial skin that is commonly used when building robots, this skin is alive, said lead study author Shoji Takeuchi, project professor in the department of mechanical and bio-functional systems at the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo.

“Living skin is the ultimate solution to give robots the look and touch of living creatures,” Takeuchi said.

His research team chose a robotic nger for the experiment because this mechanism is well studied and a critical part of a robot, he said. e humanlike skin is made using the same building blocks as human skin, Takeuchi said. e robotic nger was rst submerged in a solution of collagen, which is a brous protein, and human dermal broblasts, the two major components that make up human skin. Dermal broblasts are the primary cell type in the connective tissue of the skin.

After the solution conformed around the nger, Takeuchi applied human epidermal keratinocytes to the outside. A keratinocyte is the main type of cell that makes up the human epidermis, the outermost layer of skin, he said.

In the trials, the elastic human skin moved freely while the nger made di erent motions, Takeuchi said. His team put a collagen bandage on a part of the nger that had been in icted with a wound to mend it, and the robot was able to move freely after the protein repaired the skin.Collagen is a major c omponent of human skin and has healing properties, according to a 2021 study. e skin could also repel water, which expanded what tasks the robot could perform.

When researchers used a robot with wet surface material, polystyrene foam beads stuck to it, according to the study. ese beads are commonly used as ller material in products such as beanbags and some stuIed animals.

When the scientists tried the same experiment with the water-repellent humanlike skin, the robotic nger could ick the foam beads away without them sticking, the authors said.

Designing robots in our own image

Humanoids are robots that perform tasks that involve interacting with humans in settings such as the medical, nursing care and service industries, according to the study. It’s important to have humanlike robots when they are in places humans commonly frequent, said Pulkit Agrawal,

Steven and Renee Finn career development professor and assistant professor in the department of electrical engineering and computer sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

He was not involved in the study.

“Humans design spaces around them, so having a humanlike robot is useful in those scenarios,” Agrawal said.

For example, robots that may one day be in a household need to be able to pick up items and move around the way a person does, he said.

If a robot were to be made of metal, it would need to be extremely precise to pick up another hard object such as a mug, Agrawal said. ere would be a small amount of contact between the two objects since neither is exible.

If the hand were soft like human skin, the robot could be less precise since more surface area on the mug would be covered as the soft skin conforms to the handle, he said. e discovery is an important one, Agrawal said, but development of the humanlike skin still has a long way to go.

Skin is a living organism, so it needs to sustain itself by being constantly nourished while removing waste, Takeuchi said.

Unfortunately, the current skin that was grown does not have that ability built in, so it cannot sustain itself, he said.