Beware of Synthetic Astaxanthin
Like animal-based omega-3 fat, astaxanthin is an exception to my general rule to get your nutrients from food. Since it would be quite difficult to get therapeutic amounts of astaxanthin in your diet, it's a supplement worthy of consideration—especially to address any of the health problems listed above.
That said, dietary sources of astaxanthin include salmon, shrimp, lobster and crab. However, it's important to make sure it's wild-caught if you want to reap any of its benefits. Avoiding farm raised fish is good advise overall, but especially when it comes to salmon, as it typically will not contain natural astaxanthin. If your salmon label does not read "wild" or "naturally colored," you're probably going to be eating a coloring agent somewhat closer to motor oil than antioxidant...
Natural astaxanthin is more than 20 times stronger as an antioxidant than synthetic astaxanthin, and wild salmon are 400 percent higher in astaxanthin than its farmed counterpart. Furthermore, wild salmon have much higher levels of beneficial omega-3 fats than the farmed version.
Here's another interesting tidbit:
"If you look at the structure of astaxanthin, it's a very long molecule; the center of which is extremely fat soluble. That's why it goes into the membranes of your body and then the fatty tissue," Dr. Moerck says.
"When you look at a salmon you see that redness in a salmon. That color is really in the membranes and in the fat portion of the salmon associated with omega-3 DHA. They're right next to each other. That actually keeps the DHA from oxidizing. DHA is an unsaturated fatty acid. If you just leave it exposed to oxygen, it goes rancid.
… And in krill, one of the reasons why krill is so incredibly stable is it has astaxanthin in it. That keeps it from oxidizing."
Krill oil, due to its astaxanthin content, will remain undamaged by a steady flow of oxygen for an impressive 190 hours, according to tests conducted by Dr. Moerck. That's truly incredible when you consider just how fragile omega-3 fats are (both animal- and plant-based omega-3 fats).
Compare that to fish oil—an otherwise comparable animal-based omega-3 source—which goes rancid after just one hour. That makes krill oil nearly 200 times more resistant to oxidative damage compared to fish oil. A mere 0.2 mg of astaxanthin per gram of krill oil will protect it from rancidity.
"Krill oil; I have never seen anything like it," Dr. Moerck says. "As long as that krill oil has astaxanthin, as long as it's still red, it has antioxidant performance that even surpasses things like olive oil. That to me is totally astounding… [T]he only other oil that I know that's extremely stable and is a monounsaturated oil is amaranth oil."
Potential Side Effects
According to Dr. Moerck, the only documented side effect of astaxanthin is the development of slightly pinkish skin—which typically will not be considered a detrimental, as people typically identify people with a pinkish skin color to be "healthy."
So it's really a cosmetic benefit. Like melanin in your skin, this is also what will offer you protection against the sun, as astaxanthin works as an internal sunscreen.
More recently, a few bloggers have claimed that astaxanthin caused breast enlargement.
According to Dr. Moerck:
"There has been blogs about breast enlargement associated with astaxanthin. Folks, this is simply impossible… It's that cut and dry. Let me explain why that is.
First of all, the molecules themselves, the carotenoids, have no steroidal function. T
hey also do not inhibit steroid formation, and of course we know that testosterone and estrogen are very important for sexuality and for hair growth and breast size, etc. However, carotenoids do not affect that at all. There is NO steroidal activity. It does not enter in any mechanism pathway for the synthesis of steroids."
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Swordsmyth
Connect With Us