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Fish oil supplements containing omega-3 have long been known to be good for our heart health, but it has now been proven to also reduce aggression, regardless of gender.

Researchers are now saying that the common supplement should be used more widely, from playgrounds to prisons.

While overt acts of aggression often include verbal and physical violence, scientists believe addressing the chemical origins of aggression will also reduce ‘covert aggression’ like theft and vandalism.

We can all agree that the world could do with less aggression, and the study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) is now touting omega-3 supplements as a good way of dealing with humanity’s anger problem.

Adrian Raine, a Penn neuro criminologist and the lead and corresponding author of the study says, “Omega-3 is not a magic bullet that is going to solve the problem of violence in society. But it can help”.

“I think the time has come to implement omega-3 supplementation to reduce aggression, irrespective of whether the setting is the community, the clinic, or the criminal justice system.”

It’s not the first time that Omega-3 has been linked with violent behaviour. in 2001, Dr Joseph Hibbeln, a senior clinical investigator at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), published a study finding a correlation between the consumption of high amounts of fish (a rich source of omega-3) and lower homicide rates.

The following year, Britain led another study where prisoners were given nutritional supplements that included vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. The researchers found that prisoners who were given supplements were less violent and antisocial.

Besides the promising results of previous findings, the researcher in the latest study wanted to focus on whether specifically omega-3 was responsible for reducing all forms of aggression – in psychology, a distinction is made between ‘reactive’ aggression, an in-the-moment response, and ‘proactive’ aggression, which requires planning.

The trials that followed focussed only on aggressive behaviour and not anger, as this is seen as an emotion rather than a ‘chemical effect’, and after dosing subjects with omega-3 supplements, scientists measured a 30% decrease in aggression among the group. The results were also consistent across age, gender, treatment duration and dosage.

Since aggression and violent behaviour have been proven to have a neurochemical basis, the researchers say the Omegas play a critical role in brain structure and function, including regulating neurotransmitters and reducing brain inflammation.

“As such, given the undeniable fact that omega-3 is pervasively involved in multiple facets of neuronal biology, it is reasonable to believe that omega-3 supplementation could play a causal role in reducing aggression by upregulating brain mechanisms that may be dysfunctional in … individuals, given the assumption that there is, in part, a neurobiological basis to aggression.”

“At the very least, parents seeking treatment for an aggressive child should know that in addition to any other treatment that their child receives, an extra portion or two of fish each week could also help.”