Long-term use of omega-3 fatty acids may prevent Alzheimer's disease
A new review published in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease suggests that long-term supplementation wit…A new review published in Journal of Alzheimer's Disease suggests that long-term supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids (FA) can help prevent Alzheimer's
disease (AD), a disease that has no cure.
A few early clinical trials suggested "patients with very mild AD or mild cognitive impairment benefit from omega-3 FA (fatty acid) treatment, but none showed significant improvements in cognitive function in patients with moderate or advanced AD," according to the review.
R. Carlijn from Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Central Animal Laboratory and 3R Research Centre in Nijmegen, T he Netherlands and colleagues believed that supplementation helps Alzheimer's disease, but omega-3 fatty acids need to be used for a long term (longer than 10% of lifespan.)
Indeed, the authors found evidence suggesting that long term supplementation may help prevent Alzheimer's disease, particularly in individuals with mild Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment after reviewing only studies of long term omega-3 fatty acid supplementation.
The authors reviewed and meta-analyzed data from studies on effects of the relatively long term omega-3 fatty acid supplementation on cognitive impairment, amyloid-β pathology, and neuronal loss in animals with Alzheimer's disease and found long term supplementation was associated with reduced amounts of amyloid-β in animal models of AD.
Additionally, they found long term omega-3 FA supplementation improved cognitive function or reduce cognitive impairment, particularly in rats (compared with mice), and in male animals (compared with female animals). And long term supplementation was also found reduce the amount of neuronal loss particularly in female animals.
The authors concluded " T he results of this SR indicate that it might be worthwhile to perform new clinical trials with long-term omega-3 FA supplementation in AD (Alzheimer's disease) patients."
Omega-3 fatty acids are found in cold water oily fish like salmon and flax seeds and walnuts. Fish oil is a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. Nutritionists believe that Americans eat too much omega-6 fatty acids found abundant in vegetable oils like corn oil and soybean oil, but too little omega-3 fatty acids. Two most common long chain omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil are docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).
