New Study On The Benefits Of Omega 3 Supplements

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OMEGA-3 SUPPLEMENTS




Nutrition & Vitamins


We have brought to you some articles showing the advantages of adding Omega-3 into your diet.


A new study has shown that these fatty acids can cross the blood brain barrier in people with Alzheimerā€™s disease, and doing so they can affect the inflammation process that occurs within the disease.


Interesting enough this article has not made to the press. There are many studies showing how Omega-3 dietary supplements may protect against Alzheimerā€™s. However, at this time, researchers were interested in verifying whether omega-3 supplements could help patients who have already developed the disease.


Omega-3 dietary supplements pass the blood-brain barrier
New research from Karolinska Institutet shows that omega-3 supplements can cross the blood brain barrier in people with Alzheimerā€™s disease, affecting known markers for both the disease itself and inflammation. The findings are presented in the Journal of Internal Medicine, and strengthen the evidence that omega-3 may benefit certain forms of this seriously debilitating disease.


ā€œEarlier population studies indicate that omega-3 can protect against Alzheimerā€™s disease, which makes it interesting to study the effects of dietary supplements containing this group of fatty acids in patients who have already developed the disease,ā€ says the studyā€™s lead author Dr Yvonne Freund-Levi.




Omega-3 and other essential polyunsaturated fatty acids accumulate in the central nervous system (CNS) during gestation. It has been assumed that these acids are continually replaced throughout life, but little is known about how this occurs and whether changes in diet can affect the transport of important fatty acids across the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier serves to protect the brain from harmful chemicals existing naturally in the blood, but also blocks the delivery of drug substances to the brain.


Several diseases can affect the fatty acid profile of the CNS; in patients with Alzheimerā€™s disease, for example, previous research has observed lower than normal brain concentrations of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid.


In the present study, part of the larger OmegAD project, scientists examined whether omega-3 dietary supplements change the fatty acid profile of the CNS in patients with mild Alzheimerā€™s disease. Thirty-three patients participated in the study, 18 of whom received a daily omega-3 supplements and 15 a placebo for six months. The results show that the first group had higher levels of both DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, another omega-3 fatty acid) in their cerebrospinal fluid (which surrounds the CNS) and blood. No such change was seen in the placebo group.


Moreover, they also found that levels of DHA correlated directly with the degree of change in Alzheimerā€™s disease and inflammatory markers in the cerebrospinal fluid. Researchers in the field have long been interested in this link between Alzheimerā€™s disease and inflammation, but attempts to treat the disease using traditional anti-inflammatory drugs have failed to produce any improvements in memory function.





ā€œIn animals, DHA dietary supplements can lead to an increase in DHA concentrations in the CNS,ā€ says Professor Jan Palmblad, who initiated the study. ā€œHere we show that the same applies to humans, which suggests that omega-3 supplements cross the blood-brain barrier. However, much work remains to be done before we know how these fatty acids can be used in the treatment of Alzheimerā€™s disease to halt memory loss.ā€


The study was financed with grants from the Capio Research Foundation, the Dementia Association, the Gamla TjƤnarinnor Foundation, the Swedish Alzheimerā€™s Society, Oddfellows Sweden, the Swedish Nutrition Foundation, the Gun and Bertil Stohne Foundation, the Swedish Society of Medicine, Lions Sweden, the Norwegian Omega-3 producer Pronova Biocare A/S, and Stockholm County Council through its ALF funding agreement with Karolinska Institutet.
 

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