The study, conducted in collaboration with the Hospital del Mar Research Institute in Barcelona, Spain, links high levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the blood with a lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Work published by Nutrients magazine It was prepared by analyzing data from 260,000 people from the UK Biobank database. the largest number of participants ever used in research in this area.
The study involved researchers from Del Mar Hospital, the Fatty Acid Research Institute in the United States, and CIBER Physical Pathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN).
The study authors were able to access the profile of metabolites (molecules produced during metabolism) in the blood of people included in the UK database to explore the links between different types of omega-3s.
Consuming omega-3s provides countless health benefits.
Working with such a large number of participants allowed the researchers to include younger populations than those traditionally studied. So they divided the participants into volunteers aged 40 to 50, 50 to 60, and over 60, and they were able to link this information to the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias.
This made it possible to “examine whether high omega-3 levels at age 50 could help prevent the onset of dementia many years later,” explained Aleix Sala-Vila, a researcher at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute.
The study also took into account participants’ age, gender, education level, and genetic characteristics associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The findings show that high levels of omega-3 are associated with a lower risk for all age groups, for men and women, and for both diseases (dementia and Alzheimer’s disease).
Stronger association among older men Of course, “the strongest association occurs in men, in people over 60, and in non-dementia patients.”
Alzheimer’s disease,” Sala-Vila explained. Omega-3 fatty acids are a group of fatty acids found in high quantities in the tissues of oily fish and some shellfish, as well as in some plant sources such as soybean oil, walnuts and flax seeds.
The type of omega-3 that has historically been described as having the most benefit is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is found primarily in fatty fish, but new research links benefit to other types as well.
So the study “reinforces the idea that there are some foods that don’t necessarily have to be fish, such as walnuts, that may be beneficial for brain health,” Sala-Villa said.
The findings do not establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between blood fatty acid levels and the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Well, to do this, it is necessary to conduct studies with voluntary intake of omega-3 supplements and compare them with people who have a normal diet.
This future work may help examine which population may benefit most from supplementation, better determining what type of omega-3, the most appropriate dose, or the duration needed to achieve a clinically significant effect.