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Fat in Fish May Help Prevent Dementia
Fatty Acid DHA May be Key to 47% Lower Dementia
Risk, Researchers Report
By Miranda
Hitti
WebMD
Medical News |
|
Eating fish three times a week may
cut your odds of getting dementia almost in half.
That news appears in the November
issue of Archives of Neurology.
Researchers base their findings on a
study of 900 older men and women. The scientists
found that participants with the highest DHA levels
at the beginning of the study were 47% less likely
to get dementia and 39% less likely to get
Alzheimer's disease during the study than the rest
of the group.
The researchers included Ernst
Schaefer, MD, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Human Nutrition Research Center, at Tufts
University.
DHA is short for the fatty acid
docosahexaenoic. It is found in fish such as salmon,
sardines, and herring, and appears important in
cutting dementia risk, Schaefer's team notes.
The scientists don't promise DHA
prevents the condition, calling instead for more
studies.
DHA Study
The study looked at about 900 men and
women, aged 55 to 88, who did not have dementia at
its start.
Participants completed dietary
surveys and got their blood DHA levels checked.
They then took mental skills tests
every two years and were followed for nine years, on
average.
During that time, 99 developed
dementia, including 71 who got Alzheimer's disease.
But the participants who had had the
highest DHA levels on the earlier tests were much
less likely to get either condition. Those with the
highest DHA levels reported eating fish three times
weekly, on average.
The results take other factors --
including age and education level -- into account.
However, they don't prove DHA
prevents dementia. This study was purely
observational; the scientists didn't directly test
DHA for dementia prevention.
Fish Factor
The study is the "first evidence" of
a link between direct measures of human blood DHA
levels and lower Alzheimer's disease risk, writes
editorialist Martha Clare Morris, ScD.
DHA is abundant in the healthy human
brain, notes Morris, who works at Chicago's Rush
University Medical Center.
Fish is the main dietary source of
DHA, but vegetable oil, soybeans, walnuts, wheat
germ, and human milk also contain DHA, Morris notes.
It is also available in supplements.
Future studies should check whether
such supplements can halt the worsening of
established dementia, say the researchers, and
Morris agrees supplements deserve further study.
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