Alzheimer's And Omega-3 LOAD | Inflammation Awareness Now

Alzheimer’s And Omega-3 LOAD

Published by Lois on December 9th, 2008

An exciting new study from UCLA suggests supplements of Omega-3 DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) can reduce levels in enzyme linked to late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. For anyone who has watched a loved one slowly slip away or fears declining mental heath in aging, this new research is exciting. This is the first study to link benefits to Alzheimer’s and Omega-3 DHA in late-onset Alzheimer’s (LOAD).

UCLA

“In this study, we report that DHA significantly increases LR11 in multiple systems, including primary rat neurons, aged non-Tg mice and an aged DHA-depleted APPsw AD mouse model. DHA also increased LR11 in a human neuronal line,” wrote lead author Qiu-Lan Ma in the The Journal of Neuroscience. Ma and co-workers report that DHA induced increases in LR11 in all the systems studied, as well as from an in vivo model of type-2 diabetes, another AD risk factor.

“Because reduced LR11 is known to increase beta-amyloid production and may be a significant genetic cause of LOAD, our results indicate that DHA increases in [LR11] levels may play an important role in preventing LOAD,” concluded the authors.

“This study adds to the evidence supporting the important brain health benefits provided by an enhanced DHA status, and there are a number of ongoing studies investigating the role of DHA in reducing the risk for neurological diseases like Alzheimers,” said Nelson.

Previous studies have reported benefits to Alzheimer’s and Omega-3 DHA fatty acids slowing mental decline in people with mild Alzheimer’s disease (Archieves of Neurology, Vol. 63, pp. 1402-1408 and pp. 1545-1550) but this new study suggests DHA useful for early intervention and prevention of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD), the most common form that occurs later in life with no obvious family inheritance pattern.

Tufts University Nutrition Research

In a previous study conducted by Ernst J. Schaefer, MD, USDA’s nutrition research center at Tufts University, Boston, he and his colleagues measured blood levels of DHA in 899 elderly men and women. Over 9 years, 99 subjects developed dementia. Schaefer determined people with the highest blood levels of DHA were about half as likely to develop dementia compared with people who consumed little DHA. They were also 39% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s. People with the highest DHA levels consumed about 3 servings of fish each week which provided the equivalent of 180 mg daily of DHA. Fats form about 50 percent of the brain’s nonwater weight, and DHA is the predominant fat found in cell membranes of the brain’s gray matter.

Alzheimer’s studies are ongoing with a National Institutes of Health-funded multi-million dollar clinical study on DHA in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Results from this NIH clinical study will be available in 2010.