Middle-aged people eating more omega-3 fatty acids can improve thinking ability and improve brain structure

People who eat more omega-3-containing foods in middle age may have better thinking skills and even better brain structure
than people who rarely eat omega-3-containing foods.
That's based on an exploratory study recently published in Neurology
, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Ways to increase your intake of omega-3 fatty acids include dietary supplements such as fish oil, krill oil, or cod liver oil, as well as foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids such as salmon
, sardines, trout, and albacore.
The three main omega-3 fatty acids are linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

ALA is mainly found in vegetable oils such as flaxseed, soybean and rapeseed oils
.
DHA and EPA
are found in fish and other seafood.
"If people can improve their cognitive resilience by simply changing their diet and potentially avoid dementia, this will have a significant impact
on public health.
" —Dr
.
Claudia L.
Satizabal.

"Improving our diet is one way to promote our brain health," said
study author Dr.
Claudia L.
Satizabal of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
"If people can improve their cognitive resilience by simply changing their diet and potentially avoid dementia, this will have a significant impact
on public health.
" Even better, our research shows that even moderate omega-3 intake is enough to maintain brain function
.
This is in line with the current American Heart Association's dietary guidelines to eat at least two servings of fish per week to improve cardiovascular health
.
”         

The cross-sectional study involved 2183 people with an average age of 46 who did not suffer from dementia or stroke
.
Their omega-3 fatty acid levels were
measured.
They took tests to measure their thinking skills
.
They measure brain volume
through scans.
On average, 3.
4% of the fatty acids in the low-intake group were omega-3 fatty acids, while those in the high-intake group had an average of 5.
2% omega-3 fatty acids
.
The optimal level is 8% or higher
.
Levels between 4% and 8% are considered moderate
.
Below 4% is considered a low level
.
The researchers adjusted for factors that may have influenced the
results.
They also applied a mathematical process to normalize the data
.
They observed that people who consumed high levels of omega-3 fatty acids not only scored higher average scores on abstract reasoning tests, but also had a larger average volume in the hippocampus area of their brain, which plays an important role
in memory.

Satizabal said: "These results need to be confirmed by further research, but it is exciting that omega-3 levels can play a role in improving cognitive resilience, even
for middle-aged people.
" She noted that the study was a short-term study and participants were not followed for a long time, so strictly speaking, the results do not prove that eating omega-3 fatty acids maintains brain function
.
It shows only one association
.
While the study included only a small subset of people from different races, the majority of the sample was non-Hispanic adult whites, which could limit the ability of
the findings to be applied to other groups.
        

References: "Relationship between erythrocyte-3 fatty acids and MRI markers and cognitive function in middle-aged adults: The Framingham Heart Study," by Claudia L.
Satizabal, Jayandra Jung Himali, Alexa S.
Beiser, Vasan Ramachandran, Debora Melo van Lent, Dibya Himali, and Hugo J.
Aparicio Pauline Maillard, Charles S.
DeCarli, William Harris and Sudha Seshadri, October 5, 2022, Neurology
.
DOI: 10.
1212 / WNL.
0000000000201296

The research was supported
by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke.