According to a new study, eating oily fish like salmon and mackerel may reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by almost 50 percent.
What scientists have discovered is that people with higher levels of omega-3 DHA in their blood were at a 49 percent lower risk of getting this difficult neurodegenerative health condition. Moreover, this was truer for those individuals that have the ApoE4 gene, which is what doubles someone’s chance of getting Alzheimer’s.
The researchers and study authors were from the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI) located in the US, and they explained that these results could possibly lead to cheap, low-risk ways to save billions of dollars in treatment costs.
The research, which was taken within the Framingham Offspring Cohort, included 1,490 people aged 65 or older, who did not have Alzheimer’s. The study researchers reviewed the association between the red blood cell marine omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with Alzheimer’s disease ‘while also testing for interaction with ApoE4 gene carriership.’
There are actually three types of Omega-3, DHA, and Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which are found in oily fish, while alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is found in plants, except it’s not good for you.
As explained by the study, giving extra dietary Omega-3 DHA could actually help slow down the onset of Alzheimer’s. If individuals with the lowest levels were to reach those with the highest levels, then they would garner an additional 4.7 years free of the disease.
According to the study author, Dr. Aleix Sala-Villa, she said, “The risk for Alzheimer’s disease in the highest DHA fifth was 49% lower compared with the lowest fifth.”
“Delaying Alzheimer’s disease by five years leads to 2.7 additional years of life, and 4.8 additional Alzheimer-free years for an individual who would have acquired Alzheimer’s,” she added.
The findings, despite only being observational, were published in the Nutrients journal, which had similar findings with the original Framingham Heart Study from 15 years ago.
Senior author, Dr. William Harris, who also happens to be the president of FARI, explained, “Most interestingly, 15 years ago similar findings were reported in the parents of the individuals who were the focus of this present investigation with a 47 percent in the risk of developing all-cause dementia.”
He added, “Similar findings a generation apart in a similar genetic pool provide considerable confirmation of this DHA-dementia relationship.”
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