
Fish oil supplements might help high-risk seniors stave off Alzheimer’s disease, a new study finds. Older people with a higher genetic risk of Alzheimer’s experienced slower breakdown of their brain’s nerve cells if they took fish oil capsules, researchers reported Aug. 1 in the journal JAMA Network Open. These people carry the APOE4 gene variant, which increases risk of Alzheimer’s and is associated with an earlier age of onset, according to the National Institute on Aging. “The fact that neuronal integrity breakdown was slowed in people randomized to omega-3 treatment who are also at high risk for Alzheimer’s disease is remarkable, and warrants a larger clinical trial in more diverse populations in the future,” said researcher Gene Bowman, a neurology instructor with the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. However, fish oil supplements did not benefit all seniors in general, researchers noted. “Our findings showed that over three years, there was not a statistically significant difference between placebo and the group that took fish oil,” said researcher Dr. Lynne Shinto, a professor of neurology with the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine. “I don’t think it would be harmful, but I wouldn’t say you need to take fish oil to prevent dementia.” For the study, researchers recruited 102 people ages 75 and older who had relatively low levels… read on > read on >