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Omega-3 fatty acids include the nutrients called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).
The link between omega-3's and brain aging comes from a study published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
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"People with lower blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids had lower brain volumes that were equivalent to about two years of structural brain aging," said study author Zaldy S. Tan, MD, MPH, of the Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research and the Division of Geriatrics, University of California at Los Angeles.
For the study, 1,575 people with an average age of 67 and free of dementia underwent MRI brain scans. They were also given tests that measured mental function, body mass and the omega-3 fatty acid levels in their red blood cells.
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The researchers found that people whose DHA levels were among the bottom 25 percent of the participants had lower brain volume compared to people who had higher DHA levels.
Similarly, participants with levels of all omega-3 fatty acids in the bottom 25 percent also scored lower on tests of visual memory and executive function, such as problem solving and multi-tasking and abstract thinking.
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Reference:
Neurology, February 28, 2012 vol. 78 no. 9 658-664 "Red blood cell omega-3 fatty acid levels and markers of accelerated brain aging" Z.S. Tan, MD, MPH, et al. Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatric Medicine, and the Easton Center for Alzheimer's Disease Research (Z.S.T.), David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles.
The study was supported by the Framingham Heart Study's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Aging.
"Another way of arguing for the use of fish oil or other omega-3 fats is to show a correlation between disease and a decreased amount of EPA, DHA, or arachidonic acid in the tissues, and to say "these oils are deficient, the disease is caused by a deficiency of essential fatty acids." Those oils are extremely susceptible to oxidation, so they tend to spontaneously disappear in response to tissue injury, cellular excitation, the increased energy demands of stress, exposure to toxins or ionizing radiation, or even exposure to light. That spontaneous oxidation is what made them useful as varnish or paint medium. But it is what makes them sensitize the tissues to injury. Their "deficiency" in the tissues frequently corresponds to the intensity of oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation; it is usually their presence, rather than their deficiency, that created the disposition for the disease."
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