Blogs by Frank P Ryan
Do omega-3 really keep you healthy in mind?
11/10/2010 2:19:36 AM
This is a very important question. I could provide a very lengthy answer -- I've written two books on the omega-3s -- but will keep this brief.
In 2007 a London-based agency asked my advice on this very important question. The reason they came to me was that I co-wrote The Eskimo Diet, published in 1990, which pioneered the wider awareness of omega-3s in heart attack prevention. Since then I have been involved with helping to spread the anti-heart attack message. I had known for almost two decades that one of the fish-associated omega-3s, DHA, had a very important role to play in normal brain chemistry, and so I had long been interested in a potential role in mental health.
Anyway, in 2007 I was commissioned to research the up-to-date situation. What I found in reading the latest research, and talking to colleagues, was that the evidence in 2007 that omega-3s help cognition at any age was as strong as the evidence in 1990 for heart attack prevention. This prompted me to write The Brain Food Diet: How to Stay Young in Mind.
Very important papers on academic progress in children, effects on cognition in middle and old age, and also a beneficial effect on longevity, through improving the damage to telomeres (the end bits of chromosomes), have all been published in recent years, and most of these are pointing towards benefit. Some of the best trials have shown a linear dose-effect relationship, which in my experience is very supportive of a direct beneficial effect.
In the past it wasn't possible to do strict double-blind placebo-controlled trials with fish -- what placebo could you use in place of fish as a control? But now we have the two key omega-3s, EPA and DHA, in pure manufactured formulations, this type of trial has become possible. Very big studies in prevention of cognitive decline with age, and also in early Alzheimer's disease, are now being conducted in the US, UK, and elsewhere, so we look forward to this final level of proof over the next decade.
If people would like scientific references, they are free to contact me and I'll provide them.
In the meantime?
I think we go on the weight of evidence, which is distinctly positive.
<
Comments (1)
More Blogs by Frank P Ryan
• Trilogy coming to completion - Friday, April 19, 2024
• The Sea of Stars - Thursday, January 27, 2022
• The Twins of Moon Book 2 - Tuesday, May 11, 2021
• Closure of my website - Monday, July 6, 2020
• Thoughts of the day - Monday, September 23, 2019
• The Twins of Moon - Saturday, May 4, 2019
• Free downloads to help would be authors - Wednesday, May 4, 2016
• First US publication of The Sword of Feimhin - Saturday, February 6, 2016
• New Therapy Aimed At Curing MS - Wednesday, January 20, 2016
• Welcome to the Golden Age of Genetics - Sunday, January 3, 2016
• New dangerous virus on the go - Sunday, January 3, 2016
• New Stand Alone Novel - Sunday, January 3, 2016
• Thank you, America - Wednesday, December 23, 2015
• Giveaway of the US version of The Mysterious World of the Human Genome - Wednesday, December 9, 2015
• symbiosis ain't about love - Tuesday, December 8, 2015
• Starred Kirkus Review of Mysterious World - Tuesday, November 17, 2015
• Review copies of The Return of the Arinn Going Out - Friday, October 30, 2015
• Christmas offers - Saturday, October 24, 2015
• The Return of the Arinn - Saturday, October 17, 2015
• Free tutorial on writing your own fantasy short story - Saturday, October 17, 2015
• Making contact with Indian readers - Wednesday, October 7, 2015
• Get on board the giveaway train - Monday, October 5, 2015
• Two new kindles selling in six countries - Wednesday, September 30, 2015
• Considering new fantasy - Friday, September 25, 2015
• first class low cost kindle set up - Friday, September 25, 2015
• Virus X in kindle for the first time - Friday, September 25, 2015
• The history of the omega-3s - Thursday, September 3, 2015
• The Legendary Anne Rice loves The Mysterious World of the Human Genome - Thursday, September 3, 2015
• No 1 - Sunday, August 30, 2015
• Close to publication of Return of the Arinn - Wednesday, August 26, 2015
• Producing the kindle - Sunday, August 16, 2015
• Virus X in kindle - Thursday, August 13, 2015
• Five Star Extravaganza - Thursday, August 6, 2015
• Darwin's Blind Spot on Kindle - Monday, August 3, 2015
• Doris Lessing's despair - Sunday, August 2, 2015
• Encouraging everybody to understand their very personal genome - Saturday, July 25, 2015
• Littrell review of The Mysterious World - Thursday, July 23, 2015
• 50 stars for my fantasy/ science fiction to date - Wednesday, July 15, 2015
• new treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome - Thursday, July 9, 2015
• Coming soon - more previews - Wednesday, July 8, 2015
• Only four months to go - Thursday, July 2, 2015
• Is Angelina Jolie's BRCA gene a - Friday, June 26, 2015
• Architecture in Epic Fantasy - Thursday, June 25, 2015
• The Forgotten Plague - Thursday, June 25, 2015
• My earlier books - Thursday, June 25, 2015
• Helpful illustrations - Friday, June 19, 2015
• Mysterious World now published - Thursday, June 18, 2015
• Returning to my epic fantasy - Wednesday, June 17, 2015
• Do you have any questions about the human genome? - Wednesday, June 17, 2015
• First public lecture - Tuesday, June 16, 2015
• Something amazing going on - Sunday, June 14, 2015
• Marketing begins - Thursday, June 11, 2015
• Arrival of first books - Wednesday, June 10, 2015
• Looking forward to my first talk on new book - Saturday, June 6, 2015
• A Glorious June Morning - Thursday, June 4, 2015
• Sword of Feimhin raised - Thursday, September 4, 2014
• while they're at the brewery . . . - Tuesday, September 2, 2014
• The American Dimension - Saturday, August 30, 2014
• The Holobiontic Nature of the Human Genome - Saturday, August 30, 2014
• Third book in the series coming soon - Friday, August 29, 2014
• What am I doing today? - Friday, November 12, 2010
• What is a book? - Thursday, November 11, 2010
• Do omega-3 really keep you healthy in mind? - Wednesday, November 10, 2010
• Fantasy Fest - Friday, November 5, 2010
|
