United States: Women must take adequate amounts of omega fatty acids in their daily meals, as researchers discovered unusually low levels of the compounds in women patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
More about the news
The recommendation is based on analysis of blood samples of Alzheimer patients and healthy patients, which found levels of unsaturated fats, including those containing omega fatty acids, were as much as 20 percent less in the Alzheimer women.
Higher levels were not found in men with Alzheimer’s, and this suggests that there could be sex distinctions in the development of the disease and its mutation of the physiologic state of the person.
According to Dr Cristina Legido-Quigley, a senior author on the study at King’s College London, published in the Alzheimer’s & Dementia journal, “The difference between the sexes was the most shocking and unexpected finding,” the Guardian reported.
“There’s an indication that having less of these compounds could be causal in Alzheimer’s, but we need a clinical trial to confirm that,” Legido-Quigley.
There are more Alzheimer’s disease cases in women than men, with a ratio of 2:1.
The disease manifestation in women may be the result of factors such as longer average lifespan, hormonal and immune responses, and educational opportunities, among other variables.
In the most recent study, researchers measured blood concentrations of lipids that are fatlike substances in 306 patients with Alzheimer hard rsquave MozzBottom data-CK LC-SNPEcert capital Chicago.
Lipids may be saturated or unsaturated, the former usually being unhealthy, and the latter, generally speaking, being healthy.
The women with Alzheimer’s disease had a higher saturated lipid and a lower unsaturated lipid level compared with cognitively normal women, whereas such a trend was not observed in men, as the Guardian reported.
Legido-Quigley explained that if issues of liver or metabolism were the culprit, then fewer omega fatty acids would likely have found their way into the brains of women.
There have been long links between healthy diets full of omega-3 fatty acids, like the Mediterranean diet, and the health of the heart, brain, and other organs.
In one study in 2022, middle-aged individuals with increased blood concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids displayed an optimal cognitive performance compared with others.
A number of trials have demonstrated that administration of omega-3 to older individuals has no effect on cognitive processing or enhancement of mental capacity in people already diagnosed with dementia.