An article published this week talks about the connection between low omega-3 fats and accelerated brain aging. The researchers found that people with the lowest level of omega-3 fats had brains that looked two years older than those with the highest level of fish oil.
Fish Oil And Damage To The Brain
The size of our brains typically shrink as we get older and more of our brain cells die, but the brain shrinkage in the low-omega-3 group was significantly greater than those with higher omega-3 levels. In addition, the low omega-3 group also had microscopic bright white spots on their brain MRI’s that indicate tiny areas of damage to the structure of the brain. These white spots are linked to an increased risk of death, stroke, and dementia.
People in the low omega-3 group also had less ability to think abstractly, solve problems, and mulit-task.
The study had 1575 participants with an average age of 67 years.
Neurology 2012.[hr]
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