Link:http://www.dsm.com/campaigns/talkingnutrition/en_US/talkingnutrition-dsm-com/2014/05/omega-3_fatty_acids_and_traumatic_brain_injury.html
Title: Can Omega-3 Fatty Acids help Reduce Sports-Related Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
Author: Julia Bird
Summary:
A lot of people, who play sports, are dealing with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI). Even though some of TBIs only cause short term problem, the resulting effects of a mild TBI can last for moths and requires rehabilitations. Since Omega-3 fatty acids are part of the membrane structure and important to the brain function, docosahexaenoic acid(DHA), and eicosapentaenoic acid(EPA) can be helpful for brain recovery. What happens after a TBI is that the DHA level is reduced which result in a higher need of DHA for the brain to recover. Also, TBI causes damage to brain cells, disputes their metabolism, and increases the oxidative stress; in this case, DHA can help normalize metabolic processes. The effects are still untested on human even though it works in animal models.
I found this article very interesting and thought it linked quite well to mine, which is about how omega-3 fatty acids help maintain the health of the eye (http://www.allaboutvision.com/nutrition/fatty_acid_1.htm). They never really specified in my article how omega-3 fatty acids helped the eye from a biological standpoint, so I wonder if omega-3 fatty acids are part of the membrane structure of eye cells like they are with brain cells. As someone who loves to watch football and has seen all the new technology they have tried to use to help with concussions, I wonder if omega-3 fatty acids will soon become a more prevalent part of treatment.
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of like my article http://nrt3.com/omega-3-fatty-acids-reduce-stroke-brain-damage-us-study/75557/ that talks about omega-3 fatty acids repairing brain damage in stroke patients. DHA is a key source to help the brain recover from any type of brain damage because DHA is typically lost during a brain damaging event. Injecting DHA in patients who experienced brain damage may help them recover. This strategy has worked on animal models so it is promising that it will work on humans.
ReplyDeleteSubject is relevant topic to a lot of discussion in America over the risks of impact sports. Summary is slightly unclear as to whether DHA and EPA are Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Are these fatty acids supplied to the body through medication or diet? This idea seems like a viable candidate for us to study because as the article stated more research is needed to know for sure the positive connection between fatty acids and treating brain injuries.
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ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to see if the mechanism by which DHA normalizes metabolism is something that has been studied. It could also be studied if the source of DHA (diet or supplement) affects the effectiveness of the FA in the brain.
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