Article: DHA effects in Brain Development and Function
Authors: Lotte Lauritzen, Paolo Brambilla, Alessandra Mazzocchi, Laurine B. S. Harslof, Valentina Ciappolino, and Carlo Agostoni
Source: MDPI Nutrients
Date: 4 January 2016
Link: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/1/6/htm
Summary:
The brain accumulates DHA the most following the two years after a child is born, after this period, DHA accretion continues into childhood, but at a much slower rate. Afterwords, the level of DHA is maintained. A study found that children who were supplemented with LC-PUFA formulas after being born or after breastfeeding, scored higher on problem solving tests. This effect is greatly enhanced by the region in which the child is being supplemented. In low-income countries, children that take fish oil supplements are shown to benefit more from supplementation than children in high-income countries. Another effect that DHA supplementation had on children is that they were in more control of there mood. In a study with 450 children, 8-10 year old children were supplemented with fish oil and were shown to have a reduction in impulsivity in anti-social behavior.
Interestingly, a study of 4000 American children has shown that cognitive performance increase was stronger in girls than in boys, it could be possible that the different anatomy of boys and girls could contribute to this. Another gender related effect is related to the arterial blood pressure after omega-3 supplementation. Boys who had fish oil supplementation had reduced blood pressure, while the girls were unaffected.
In a study with patients ranging greater than 65 years old, those complaining of mild memory loss showed an improvement in memory after being supplemented 0.9 g/day of DHA for 24 weeks. In a study with rats, rats were given a high dietary intake of DHA, which caused an increase in DHA levels in the hippocampus. The mice were shown to have improvement of memory performances. Studies have shown that people with schizophrenia have been shown to be effective in mediated the symptoms of DHA. It is thought that the supplementation of DHA may help to repair the damage caused by oxidative stress.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Omega-3s, Mercury, Apo-E4, and Cognitive Decline
Article: Association between serum long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and cognitive performance in elderly men and women
Author: T A D'Ascoli, J Mursu, S Voutilainen, J Kauhanen, T P Tuomainen, J K Virtanen
Source: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Source Date: April 13th, 2016
Link: http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v70/n8/abs/ejcn201659a.html
Summary: Scientists organized a study to determine if fish intake and the long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that are gained from a high level of fish intake can slow cognitive decline. They studied the effect of 3 PUFAs (EPA, DPA, and DHA) on older individual’s results on various neuropsychological tests, and sought to determine if exposure to methylmercury from fish or the Apo-E4 phenotype had an effect on the potential cognitive benefits of these PUFAs.
In the study, they had 768 people take five neuropsychological
tests: the Trial Making Test, the Verbal Fluency Test, the Selective Reminding Test,
the Visual Reproduction Test and the Mini Mental State Exam. These neuropsychological
tests are made up of specifically designed tasks which are used to measure a
psychological function which is known to be linked to a particular brain
structure or pathway. This is helpful because it can be used in a clinical
setting to diagnose mental deficits in brain function.
After conducting the study, they found that those with high levels
of EPA, DPA, and DHA (specifically DHA) had much better performance in the Trail
Making Test and the Verbal Fluency Test. Hair mercury content only resulted in
decreased performance in the Trail Making Test, and overall, the mercury had
very little effect on the long-chain fatty acids and increased cognitive
performance. In addition, the Apo-E4 phenotype did not affect the increased cognitive
performance that resulted from PUFAs in these tests.
These results are significant because they show that the cognitive
benefits of a diet rich with long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids,
which is usually obtained through a diet rich with seafood, largely nullify the
cognitive risks of the consumption of mercury as well as the risks of the
Apo-E4 phenotype.
Alterations in Cognitive Functions through DHA
Article Title: DHA Effects in Brain Development and Function
Author: Lotte Lauritzen, Paolo Brambilla, Alessandra Mazzocchi , Laurine B. S. Harsløf, Valentina Ciappolino, and Carlo Agostoni
Source: Nutrients Open Access Journal Group (MPDI)
Source Date: January 4, 2016
Link: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/1/6/htm
Summary:
It is believed that the accumulation of DHA in the brain takes place during the brain growth. This will take up to two years of age. After two years of age, the amount of DHA in the brain are kept forever. Minimal DHA expansion after two years happen. The factors to how much DHA a baby receives is based upon maternal transfer & dietry supplements. You get the most DHA accumulation during third trimester of pregnancy. And during the third trimester, the whole-body DHA accretion is about 50 mg/day; AA (arachidonic acid) can be 100 mg/day. Post-natal accumulation of the fatty acids found in infant tissue is from the maternal breastmilk. With this study, they were able to test the IQ from children by examining the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the fatty acid desaturase gene cluster. They based their tests upon 3 groups of children. one is breast-fed, one is formula-fed (LC-PUFA), and the other is normal-fed. The results came out to be that breast-fed children had higher IQ overall among the 2 other categories. And Australia was also generally higher than NZ, UK, and Spain. While this was expected in their study, there was still one unknown factor whether breast-fed children's mothers each had different amounts of Omega-3 intake.
Another study done suggested that the group of kids who continued supplementation were strong at problem solving while only being 9 months of age. However, a contrasting study prove to stronger with children who have low socioeconomic status with a low consumption of fish. On top of that, girls had the opposite effect when they also had iron deficiency anemia. They have done little study with children in high-income countries though. 4000 American children were tested and founded that the omega-3 LC-PUFA consumption was stronger in girls than boys though. The research group believed that they were starting to find a trace of this PUFA study to be an example of gender-related nutrition. They decided to test the omega-3 LC-PUFA intake on 6158 subjects who were over teh age of 65. They discovered that high amounts of fish consumption in these subjects protected their cognitive abilities allowing them to stay mentally healthy.
Author: Lotte Lauritzen, Paolo Brambilla, Alessandra Mazzocchi , Laurine B. S. Harsløf, Valentina Ciappolino, and Carlo Agostoni
Source: Nutrients Open Access Journal Group (MPDI)
Source Date: January 4, 2016
Link: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/1/6/htm
Summary:
It is believed that the accumulation of DHA in the brain takes place during the brain growth. This will take up to two years of age. After two years of age, the amount of DHA in the brain are kept forever. Minimal DHA expansion after two years happen. The factors to how much DHA a baby receives is based upon maternal transfer & dietry supplements. You get the most DHA accumulation during third trimester of pregnancy. And during the third trimester, the whole-body DHA accretion is about 50 mg/day; AA (arachidonic acid) can be 100 mg/day. Post-natal accumulation of the fatty acids found in infant tissue is from the maternal breastmilk. With this study, they were able to test the IQ from children by examining the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the fatty acid desaturase gene cluster. They based their tests upon 3 groups of children. one is breast-fed, one is formula-fed (LC-PUFA), and the other is normal-fed. The results came out to be that breast-fed children had higher IQ overall among the 2 other categories. And Australia was also generally higher than NZ, UK, and Spain. While this was expected in their study, there was still one unknown factor whether breast-fed children's mothers each had different amounts of Omega-3 intake.
Another study done suggested that the group of kids who continued supplementation were strong at problem solving while only being 9 months of age. However, a contrasting study prove to stronger with children who have low socioeconomic status with a low consumption of fish. On top of that, girls had the opposite effect when they also had iron deficiency anemia. They have done little study with children in high-income countries though. 4000 American children were tested and founded that the omega-3 LC-PUFA consumption was stronger in girls than boys though. The research group believed that they were starting to find a trace of this PUFA study to be an example of gender-related nutrition. They decided to test the omega-3 LC-PUFA intake on 6158 subjects who were over teh age of 65. They discovered that high amounts of fish consumption in these subjects protected their cognitive abilities allowing them to stay mentally healthy.
Infants Neuroprotection from Hypoxia-Induced Dopamine Dysfunction by Omega-3s
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5021959/
Article: Maternal dietary supplementation with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids confers neuroprotection to the newborn against hypoxia-induced dopamine dysfunction
Author: Michael J Decker, Karra Jones, Glenda L. Keating, Elizabeth G. Damato, and Rebecca Darrah
Source: NCBI US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
Date: June 7, 2016Summary: A mother's intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may lead to neuroprotection (the recovery or regeneration of the nervous system and its functioning) for newborns against the harmful effects of hypoxia-induced dopamine dysfunction. Hypoxia-induced refers to the deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues and dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is produced in various areas of the brain, including the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area. This neuro-hormone is released by the hypothalamus and serves to release prolactin (a hormone that stimulates milk production after childbirth). Sadly, almost 84% of premature infants suffer hypoxic (lack of oxygen), anoxic (total depletion of oxygen), and ischemic (blood deficiency to brain) difficulties. Of these babies with live births, 8-11% have behavioral, motor, or cognitive dysfunction. Nothing has been found yet to prevent this phenomenon during pregnancy. However, dietary supplementation of omega-3 PUFAs have shown to reduce stroke-induced neuropathy in rats, so studies were expanded to determine whether omega-3s could impact neuroprotection for infants. This research was found by testing newborn rat pups exposed to repetitive hypoxic insults (which imitated the effects of premature childbirth in infants).
Article: Maternal dietary supplementation with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids confers neuroprotection to the newborn against hypoxia-induced dopamine dysfunction
Author: Michael J Decker, Karra Jones, Glenda L. Keating, Elizabeth G. Damato, and Rebecca Darrah
Source: NCBI US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
Date: June 7, 2016Summary: A mother's intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may lead to neuroprotection (the recovery or regeneration of the nervous system and its functioning) for newborns against the harmful effects of hypoxia-induced dopamine dysfunction. Hypoxia-induced refers to the deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues and dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is produced in various areas of the brain, including the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area. This neuro-hormone is released by the hypothalamus and serves to release prolactin (a hormone that stimulates milk production after childbirth). Sadly, almost 84% of premature infants suffer hypoxic (lack of oxygen), anoxic (total depletion of oxygen), and ischemic (blood deficiency to brain) difficulties. Of these babies with live births, 8-11% have behavioral, motor, or cognitive dysfunction. Nothing has been found yet to prevent this phenomenon during pregnancy. However, dietary supplementation of omega-3 PUFAs have shown to reduce stroke-induced neuropathy in rats, so studies were expanded to determine whether omega-3s could impact neuroprotection for infants. This research was found by testing newborn rat pups exposed to repetitive hypoxic insults (which imitated the effects of premature childbirth in infants).
The results were that baseline brain dopamine
levels did not change between rats born to mothers who had consumes omega-3s and
standard rats. Rat pups born to mothers with regular diets who were exposed to
5 days of repetitive hypoxic insults experienced a 57% reduction in striatal
(part of the basal ganglia of the brain) dopamine levels and significant
apoptosis (death of cells). However, the omega-3 rich rat pups experienced no
loss in striatal dopamine levels and only minimal apoptosis. This research is
very promising for the brain development and neuroprotection of infants who are
exposed to hypoxic insults.
Alzheimer's and Omega-3's
http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/full/10.2217/fnl-2016-0008
Future Medicine
March 11 2016
Nicolas G. Bazen
Alzheimer's disease has become more prevalent in recent years. This is because as life spans increase so does the risk for Alzheimer's. While some measures can be taken to prevent alzhiemer's there are currently zero therapies to combat it. Alzheimer's is complex and overall results in cognitive decline. Both synaptic pruning and dendritic spine damage both caused by oxidative stress lead to dementia. DHA is throughout the central nervous system and is concentrated in the synaptic, dendritic, and photo-receptor membranes. DHA in the brain decreases with age and Alzheimer's disease. Even in early stage dementia the amount of DHA is lower. Also an Alzheimer's brain is unable to produce NPD1 (a pufa) effectively which is a defense mechanism. The importance of NPD1 is furthered by when there is oxidative stress in the brain the body counteracts this by producing more NPD1.
DHA has been proven to help prevent cognitive decline in normal brains, but no research shows the effect on brains with dementia. This is because multiple studies have been conducted, but conflicting results have been found. This makes the question of DHA supplementation to combat dementia tough. Another issue is that the intake and absorption of DHA is not well understood. With uptake into the body, Alzheimer's causes the liver enzymes that transfer DHA into the brain to be dysfunctional. Conclusively, how these fatty acids affect dementia has a lot of questions and within the answers to these questions could hold the solutions for preventive measures, slowing of progression, and restoration of brain cells. The issue with much of this research that needs to be done is that it is highly complex with many different factors and that there is no perfect animal to study besides humans that replicate how the brain and dementia work exactly like the human brain.
Future Medicine
March 11 2016
Nicolas G. Bazen
Alzheimer's disease has become more prevalent in recent years. This is because as life spans increase so does the risk for Alzheimer's. While some measures can be taken to prevent alzhiemer's there are currently zero therapies to combat it. Alzheimer's is complex and overall results in cognitive decline. Both synaptic pruning and dendritic spine damage both caused by oxidative stress lead to dementia. DHA is throughout the central nervous system and is concentrated in the synaptic, dendritic, and photo-receptor membranes. DHA in the brain decreases with age and Alzheimer's disease. Even in early stage dementia the amount of DHA is lower. Also an Alzheimer's brain is unable to produce NPD1 (a pufa) effectively which is a defense mechanism. The importance of NPD1 is furthered by when there is oxidative stress in the brain the body counteracts this by producing more NPD1.
DHA has been proven to help prevent cognitive decline in normal brains, but no research shows the effect on brains with dementia. This is because multiple studies have been conducted, but conflicting results have been found. This makes the question of DHA supplementation to combat dementia tough. Another issue is that the intake and absorption of DHA is not well understood. With uptake into the body, Alzheimer's causes the liver enzymes that transfer DHA into the brain to be dysfunctional. Conclusively, how these fatty acids affect dementia has a lot of questions and within the answers to these questions could hold the solutions for preventive measures, slowing of progression, and restoration of brain cells. The issue with much of this research that needs to be done is that it is highly complex with many different factors and that there is no perfect animal to study besides humans that replicate how the brain and dementia work exactly like the human brain.
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