A new study has found that older people with less omega-3 in their blood are more likely to suffer from dementia. The study involved about 1000 persons 65 or older randomly sampled from two Italian towns. They were given mental tests and divided into three groups: no cognitive impairment; cognitive impairment but not demented; and demented. In addition, their blood was measured. Worse mental function was more strongly associated with total omega-3 fatty acids (p = .01) than any of the other fatty acid measures.
One more reason to think that consuming more omega-3 might improve your brain function.
This is another good reason to take Fish Oil or Flaxseed oil daily.
Do we know that taking supplements results in higher levels of omega-3 in the blood?
And is there some threshold effect, where if your blood levels are above X then adding more Omedga 3 does not help?
the study emphasizes the deficiency of alpha-linolenic acid levels in people with dementia. Flax seed oil is especially high in alpha-linolenic acid. the benefit of fish oil is that it is higher in DHA. as i recall it ALA can be converted into DHA, but it takes a lot to produce a relatively small amount of DHA.
Positive omega-3 story from NPR. Also an explanation (at the end of the audio version) why there’s no mercury in fish oil supplements (it’s refined and distilled).
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15823852