Fish oil no help to those with Alzheimer's

Daily supplements of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) were ‘not useful’ in reducing cognitive decline associated with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease, says a new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Researchers report that DHA at a dose of 2 grams per day did not affect cognitive and functional abilities after 18 months of supplementation.

The concern with this study is that it focused on supplementing DHA in individuals who were currently coping with Alzheimer’s disease. It didn’t answer the question of whether DHA—taken over long periods of time and several years prior to disease onset—could have helped prevent these participants from developing the disease. Further, the study only tested DHA under the assumption that it could be used as a treatment, which is highly unlikely given how little we know about Alzheimer’s disease.

The results echo those presented at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna, which suggested that DHA may improve both memory function and heart health in healthy older adults, but the omega-3 had no general impact on the cognitive health of people with mild to moderate Alzheimer's.

Steve - for those with Alzheimer's, taking fish oil has myriad benefits. However, to use as a treatment to slow the decline is a bit of a stretch. Studying supplements like they do medications is the wrong approach. A study on fish oil's preventive benefits over a long period of time is what researchers should be focusing on.

One other aspect of the study that should be questioned is the subjects use of DHA derived from algae instead of fish.

Here is a study geared more to the effectiveness of fish oil: A study published in the November's Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association suggests that taking docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) may improve memory and learning in older adults with mild cognitive impairments. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to evaluate the effects of DHA -- the principle omega-3 fatty acid in the brain -- on improving cognitive functions in healthy older adults with age-related cognitive decline. The study found that DHA taken for six months improved memory and learning in healthy, older adults with mild memory complaints. While the MIDAS study focused on a population of healthy adults with age-associated memory impairment, a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), conducted in a population that had previously been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, did not indicate DHA provided a statistically significant benefit to cognitive function. The lead author of the JAMA study also highlighted that their results may have been different had DHA been administered before the participants' disease progressed.