Fish oil supplementation is associated with a reduction in cognitive decline and brain atrophy, a retrospective cohort study of 819 older adults in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative reports.
Subjects included 229 cognitively normal individuals, 397 patients with mild cognitive impairment, and 193 patients with Alzheimer disease, who were administered neuropsychological tests and brain MRI every 6 months. Researchers found:
• The use of fish oil supplements is associated with significantly lower scores on the cognitive subscale of the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale and higher scores on the Mini-Mental State Examination in subjects with normal cognition.
• Fish oil use was associated with better outcomes only in APOE e3-negative participants.
• Fish oil use was also associated with less brain atrophy in cerebral cortex gray matter and/or hippocampus and ventricular volumes.
Citation: Daiello LA, Gongvatana A, Dunsiger S, Cohen RA, Ott BR; Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Association of fish oil supplement use with preservation of brain volume and cognitive function. Alzheimers Dement. 2015;11(2):226-235. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2014.02.005.