Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Sunday October 30 2016, @06:12AM   Printer-friendly
from the fish-heads-fish-heads...-eat-them-all-up dept.

New research published online in The FASEB Journal suggests that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are found in fish oil, could improve the function of the glymphatic system, which facilitates the clearance of waste from the brain, and promote the clearance of metabolites including amyloid-β peptides, a primary culprit in Alzheimer's disease.

To make this discovery, scientists first used transgenic fat-1 mice, which express high endogenous omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the brain, to investigate the effect of omega-3 PUFAs on the clearance function of the glymphatic system. Compared to the wild-type mice, the fat-1 mice with enriched endogenous omega-3 PUFAs significantly promote the clearance function of the lymphatic system, including the Aβ clearance from the brain. Wild-type mice were supplemented with fish oil, which contains high concentrations of omega-3 PUFAs, and found that fish oil-supplemented mice also improved the clearance function of the glymphatic system compared to the control mice without fish oil supplementation. Omega-3 PUFAs help maintain the brain homeostasis, which may provide benefits in a number of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, and sleep impairment, among others.

An abstract is available at The FASEB Journal [Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology].

Take your fish oil pills. Similar benefit potentially derived from eating the fish. So go fishing.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by julian on Sunday October 30 2016, @05:37PM

    by julian (6003) Subscriber Badge on Sunday October 30 2016, @05:37PM (#420571)

    I used to take the fish oil pills but was concerned with the issue you described, and with regulation in general. While I believe any fish oil capsule sold in the USA will be safe for consumption it might not be as potent as they claim.

    Instead I started eating the fish directly. Canned sardines (pilchards) in olive oil are cheap and taste similar to tuna; a bit fishier but still palatable. It was also a good way to get more protein in my diet when I started exercising more. I don't really like them, but I don't dislike them either. I look at them as medicine. They don't have the problem that the large predator fish have of mercury accumulation--I wouldn't eat a can of tuna every day. They eat plankton, grow quickly, and have short lifespans so they don't accumulate heavy metals as readily as species at higher trophic levels.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3