“Improving our diet is one way to promote our brain health,” says Dr. Claudia Satizabal of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. “If people could improve their cognitive resilience and potentially ward off dementia with some simple changes to their diet, that could have a large impact on public health. Even better, our study suggests that even modest consumption of omega-3 may be enough to preserve brain function. This is in line with the current American Heart Association dietary guidelines to consume at least two servings of fish per week to improve cardiovascular health.”
The thinking skills along with brain volumes were measured in 2,183 adults with an average age of 46 in this study. Findings suggest that those with the lowest thinking skills had fatty acid levels containing 3.4% omega-3s, while those in the highest levels averaged 5.2% omega-3 content. The optimal level was reported to be over 8%, anything between 4-8% was intermediate, and anything under 4% was considered to be low.
“These results need to be confirmed with additional research, but it’s exciting that omega-3 levels could play a role in improving cognitive resilience, even in middle-aged people,” Satizabal says. Adding that additional research over a prolonged period with a more diverse study population could turn the findings of “eating omega-3 is associated with preserving brain function,” to “eating more omega-3 is proven to preserve brain function.”
