Omega 3 Research on Anti-Blindness: Reported in "Sham vs. Wham: The Health Insider"

Increasing intake of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, found in
popular fish-oil supplements, may protect against blindness resulting
from abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye, according to a study
published online by the journal Nature Medicine on June 24. The study
was done in mice, but a clinical trial at Children's Hospital Boston
will soon begin testing the effects of omega-3 supplementation in
premature babies, who are at risk for vision loss. Here's more from
this report about Omega 3 Fish Oil supplementation:

"Abnormal vessel growth is the cause of retinopathy of
prematurity, diabetic retinopathy in adults, and "wet" age-related
macular degeneration, three leading causes of blindness. Retinopathy,
affecting about 4 million diabetic patients and about 40,000 premature
infants in the United States, is a two-step disease that begins with a
loss of blood vessels in the retina (the nerve tissue at the back of
the eye that sends visual signals to the brain). Because of the vessel
loss, the retina becomes oxygen-starved and sends out alarm signals
that spur new vessel growth. But the new vessels grow abnormally and
are malformed, leaky and over-abundant. In the end stage of the
disease, the abnormal vessels pull the retina away from its supporting
layer, and this retinal detachment ultimately causes blindness.

The researchers, led by Lois Smith, MD, PhD, and Kip Connor, PhD,
of Children's Hospital Boston's Department of Ophthalmology and
Harvard Medical School, and John Paul SanGiovanni, ScD, of the
National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institutes of Health, studied
retinopathy in a mouse model, feeding the mice diets that emphasized
either omega-3 fatty acids (comparable to a Japanese diet) or omega-6
fatty acids (comparable to a Western diet).

Mice on the omega-3 diet, rich in DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and
its precursor EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), had less initial vessel
loss in the retina than the omega-6-fed mice: the area with vessel
loss was 40 to 50 percent smaller. As a result, the omega-3 group had
a 40 to 50 percent decrease in pathological vessel growth.

"Our studies suggest that after initial loss, vessels re-grew more
quickly and efficiently in the omega-3-fed mice," says Connor, the
study's first author. "This increased the oxygen supply to retinal
tissue, resulting in a dampening of the inflammatory 'alarm' signals
that lead to pathologic vessel growth."

Because omega-3 fatty acids are highly concentrated in the retina,
a mere 2 percent change in dietary omega-3 intake was sufficient to
decrease disease severity by 50 percent, the researchers note.
Validating their findings, results were virtually identical in mice
whose omega-3 fatty acid levels were increased through genetic means.

"If omega-3 fatty acids, or these anti-inflammatory mediators, are
as effective in humans and they are in mice, simple supplementation
could be a cost-effective intervention benefiting millions of people,"
says Smith, the study's senior investigator. "The cost of blindness is
enormous."

Aside from fish-oil supplements, the most widely available source
of omega-3 fatty acids is coldwater oily fish (wild salmon, herry,
mackerel, anchovies, sardines). The compounds can also be made
synthetically from algae or other non-fish sources.

Its hard to believe, but some doctors are still not recommending Fish
Oil supplements to their patients, as the research continues to pile
up that quality fish oil supplements (pure, free from mercury
contamination) can be one of the most important supplements you take
each day. (This post from "Sham vs. Wham: The Health Insider" - Google
for the full report).

D.

.