Contact: Mary Ann Schultz or John Pontarelli
Phone: 312-942-7816 or 312-942-5579
Email: Mary_Ann_Schultz@rush.edu or jpontare@rush.edu

Eating foods that contain n-3 fatty acids (found in foods including fish, nuts and oil-based salad dressings) and weekly consumption of fish may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD) later in life, according to an article in the July issue of The Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

According to the article, brain cell membranes contain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Previous studies show that lab animals fed diets enriched with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids have better nerve function and enhanced learning and memory.

Martha Clare Morris, Sc.D., of Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center, Chicago, and colleagues examined whether consumption of fish and n-3 fatty acids was associated with reduced risk of AD.

The researchers studied 815 residents of a south side Chicago community who were aged 65 to 94 years old who did not have AD at the beginning of the study and who completed a dietary questionnaire an average of 2.3 years before they were evaluated for AD. The study was conducted between 1993 and 2000.

The researchers found that a total of 131 participants developed AD over an average follow up of 3.9 years. Participants who ate fish once a week or more had a 60 percent lower risk of AD compared with those who rarely or never ate fish. The overall consumption of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids was associated with a reduced risk for AD. The researchers also found that the associations remained unchanged when they adjusted for consumption of other dietary fats and vitamin E consumption.

"A large number of animal studies have demonstrated that dietary n-3 fatty acids increased learning acquisition and memory performance, and 2 epidemiologic studies found decreased risk of Alzheimer disease with increased fish consumption," write the authors. "These studies, together with our finding that consumption of fish and n-3 fatty acids was associated with reduced risk of Alzheimer disease, provide a strong basis for further study through epidemiologic investigations and clinical trials. Our findings suggest that consumption of fish (at least weekly), oil-based salad dressings and nuts may reduce the risk of Alzheimer disease," the researchers conclude.