Research Summary Archives

Alzheimer’s disease, a progressive and debilitating form of dementia, is most common among older adults. In the U.S., 1 in 8 people aged 65 and older or about 5.4 million of all ages have the condition. This number is predicted to treble to more than 13 million by 2050 because more people are living...

Substantial evidence links low blood concentrations of long-chain PUFAs (LC-PUFAs), especially n-3 LC-PUFAs, to the risk of depressive illness, yet the data are inconsistent. For example, serum n-3 LC-PUFAs were not associated with severe depression in middle-aged Finnish men, but were significan...

The development and characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease have been extensively described, centered largely on the deposition of sheets of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides as extracellular plaques and the protein tau as intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (Figure 1). The disease increases the produc...

DHA is critical to the development of brain structure and function, neurotrophic factor expression, neurogenesis, neurite outgrowth, synaptogenesis and plasticity and other aspects of a healthy brain. Studies suggest that infants whose mothers have higher DHA status have improved cognition and at...

Many studies of infant development have reported improved visual, cognitive and neurodevelopmental scores in infants with higher consumption of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Improvements have been easier to demonstrate in preterm infants compared with term infants because of the nu...

Some evidence suggests that depressive symptoms and lower cognition performance go hand in hand in older adults. A high rate of depressive episodes has been reported in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and it has been suggested that depressive symptoms may affect an individual’s perception of cogni...

There have been several encouraging studies reporting improved symptoms in depressive illness among those who consumed long-chain (seafood) omega-3s. Other research has observed lower levels of these fatty acids in patients with heart disease and/or depressive illness. The benefits to heart health o...

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive and debilitating form of dementia in which brain tissue is gradually destroyed (Figure). It occurs most frequently among older adults. In the U.S., 1 in 8 people aged 65 and older—about 5.4 million Americans of all ages—have the condition. With people living long...

DHA, one of the main long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in seafoods, is found in large quantities in brain where it affects the structure and function of neurons and the growth of new ones. It has been linked to cognitive function, attention, visual acuity, behavior and some psychiatric disorders. It al...

There is an extensive accumulation of studies linking low intakes of long-chain or seafood omega-3 fatty acids (seafood omega-3s) with a greater likelihood of developing depressive symptoms. Eating little or no seafood has also been associated with higher risks of this condition across several co...

One of the more pressing questions about perinatal depressive symptoms is why some women develop the condition and others do not. A history of depressive illness, high levels of stress and adverse socioeconomic conditions increase the risk of a woman’s developing depressive symptoms, but other facto...

The World Health Organization estimates that perinatal depressive disorders affect between 10% and 40% of women worldwide. In low- and middle-income countries, the average prevalence of common perinatal mental disorders was estimated at 15.9%. Rates in developed countries tend to be lower, ranging f...