An Important and Easy Way to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease

Copyright (c) 2009 Hope Pope

There has been a lot of talk over the past few years about omega 3 but what a lot of people don't know is how important it really is.

DHA (fish oil) found in Omega 3 has been shown to lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease.

A study reported in the December 26, 2007 issue of "The Journal of Neuroscience", performed at University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA), looked at the relationship between DHA and Alzheimer's disease.

The study showed that DHA may increase the levels of a protein (LR11) in ones body which has been shown to break up the build-up of plaque that is responsible for causing Alzheimer's disease.

Cells from mice, rats, and humans were used by researchers to show that the DHA-induced production of the protein LR11 may help destroy the plaques that are responsible for Alzheimer's disease.

According to this study, the higher the level of LR11 in ones blood, the less likely one will develop Alzheimer's. And vice versa, the lower the levels of LR11 in ones blood, the higher the chances of getting Alzheimer's disease.

Another study done to by Ernst Schaefer, M.D., director of the Lipid Metabolism Laboratory of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. They looked to see if Omega 3 could help prevent dementia The results were published in the November 2006, "Archives of Neurology".

The study involved 899 senior adults. They checked the adults level of DHA in their blood at the onset of the study and then at the end of the study (9.1 years later).

What they found was that there was definitely a relationship between DHA levels in the blood and Alzheimer's Disease. Those with higher levels of DHA in their blood in the beginning developed a lot less cases (47% less risk) of Alzheimers than those with lower levels of DHA in their system.

Eating fish would be the best way to get DHA into the bloodstream, however, due to the dangerously high levels of mercury in fish now (from fish in the ocean and farm raised fish), the negative affects of the mercury can far outweigh the benefits of fish.

Another option is to take DHA supplements... which would be the easiest way to get DHA into the bloodstream.

When shopping for DHA, supplements labeled "DHA", "fish oil" or "cod oil" would all be sufficient; they are all safe ways to get DHA into the bloodstream.