A new study has revealed that taking omega 3 fish oil supplements is completely pointless. The pills didn’t even slow down mental decline in one of the 4.000 subjects in the study.
Emily Chew, National Eye Institute deputy clinical director from the National Institutes of Health, offered a statement informing that “The supplements just don’t cut it. If people are thinking [that taking them] is going to help cognitive function, it’s not going to do so among the older age group”.
But she does believe that people may experience a slow down in mental decline if they incorporate foods that are rich in omega 3 fatty acids into their diets – walnuts, flaxseed and salmon, to name a few. Chew went on to add that consuming these foods benefits not jut the brain, but also the heart.
In order to reach these conclusions, the deputy clinical director and her team looked at a number of subjects who were on the verge of experiencing macular degeneration because of old age. It’s worth mentioning that a lot of senior Americans also experience vision loss because of this factor.
The research team tested the subjects’ memory, attention and immediate recall three (3) separate times – once when the study began, a second time two (2) years after the study began, and a third time two (2) years after that.
When Chew and her team looked at the results, they concluded that omega 3 fish oil supplements have “no statistically significant effect on cognitive function”.
But they also admitted that their study had some limitations. For starters, the researchers only investigated the potential effects that omega 3 fish oil pills have. They did not also include a control group of people who ate foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids. If they had, they could have compared the results.
The other major reason to conduct future research is that they only looked at individuals with an average age of 73. Chew herself said that neither she nor her colleagues know if omega 3 fish oil supplements can be beneficial to people in a younger age group.
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