EPAX Omega-3 Slowed Mental Decline

LYSAKER, NorwayPatients with Alzheimers disease (AD) given an omega-3 concentrate high in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), in the form of 1050 TG fish oil omega-3, supplied by EPAX (www.epax.com), halted further memory decline while patients on placebo continued to deteriorate, demonstrated Yvonne Freund- Levi, M.D., psychiatrist and geriatrician at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm. The randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled clinical study, published in the Archives of Neurology (63, 10: 1402- 8, 2006), included 204 patients with AD (mean age of 74) whose conditions were stable while receiving acetylcholine esterase inhibitor treatment and who had a Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score of 15 points or more. Participants were randomized to take 1.7 g/d DHA and 0.6 g of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (omega-3 fatty acid-treated group) or placebo for six months; at that point all patients received the omega-3 fatty acid supplementation for another six months.

One hundred seventy-four patients fulfilled the trial. At baseline, mean values for the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale, MMSE, and cognitive portion of the Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale in the two randomized groups were similar. At six months, the decline in cognitive functions as assessed by the latter two scales did not differ between the groups. However, in a subgroup (n = 32) with very mild cognitive dysfunction (MMSE under 27 points), a significant reduction in MMSE decline rate was observed in the omega-3 fatty acid-treated group compared with the placebo group. A similar arrest in decline rate was observed between six and 12 months in the placebo subgroup after receiving the omega- 3 fatty acid supplementation; the treatment was well tolerated. These results are very positive and rather unsuspected, said Freund-Levi. Acetylcholine esterase inhibitors are effective to some extent, but they do not inhibit memory decline. The DHA concentrate seems to do just that.