A study of cognitively normal patients in the Framingham Heart Study offspring cohort found smaller brain volumes associated with lower blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids.
This study was not longitudinal and did not measure change in omega-3 fatty acid levels, brain volume, or cognitive function over time.
Lower blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids are associated with smaller brain volumes and worse cognitive performance, researchers reported.
The structural findings suggest that people with low levels of the nutrients -- found mainly in fish -- have brains that appear to have aged faster than normal, according to Zaldy Tan, MD, of the University of California Los Angeles, and colleagues.
And the cognitive findings suggest they also are likely to lose some of their ability to think abstractly and remember some things, Tan and colleagues reported in the Feb. 28 issue of Neurology.
Lower blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids are "associated with markers of accelerated structural and cognitive aging," the researchers concluded.
For instance, Tan said in a statement, the lower brain volumes "were equivalent to about two years of structural brain aging."
But he and colleagues cautioned that the findings are based a snapshot study, so there are no measurements of rates of change of either brain volume or cognitive performance.
The fatty acids studied were docosahexaenoic and eicosapentaenoic acid (DHA and EPA, respectively)
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