Harvard examine: Fish oil doesn’t stop despair

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close-up of a small pile of fish oil supplement capsules

Fish oil (omega-3 fatty acid) dietary supplements are generally used to assist stop coronary heart illness, deal with inflammatory circumstances, and handle current despair. However fish oil doesn’t stop despair in wholesome older adults, in keeping with a randomized examine led by Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Olivia Okereke and printed on-line Dec. 21, 2021, by JAMA. Researchers studied about 18,000 depression-free adults (ages 50 or older) for 5 to seven years. About half have been assigned to take a every day 1,000-miligram fish oil complement. The opposite half took a placebo (an inactive tablet). “That is the biggest and longest randomized trial of fish oil within the prevention of despair. We discovered that it didn’t cut back depressive signs or enhance temper in wholesome older adults, and the dietary supplements shouldn’t be used for this specific goal,” says Dr. JoAnn Manson, the examine’s senior writer and chief of preventive drugs at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Girls’s Hospital. There could also be different approaches that assist stave off despair, resembling getting sufficient sleep, exercising recurrently, consuming a plant-based weight-reduction plan, and staying socially linked — although we don’t have conclusive proof any of those methods work. “However we all know a wholesome way of life is tremendously necessary for stopping many power ailments, together with coronary heart illness, stroke, diabetes, and lots of types of most cancers,” Manson says.



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