Eating fish appears to knock a few years
off your mental age -- in a good way.
Elderly people who ate fish at least once a week had
the mental functioning of a person three years younger
than their chronological age, while those who ate fish
twice weekly or more turned the clock back four years.
"It appears as if it's helping to keep the brain healthy,"
Dr. Martha Clare Morris of Rush University Medical Center
in Chicago, the study's lead author stated.
Seafood is rich in omega-3 acids. One of these acids
in particular, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is essential
for the development of the brain in early life, she explained.
More recent research suggests DHA may be key for people
at the other end of the age spectrum as well, she added.
"It does look like it's as important as well in old age,
or maybe just in general, for brain functioning," Morris
said.
In the current study, she and her colleagues followed
3,718 people 65 and older for six years. All were interviewed
at home three times in the course of the study.
Participants who ate fish once a week showed a 10% slower
decline in their mental function, equivalent to a three-year
reduction in mental age, while eating fish twice a week
or more slowed the decline by 13%, equivalent to four
years.
A separate analysis of omega-3 fatty acid consumption
did not find it affected cognitive function, but Morris
said this may have been because their information was
not precise enough. She and her colleagues have launched
another study to look specifically at the effect of these
nutrients on mental function.
Nevertheless, she adds, the findings do suggest eating
fish protects the brain, either through its own fatty
acid content or by knocking foods high in saturated fat,
like red meat, off the menu.
SOURCE: Archives of Neurology, December 2005.
