100% Customer Satisfaction Guarantee
America's #1 Rated Catalog/Internet Brand
Based on Customer Satisfaction†
Lee Swanson Research Update
Omega-3 May Curb Unhealthy Blood Vessel Growth in Eyes
November 2007
“Supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids may be of benefit in preventing retinopathy (the abnormal development of blood vessels in the eye),” according to a study involving mice, which was published in the online edition of Nature Medicine.
Three leading causes of blindness are age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy related to premature birth.
If the study findings apply to people as well as mice, “simple supplementation [with omega-3 fatty acids] could be a cost-effective intervention benefiting millions of people,” says Lois Smith, M.D., Ph.D. Smith works in the ophthalmology department of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston.
Smith and colleagues studied omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in newborn mice. The body needs omega-3s and omega-6s and must get those fatty acids through diet or supplements. Western diets tend to be heavy on omega-6s and skimpy on omega-3s.
Smith’s team added omega-3s or omega-6s to the diets of female mice that had just given birth. The mother mice passed the omega-3s or omega-6s to their newborns through their breast milk. The omega-3 supplements were given at a dose similar to that of the traditional Japanese diet. The omega-6 supplements were given at a dose like that of a typical Western diet.
The baby mice were exposed to high levels of oxygen for five days, starting when they were one week old. Those conditions put the eye at risk of losing healthy blood vessels, which sets the stage for abnormal blood vessels to develop.
The newborn mice kept more of the healthy blood vessels in their eyes if their mothers’ diets were supplemented with omega-3s instead of omega-6s. With more of their healthy blood vessels intact, the newborn mice in the omega-3 group were less likely to have abnormal blood vessels develop in their eyes. In short, omega-3s reduced retinopathy before it started.
Published online in Nature Medicine
