by Brian Bushard – Forbes
Researchers have developed a new omega-3 fatty acid that could potentially stave off visual declines in Alzheimer’s patients, according to a new study published Monday, though there is still no cure for the debilitating disease, which affects nearly 6 million Americans.
Researchers at the University of Illinois, Chicago, developed an omega-3 fatty acid called docosahexaenoic acid, which they say can cross into the retina of an eye to reduce visual declines among people with Alzheimer’s disease—the most common type of dementia that slowly erodes cognitive abilities and memory.
In lab tests using mice, researchers found the intake of the fatty acid increased the presence of the acid in the mice’s retinas and reduced visual impairments similar to those in human Alzheimer’s patients.
The acid, also called DHA, is different from a similar omega-3 acid found in the daily supplement fish oil, which researchers say cannot travel to the retina from the bloodstream.
