2023-06-29 06:33:08
According to a new study conducted by the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids, in particular alpha linolenic acid (ALA), a nutrient found in foods like flaxseeds, walnuts, and chia, canola, and soybean oils , is associated with less functional decline in patients with Charcot’s disease (or ALS). The latter is a fatal disease affecting the brain and the nerves that control motor muscles, leading to progressive paralysis of the whole body.
More alpha linolenic acid in the body, fewer deaths
In an eighteen-month study of 449 ALS patients, researchers found that patients with higher blood levels of ALA saw their disease progress more slowly and had a 50% lower risk of death compared to those with lower ALA levels. This is independent of other factors in the progression of the disease such as BMI, ethnicity, duration of symptoms, family history of the disease, or treatment intake (in particular the use of riluzole, a drug acting on the nervous system).
As lead study author Kjetil Bjornevik of Harvard University in Boston reminds us, previous research has also shown that a diet high in ALA can reduce the risk of developing this disease .
During this study, the researchers also found fewer deaths in individuals with higher plasma concentrations of two other polyunsaturated fatty acids: linoleic acid (an omega-6 found in vegetable oils, nuts, meat, seeds and eggs) and Eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA (an omega-3 found in certain marine products – oily fish, krill – or which is synthesized by the body from ALA.
If the explanations for this possible protective effect are not clear, remember that regarding 60% of the brain is made up of fatty acids (70% of them omega-3) and that omega-3 fatty acids have known anti-inflammatory and neuro-protective virtues.
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Which foods contain the most alpha linoleic acid?
It should be specified that these studies are at this stage observationalthat is to say that they are content to note, a posteriori, a correlation between two facts (here the fact of having high blood levels of ALA and a lesser progression of the disease), but they do not do not allow a clear causality to be demonstrated.
This is why, faced with these extremely encouraging results, the research team is lobbying to obtain funding for the realization of a randomized interventional therapeutic trial high level of evidence. This would make it possible to prove and quantify the specific impact of essential fatty acid supplementation on the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. But since ALA is not a patentable product, researchers depend most of the time for this kind of research on public funding.
In the meantime, interested patients can discuss with their doctor the possibility of setting up a diet or supplementing with this type of fatty acid, which is mainly found in the following foods:
Foods from terrestrial plants: walnuts, rapeseed, soybean, linseed oil, etc.
Foods from marine animals: fatty fish like salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring, sardines and anchoviesthe krilletc.
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