Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. 254 Norwegian patients were given fatty acid supplementation. EPA was the only fatty acid out of the 22 tested that was significantly associated with a decreased risk of death in this population. The risk of death diminished as the concentration of supplemented EPA increased.

Known to be “essential in human nutrition” (1), omega-3 fatty acids (O3FA) first gained attention from the medical community when they observed the low frequency of coronary heart disease among Eskimos exposed to a diet rich in fish (2).

Now a new study (3) has found that at least one in four elderly can benefit from O3FA supplementation and help with survival. Researchers selected 254 patients from a hospital in Norway with an average age of 82. They all had at least one mental or physical condition used in previous research (4) that included chronic disability, vision/hearing impairment, depression, malnutrition, mild or moderate dementia, and polypharmacy (taking at least 5 drugs per day). Their blood samples were taken to measure for blood levels of 22 different fatty acids including EPA, a fat found in fish oil.

The researchers found that of the 22 fatty acids tested, “EPA was the only fatty acid significantly associated with risk of death in this population.” After three years, deaths in the low-EPA group were 33% higher than the high-EPA group (55 vs. 46 deaths) and overall survival rate was nearly one year longer in the high-EPA group (2.4 years vs. 1.5 years). This added up to a 48% lower risk of all-cause mortality for those in the upper 75% of EPA blood levels compared to the lowest 25%, showing that there is a threshold with EPA and the risk of death. While heart disease was the number one cause of death in both the high- and low-EPA groups, 20.6% (13 cases among 63 patients) of the low-EPA patients were diagnosed with heart disease compared to only 12.6% (24 cases among 191 patients) in the high-EPA group.

For the researchers, “overall mortality in frail, elderly, acutely sick patients was inversely and non-linearly associated with EPA concentrations” and that “approximately 25% of the population had EPA concentrations below the indicated threshold for maximal protection, suggesting that only this part of the population might have benefited from additional EPA intake.”

Note: This study was preliminary and should be verified with a larger number of participants.

Source: Lindberg, Morten, Ingvild Saltvedt, Olav Sletvold, and Kristian S. Bjerve. “Long-chain n− 3 fatty acids and mortality in elderly patients.” The American journal of clinical nutrition 88, no. 3 (2008): 722-729.

© 2008 American Society for Clinical Nutrition

Posted October 17, 2008.

References:

  1. Bjerve KS n_3 fatty acid deficiency in man. J Intern Med Suppl 1989; 731:171–5.
  2. Bang HO, Dyerberg J, Nielsen AB. Plasma lipid and lipoprotein pattern in Greenlandic West-coast Eskimos. Lancet 1971;1:1143–5.
  3. Lindberg M, Long-chain n_3 fatty acids and mortality in elderly patients 2008;88:722–9.
  4. Winograd CH, Gerety MB, Chung M, Goldstein MK, Dominguez F Jr, Vallone R. Screening for frailty: criteria and predictors of outcomes. J Am Geriatr Soc 1991;39:778–84.