Omega-3 fatty acids, abundant in fish and fish oil supplements, are promising for maintaining lung health, according to new research from a sizable, thorough study in healthy individuals funded by the National Institutes of Health. The study highlights the importance of consuming omega-3 fatty acids, especially in light of the fact that many Americans do not consume enough of them, and provides the most compelling evidence of this connection to date. “We know a lot about the role of diet in cancer and cardiovascular diseases, but the role of diet in chronic lung disease is somewhat understudied,” said corresponding author Patricia A. Cassano, PhD, director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. “This study adds to growing evidence that omega-3 fatty acids, which are part of a healthy diet, may also be important for lung health.”
Whether nutritional therapies could aid in the fight against lung illness has recently gained more attention. Because of their well-documented anti-inflammatory effects, omega-3 fatty acids have been linked to promising results in earlier studies. However, until recently, there haven’t been any reliable investigations of this link. To learn more, researchers developed a two-part study investigating the link between omega-3 fatty acid levels in the blood and lung function over time. In the first part, the researchers conducted a longitudinal, observational study involving 15,063 Americans from the NHLBI Pooled Cohorts Study, a large collection of NIH-funded studies that helps researchers to study determinants of personalized risk for chronic lung disease. The participants studied were generally healthy when the study began, and the majority had no evidence of chronic lung disease. They comprised a racially diverse group of adults, with an average age of 56 years, and 55 per cent were female. The researchers followed participants for an average of seven years and up to 20 years. The longitudinal study showed that higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in a person’s blood were associated with a reduced rate of lung function decline.
Source: ANI