Hugely popular supplement your parents made you take doesnt work: study

Taking a beloved supplement for cognitive health may no longer be a no-brainer.About 19 million American adults — 1 in 5 over age 60 — consume fish oil because they’ve been told it will benefit their brain, heart and chronic inflammation.It’s among the top five most popular supplements in the US, while the global fish oil market is worth a whopping $3.4 billion.But it’s probably time to stop taking the bait.A shocking new study continues to cast doubt on the slippery claims of fish oil, painting the pale-yellow softgels as little more than snake oil.“We all wish there was a silver bullet for preventing Alzheimer’s, but our findings showed that fish oil supplements do not appear to protect brain health,” said Dr.

Hussein Naji Yassine, director of the University of Southern California Center for Personalized Brain Health and lead study investigator.How did so many people fall for this flimflam, hook, line and stinker? As we age, we’re constantly searching for better and easier ways to prevent the cognitive decline that affects about 1 in 9 Americans.The thought is that folks who eat a lot of fish are healthy, so a concentrated dose of marine life must be good for us too.It’s an idea that stretches back to antiquity and gained traction in Boomer homes.Fish oil is a popular source of omega-3s, fatty acids like EPA and DHA that have been shown to support cell function, eye, heart and joint health.“While omega-3s play an important role in forming brain cell connections needed for cognition, our results do not support fish oil supplements as a preventive measure against Alzheimer’s,” Yassine said.USC researchers had a group of 365 fish-averse adults, 55 to 80 years old and at increased risk for Alzheimer’s, take fish oil daily to see if it would help them avoid cognitive decline over the course of two years.The supplement did get into their central nervous system — but it didn’t actually help participants perform better on cognitive tests...