News
Omega-3 fatty acids may reduce risk of heart failure
27 June 2012
Increased intakes of omega-3 fatty acids may significantly reduce heart failure risk, suggests a new data analysis from the US.
11 April 2011
Increased intake of docosahexaenoic acid in baby formula or breast milk is safe and may benefit the growth of the pre-term infants, says a new Australian study.
In the randomized controlled trial, 657 infants born before the 33rd week of pregnancy were randomly assigned to one of four groups (1): Two groups received breast milk and two received formula. One of the groups receiving breast milk and one receiving formula were given a standard docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) dose (0.2-0.3 percent of dietary fatty acids). The other two groups received a higher DHA dose (approx.
1 percent of dietary fatty acids). The feeding experiment was conducted from between two and five days after the pre-term babies were born and continued up to the due date that they had been scheduled to be born. The study results showed that, at 18 months of age, the infants fed the higher dose of DHA were, on average, about 0.7 cm longer and had a greater growth rate in the size of their heads than the babies fed the standard DHA dose. In addition, the trial showed that high dietary intake of DHA has no adverse effects of the growth of premature infants.
The researchers noted that the small difference in head growth was associated with a modest but noticeable increase in the mental development. However, it was not clear if this difference can be considered clinically significant. The association should be further investigated.
27 June 2012
Increased intakes of omega-3 fatty acids may significantly reduce heart failure risk, suggests a new data analysis from the US.
14 November 2013
A new US review concluded that there is only limited evidence that vitamin and mineral supplementation can prevent the development of cancer or cardiovascular disease in healthy people without known nutritional deficiencies. The researchers acknowledge, however, that the data analysis has weaknesses.
6 June 2012
US researchers propose the hypothesis that sleep disorders have become epidemic because of widespread vitamin D deficiency.