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03.09.2022

Combination of vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids improves neurological recovery after concussion

Blows to the head can damage the brain. If you get such traumatic brain injuries several times in a row, your chances of developing a condition such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease. Supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins may offer a solution.

Sleep & longevity
Researchers from the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine gave one group of rats a mild concussion, [Hit] and left another group of rats undamaged. [No Hit] They then divided both groups of test animals into two groups again. One group received standard food, [CON] for 30 days, while the other group received extra vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids in addition to standard feed. [AIDM]

If the rats had been adult humans, they would have received about 15,000 units of vitamin D3 and 1,100 milligrams of omega-3 fatty acids daily. Readers of this free web magazine will of course realize that these doses are on the high side, to put it euphemistically - and that they don't have to take these doses themselves.

When brains are damaged by a physical blow, they contain more proteins such as tau, glial fibrillary acidic protein [GFAP], ubiquitin c-terminal hydrolase L1 [UCH-L1] and neurofilament light chain [NF-L]. So the researchers looked at the concentration of those proteins in the brains of the rats.

Results
48 hours after the concussion, all rats, regardless of whether or not they received extra vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, had an increased concentration of neurofilament light chain. Later in the experiment, this concentration normalized.

The situation was different with the concentration of tau protein, glial fibrillary acidic protein and ubiquitin c-terminal hydrolase L1. When the Americans measured these concentrations 30 days after the concussion, they saw a significant increase in the rats that had a concussion but had not received any supplements. In the test animals that had consumed extra vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acids, a concussion did not lead to an increase in these three proteins.

Click on the figures below for a larger version.

Conclusion
"Consistent with this, our findings suggest that a combination of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D could serve as easily accessible and inexpensive dietary supplements that can combat neuroinflammation and promote brain tissue repair after mild traumatic brain injury", resumeren de onderzoekers", write the researchers.

Source:
Front Nutr. 2021 Jun 4;8:685220.

More:
DHA combined with exercise protects brain against knocks (6-7-2014)
Fish oil for boxers (30-6-2011)

Archives:
Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Vitamin D
Vitamins

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