Fish oil 'wards off asthma'

http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=373

Kylie Walker, " Fish oil 'wards off asthma'", Hearld Sun, Australia,
November 3, 2004,
Link: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...5E1702,00.html

FISH oil supplements appear to ward off asthma symptoms in young
children with a family history of allergies, Australian researchers
have found.

Children who consumed higher amounts of omega-3 fatty acids from birth
were 10 per cent less likely to experience coughing and wheezing at
the age of three, Sydney University's Professor Craig Mellis and
colleagues found.

"It's very hard to know who's got asthma and who hasn't in
preschoolers," Prof Mellis told AAP.

"But we are starting to see a reduction in respiratory or asthma-like
symptoms in the group that took the fish oil."

In a study of 616 children with a family history of asthma and
allergies, one-quarter was exposed to increased omega-3 fatty acid
from birth, one-quarter lived in households where anti-dust mite
measures were taken, one-quarter did both and the remainder did
neither.

"The dust mite avoidance group didn't have any reduction in any of
their respiratory symptoms at the age of three, but the fish oil
supplement is looking promising," Prof Mellis said.

"If dust mite avoidance doesn't work, then at least we can tell people
that it doesn't work and therefore we shouldn't be using it as a
treatment."

Asthma usually cannot be diagnosed before children reach primary
school age, and Prof Mellis said the group in this study would be
followed up at age seven to obtain more definitive results.

"It may well be when we look at them next time that the ones who got
the intervention are even more different from the control group," he
said.peThe children were recruited before they were born, he said, and
started on increased omega-3 fatty acid, obtained from fish oil, from
their first day after birth.

"If they were not being breastfed it was added to their formula from
day one and if they were being breastfed the mother took the
supplement – there's plenty of omega three fatty acid in breastmilk
anyway," Prof Mellis said.

"We wanted the children as they were weaned and taking solids to
continue having a fair bit of omega-3 fatty acids in the diet and
little kids don't like fish so we were giving the parents special
margarine that had omega-3 fatty acid supplement in it.

"We were measuring the omega-3 fatty acid in their blood and there was
a fair separation between those that were on the supplement and those
that were on the control."

The study, published in the latest issue of the United States-based
Journal of Allergyand Clinical Immunology, was prompted by an earlier
survey of NSW school children in which those who ate fish at least
once a week were found to have a much lower rate of asthma.

"Omega-3 fatty acid is incorporated into cell membranes and it makes
them more stable so, given that asthma is an inflammatory disease of
the airways, it makes them less likely to get inflamed," Prof Mellis
explained.

Roman Bystrianyk wrote:
http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=373

Kylie Walker, " Fish oil 'wards off asthma'", Hearld Sun,
Australia,
November 3, 2004,
Link:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...5E1702,00.html

FISH oil supplements appear to ward off asthma symptoms in
young
children with a family history of allergies, Australian
researchers
have found.

This isn't as crazy as it may sound. Fish oil has been found
to also be helpful in arthritis - possibly due to an
anti-inflammatory effect. One cannot just assume that if
something is anti-inflammatory ine one context (i.e the
joints) that it will be in another (as in asthma/allergies)
but, then again, there is no reason why it couldn't be.

--
00doc

00doc wrote:


This isn't as crazy as it may sound. Fish oil has been found
to also be helpful in arthritis - possibly due to an
anti-inflammatory effect.

My GP put me on Salmon oil to see if it would help my RA but it did
nothing except make me burp fish. I think with RA because it's such a
fickle disease of flares and remissions it's so hard to to say if
something is responsible for remission or if it was going to happen on
it's own. I know some peeps who swear by it, others who have had
wonderful results with other natural dietary changes or additions and
those who have had no luck what so ever. I think that just like with
regular RA DMARDS some things work with one person and not with another.

Andrea

Unadulterated Me wrote in message ...
00doc wrote:


This isn't as crazy as it may sound. Fish oil has been found
to also be helpful in arthritis - possibly due to an
anti-inflammatory effect.

My GP put me on Salmon oil to see if it would help my RA but it did
nothing except make me burp fish. I think with RA because it's such a
fickle disease of flares and remissions it's so hard to to say if
something is responsible for remission or if it was going to happen on
it's own. I know some peeps who swear by it, others who have had
wonderful results with other natural dietary changes or additions and
those who have had no luck what so ever. I think that just like with
regular RA DMARDS some things work with one person and not with another.

Andrea

You have made a very astute observation about the waxing and waning
course of many diseases, RA among them.

Mark, MD

In ,
00doc wrote:

*This isn't as crazy as it may sound. Fish oil has been found
*to also be helpful in arthritis - possibly due to an
*anti-inflammatory effect. One cannot just assume that if
*something is anti-inflammatory ine one context (i.e the
*joints) that it will be in another (as in asthma/allergies)
*but, then again, there is no reason why it couldn't be.

the fatty acids in fish oils are also helpful in decreasing the
inflammation found in atopic canines

--
Hillary Israeli, VMD
Lafayette Hill/PA/USA/Earth
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is
too dark to read." --Groucho Marx

"00doc" wrote in message
...
Roman Bystrianyk wrote:
http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.p...st_item&id=373

Kylie Walker, " Fish oil 'wards off asthma'", Hearld Sun, Australia,
November 3, 2004,
Link:
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...5E1702,00.html

FISH oil supplements appear to ward off asthma symptoms in young
children with a family history of allergies, Australian researchers
have found.

This isn't as crazy as it may sound. Fish oil has been found to also be
helpful in arthritis - possibly due to an anti-inflammatory effect. One
cannot just assume that if something is anti-inflammatory ine one context
(i.e the joints) that it will be in another (as in asthma/allergies) but,
then again, there is no reason why it couldn't be.

So has snake oil, so the 'snake oil' dealers were probably dealing a highly
effective treatment for inflammation.
Anth

00doc