A French study shows that omega-3 deficiencies disrupt neuronal communication and promote the occurrence of cognitive disorders.
To have a brain that runs well in adulthood, it is better to give pride of place to omega-3s in adolescence, suggests a study by Inserm researchers. These works published in The Journal of Neuroscience confirm that these fatty acids are essential for the proper functioning of the human body.
Our body is unable to produce these fatty acids, so it is forced to draw them from food. However, as underlined by the researchers of the Institute of neurobiology of the Mediterranean in Marseilles and INRA in Bordeaux, the Western food makes little room for them.
In fact, meat, processed products and sugary drinks have replaced oily fish, olive oil or nuts. An unbalanced diet that leads to cardiovascular disorders, dementia or depression.
And according to this work, the origin of these pathologies could go back to adolescence. Indeed, by studying a model of mice deficient in omega-3 from an early age, the researchers found a link between an unbalanced diet and mental disorders.
Therapeutic track
In adulthood, these mice showed low levels of fatty acids in the prefrontal cortex involved in complex cognitive functions and the nucleus accumbens involved in the regulation of reward and emotions. According to the researchers’ observations, this alters the formation of neural connections in these two brain regions. Abnormalities resulting in anxiety-like behaviors and a decrease in cognitive functions.
But good news, these disorders can be alleviated. Scientists have demonstrated that two methods are effective in restoring them completely.
“To do this, we just had to amplify the capacity of the glutamate receptor, the most important neurotransmitter of the central nervous system, at the level of neurons, in order to restore exchanges, or to inhibit the degradation of the main cannabinoid naturally secreted. by the brain and which controls synaptic memory”, explain the researchers at the head of the study, Olivier Manzoni and Sophie Layé.
These results suggest that nutrition strongly influences brain function and behavior well into adulthood. Furthermore, they allow the identification of nutritional risk factors in neuropsychiatric diseases and open the way to therapeutic approaches.
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