Epileptic seizures: fish oil reduces seizure frequency
Epileptic seizures: omega 3 reduces their frequency
Intake of small amounts of fish oil rich in the omega three EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), by epilepsy patients, helps counteract seizures, reducing their frequency by one-third, and lower blood pressure.
This was reported in a study published in recent months in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, and conducted by researchers at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, USA.
Seizures and epilepsy
Epilepsy is a condition characterized by a sudden discharge of electrical signals between neurons. Seizures are a typical, but not exclusive, symptom of epilepsy; in fact, they can be caused by other types of diseases or conditions. Seizures are violent, involuntary contractions affecting certain voluntary skeletal muscles. People with epilepsy also have a significantly higher risk of stroke than healthy individuals.
Small amounts of EPA and DHA reduce the number of seizures
The study trials involved 24 patients with drug-resistant epilepsy who received three treatments of ten weeks each, interspersed with two six-week periods. One treatment consisted of taking six capsules per day of fish oil, equivalent to 2160 mg of EPA + DHA. The low-dose Omega-3 treatment consisted of three daily capsules containing 1080 mg of EPA + DHA and three capsules of corn oil. In contrast, the placebo treatment consisted of three corn oil capsules given twice daily.
During the low-dose treatment, the average frequency of seizures was 12 in one month. For the high-dose treatment it was 17, while the placebo group had an average of 18 seizures in one month. So the action of low-dose Omega-3 fish oil was associated with a 33.6 percent reduction in seizure frequency compared with placebo.
Two of the participants who had taken the lower amounts of fish oil had not experienced seizures during the ten weeks, while none of the high-dose Omega-3 or placebo-treated subjects were free of seizures. The researchers also observed that the low dose of Omega-3 was associated with a drop in blood pressure of 1.95 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) during the ten weeks of treatment. Omega-3 administered in the highest dosage was associated with an average increase of 1.84 mmHg.
No dosage, however, had an impact on heart rate, blood fat concentration, or seizure severity levels.
Omega-3s reduce excitability of neurons
The results of the study showed that small amounts of fish oil are effective in reducing seizures, probably due to the ability of Omega-3s to reach the central nervous system and regulate the 'excitability of brain cells. The extent of improvement is similar to that reported in recent studies of drugs used for drug-resistant epilepsy. Therefore, fish oil could be a low-cost intervention to reduce seizures and improve cardiovascular health in people with epilepsy.
Source: C. M. DeGiorgio, P. R. Miller, R. Harper, J. Gornbein, L. Schrader, J. Soss, S. Meymandi. Fish oil (n-3 fatty acids) in drug resistant epilepsy: a randomized placebo-controlled crossover study." Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry Published online ahead of print, doi:10.1136/jnnp-2014-307749
