Fish oil isn't brain food, study says

Claims touting a component of fish oil as a mood enhancer and a spur to infant brain development may be a bit fishy, a new study suggests.

DHA, an increasingly common ingredient in prenatal vitamins and baby formula and taken as a supplement by pregnant women, failed to prevent postpartum depression or to enhance babies' cognitive development or language acquisition, a study of 2,399 women has shown.

The finding, in Tuesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, casts new doubt on a dietary supplement whose promise as brain-food has been aggressively marketed despite inconsistent results.

Yale researchers say inhibiting a protein in the brain may be key to reversing the effects of Alzheimer's disease.

In a study in Monday's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team points to high levels of a protein known as Striatal-Enriched tyrosine Phosphatase, or STEP, as a major factor in Alzheimer's. The researchers conducted tests on two sets of mice. Both were genetically engineered to have Alzheimer's, but one set had its STEP protein levels reduced. They found that the mice with reduced STEP were eventually able to complete mazes in the same time as mice without Alzheimer's.

Paul Lombroso, senior author, said he hopes additional research will lead to the development of a drug that could inhibit the STEP protein and treat Alzheimer's in humans.