Dietary Supplements Do Not Reverse The Chemistry Of Emotional Stress

Main Category: Anxiety / Stress
Also Included In: Nutrition / Diet
Article Date: 30 Jun 2006 - 11:00 PDT

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Eating extra amounts of certain fats linked to numerous health benefits does not reverse the underlying metabolic changes that occur in emotional stress, an international group of researchers report. Their study is scheduled for the July 7 issue of the ACS Journal of Proteome Research.

The fats, termed long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs), are used to make infant formulas more like breast milk. Research has suggested that LC-PUFA supplements may help control inflammatory bowel disease, a condition in which stress plays a role. There also are hints that LC-PUFAs may help to prevent or delay the effects of cancer, diabetes, clinical depression, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and other chronic diseases.

Jeremy K. Nicholson, of Imperial College London, and colleagues used a powerful metabolic research tool in the study. The approach is called metabonomics, and can reveal the biochemical consequences of dietary changes and disease. The researchers studied metabolic changes in stressed laboratory rats fed standard diets and diets enriched in LC-PUFAs. Contrary to expectation and widely held beliefs, dietary enrichment with LC-PUFAs did not reverse any of the stress-induced biochemical changes.

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ACS NEWS SERVICE

Jeremy K. Nicholson, Ph.D.
Imperial College London

Contact: Michael Woods
m_woods@acs.org
American Chemical Society

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