Omega-3 fatty acids not beneficial for MS patients

Patients with relapsing and remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) will yield no benefits from taking omega-3 fatty acid supplements.

This is the finding of a randomised control trial at Haukeland University Hospital, published in Online First by Archives of Neurology.

Flying in the face of established thought, which asserts that the essential fatty acids can have an anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effect for MS patients, the study found that omega-3 has no positive effects either used singularly or in conjuction with other drugs.

The discovery was made when researchers gave 92 patients either omega-3 fatty acids on their own, with subcutaneous interferon beta-1a or a placebo.

After six months it was found that omega-3 had no effect at all.

"The design of this study allowed us to compare the effect of omega-3 fatty acid supplementation both against placebo alone and in combination with interferon betam," the authors wrote.

"As expected, the MRI disease activity was significantly reduced when interferon beta-1a was introduced."

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