Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence

Almost forty years ago, it was first hypothesized that an increased dietary intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from fish fat could exert protective effects against several pathologies. Decades of intense preclinical investigation have supported this hypothesis in a variety of model...

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Main Authors:	Weylandt, Karsten H., Serini, Simona, Chen, Yong Q., Su, Hui-Min, Lim, Kyu, Cittadini, Achille, Calviello, Gabriella
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4537707/

id	pubmed-4537707
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-45377072015-08-23 Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence Weylandt, Karsten H. Serini, Simona Chen, Yong Q. Su, Hui-Min Lim, Kyu Cittadini, Achille Calviello, Gabriella Review Article Almost forty years ago, it was first hypothesized that an increased dietary intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from fish fat could exert protective effects against several pathologies. Decades of intense preclinical investigation have supported this hypothesis in a variety of model systems. Several clinical cardiovascular studies demonstrated the beneficial health effects of omega-3 PUFA, leading medical institutions worldwide to publish recommendations for their increased intake. However, particularly in recent years, contradictory results have been obtained in human studies focusing on cardiovascular disease and the clinical evidence in other diseases, particularly chronic inflammatory and neoplastic diseases, was never established to a degree that led to clear approval of treatment with omega-3 PUFA. Recent data not in line with the previous findings have sparked a debate on the health efficacy of omega-3 PUFA and the usefulness of increasing their intake for the prevention of a number of pathologies. In this review, we aim to examine the controversies on the possible use of these fatty acids as preventive/curative tools against the development of cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammatory diseases, as well as several kinds of cancer. Hindawi Publishing Corporation 2015 2015-08-02 /pmc/articles/PMC4537707/ /pubmed/26301240 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/143109 Text en Copyright © 2015 Karsten H. Weylandt et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Weylandt, Karsten H. Serini, Simona Chen, Yong Q. Su, Hui-Min Lim, Kyu Cittadini, Achille Calviello, Gabriella
spellingShingle	Weylandt, Karsten H. Serini, Simona Chen, Yong Q. Su, Hui-Min Lim, Kyu Cittadini, Achille Calviello, Gabriella Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence
author_facet	Weylandt, Karsten H. Serini, Simona Chen, Yong Q. Su, Hui-Min Lim, Kyu Cittadini, Achille Calviello, Gabriella
author_sort	Weylandt, Karsten H.
title	Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence
title_short	Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence
title_full	Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence
title_fullStr	Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence
title_full_unstemmed	Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence
title_sort	omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids: the way forward in times of mixed evidence
description	Almost forty years ago, it was first hypothesized that an increased dietary intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from fish fat could exert protective effects against several pathologies. Decades of intense preclinical investigation have supported this hypothesis in a variety of model systems. Several clinical cardiovascular studies demonstrated the beneficial health effects of omega-3 PUFA, leading medical institutions worldwide to publish recommendations for their increased intake. However, particularly in recent years, contradictory results have been obtained in human studies focusing on cardiovascular disease and the clinical evidence in other diseases, particularly chronic inflammatory and neoplastic diseases, was never established to a degree that led to clear approval of treatment with omega-3 PUFA. Recent data not in line with the previous findings have sparked a debate on the health efficacy of omega-3 PUFA and the usefulness of increasing their intake for the prevention of a number of pathologies. In this review, we aim to examine the controversies on the possible use of these fatty acids as preventive/curative tools against the development of cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammatory diseases, as well as several kinds of cancer.
publisher	Hindawi Publishing Corporation
publishDate	2015
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4537707/
_version_	1613260127335350272

Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids: The Way Forward in Times of Mixed Evidence

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