Women suffering hot flushes and low mood during menopause may take comfort from findings that essential fatty acids could reduce their symptoms.
Two clinical trials from Canada have revealed that supplements containing EPA (ethyl-eicosapentaenoic acid) may improve mood and lower the incidence of hot flushes in menopausal women.
Along with DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), EPA is a key component of fish oil, shown to bear numerous benefits in areas such as learning, mood and joint health.
To the researchers' knowledge, their test was the first to compare the effect of EPA supplementation with a placebo on low mood symptoms in menopausal women.
120 women with disrupted mood were randomly assigned either EPA or a placebo of sunflower oil for a period of eight weeks. At the start of the study, all reported not feeling their best, and after its conclusion, mood improvements were noted in both groups.
In a similar study involving cod liver oil supplementation in Norway, symptoms of low mood were shown to be 29 per cent lower in cod liver oil users.
The same researchers as conducted the EPA study also measured incidences of hot flush in menopausal women. Here they noted that at the start of the study, participants experienced on average 2.8 hot flushes per day. Among the group supplementing with EPA, this dropped to 1.58 after eight weeks, compared to a decrease of 0.5 in the placebo group.
Results were published in the American Journal of Nutrition.
Log In
;void(0);)
;void(0);)
