Intake of fish oil supplements may prevent inflammatory bowel disease, study suggests

China: People who frequently take fish oil supplements may be at lower risk for inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) and its subtype ulcerative colitis (UC), states a recent study published in Frontiers in Nutrition. Also, users of fish oil were shown to have lower levels of baseline C-reactive protein levels ad higher baseline albumin levels versus non-users. 

With advancements in global industrialization and diet pattern transformation, there has been an emergence of inflammatory bowel diseases. Marine n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs), enriched in fish oils, are known to have health benefits. There is a scarcity of evidence of the association of fish oil supplements with the risk of IBD development. 

Against the above background, Xiaoxu Huang, Department of Clinical Nutrition, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China, and colleagues aimed to investigate the association between the use of fish oil supplements and the risk of developing inflammatory bowel diseases among the general population in a prospective cohort study. 

The study included 447,890 participants aged 40–69 years from the UK Biobank. To obtain data about fish oil intake at baseline, a touch screen questionnaire was used. International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9 and ICD-10) or self-report ascertained the incident diagnoses of IBDs.