Two new 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.

Comments

Name: *

Gender:

Male Female

Email Address: *

Comment:

 

I have read and aggree to Blackmores Terms of use

* Your post may appear online after a member of the Blackmores Online Team has reviewed it.

Notification

Your post is pending approval

Your post has been sent to a Blackmores Administrator for approval as it contains words or phrases that may not comply with our Posting Guidelines and Terms of Service. A Blackmores Administrator will review your post to determine whether or not it can be published.

You will be notified via email when your post is published or if it has been declined.

For further information about what can and can't be discussed within the Blackmores Community, please view our Terms of Service and Posting Guidelines.