Bioactive omega-3 fatty acids are associated with reduced risk and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Resaearch ha found that higher DHA status is associated with lower risk of testing positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2 and of being hospitalized with COVID-19.
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916522105356
In this issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Harris et al. [1] report that a higher status of the bioactive omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is associated with a lower risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and of being hospitalized with the disease it causes, COVID-19.
Circulating levels of EPA and DHA are higher in those who consume fatty fish regularly and in those who use “fish oil” supplements.
Harris et al. [1] report an inverse association for a positive test for SARS-CoV-2 infection and for hospitalization with COVID-19 across
quintiles of plasma DHA. In unadjusted analysis, the hazard ratio for testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 in the highest compared with the
lowest quintile of plasma DHAwas 0.60 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.55, 0.67; P < 0.001], whereas for hospitalization with COVID-19, it
was 0.48 (95% CI: 0.38, 0.60; P < 0.001).
Fish oil use was recorded in the UK BioBank, and from 110,440 participants, 26.6% reported habitual use of fish oil supplements. Ma et al. [6] reported that habitual fish oil use was associated with lower risk of hospital admission with COVID-19 (hazard ratio: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.69, 0.83) and mortality from COVID-19 (hazard ratio: 0.69; 95% CI: 0.58, 0.83) after adjustment for age and sex, and this remained significant after further adjustment for age, sex, and multiple other covariates.
