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May 24, 2006
No Wonder They're Depressed
According to "Good Mood Food," an article from Science Now (subscribers only), "A team of researchers led by neurobiologist William Carlezon at Harvard's McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, studied how omega-3 fatty acids and uridine affect the behavior of rats using a standard depression test. (I'm trying to imagine just how this standard depression test for rats was developed but no matter--if I faced this treatment, I'd be depressed too.)
"Rats forced to swim in chilled water with no way to escape will normally become hopeless and float motionlessly. But when treated with prescription antidepressants, rats remain active longer, searching for an escape."
Apparently the poor rats who got high levels of Omega-3 oil in their diets also "stayed active and focused on escape." If I understand the research, that means we should be scarfing down copious amounts of salmon, herring and walnuts just in case we fall overboard during a cruise in icy waters.
That is the point, right?
Posted by Deborah Branscum at May 24, 2006 04:24 PM