Eating fish oil can save eyesight: study

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — A dollop of fish oil may be enough to prevent the loss of vision and even blindness that sometimes afflict premature babies, a new study has shown.

When researchers gave tiny doses of omega-3 fatty acids -- found in wild salmon, sardines, anchovies and other coldwater oily fish -- to mice with the eye disease retinopathy, the loss of blood vessels which causes the condition decreased by 50 percent.

The genetically-modified lab rodents showed no ill side effects, and researchers will soon begin a clinical trial on premature infants at the Children's Hospital Boston, said lead author Kip Connor, a doctor at the hospital.

Babies born before their eyes have finished growing run the risk of contracting the disease, which inhibits the development of...