The importance of essential fatty acids to healthy living has long been established, but more research is still being done with new evidence regularly being discovered. The latest concerns the brain as researchers in London discovered women with Alzheimer's disease have lower concentrations of omega fatty acids in their blood than women without that condition.

The same could not be said for men in the study, which means those lipids may play a different role based on sex. More women than men are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease so this is a significant finding.

The study was a joint venture between scientists from King's College London and Queen Mary University London and the results were published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia. It is the first to show the important role lipids play in the risk of Alzheimer's between men and women.

"Women are disproportionately impacted by Alzheimer's Disease and are more often diagnosed with the disease than men after the age of 80," said King's College researcher and senior study author Cristina Legido-Quigley. "One of the most surprising things we saw when looking at the different sexes was that there was no difference in these lipids in healthy and cognitively impaired men, but for women this picture was completely different. The study reveals that Alzheimer's lipid biology is different between the sexes, opening new avenues for research."

Researchers examined plasma samples from 841 participants. Some has Alzheimer's Disease and some did not. They were checked for brain inflammation and mass spectrometry was used to analyze lipids. They looked for saturated lipids, which they consider unhealthy, and unsaturated lipids, which sometimes contain omega fatty acids and are considered healthy.

The women with Alzheimer's had increased levels of saturated lipids and decreased levels of unsaturated lipids. Researchers say there is a statistical indication there is reason to believe in causation but more research needs to be done to confirm that hypothesis.

"Our study suggests that women should make sure they are getting omega fatty acids in their diet—through fatty fish or via supplements," Dr. Legido-Quigley added. "However, we need clinical trials to determine if shifting the lipid composition can influence the biological trajectory of Alzheimer's Disease."

"Scientists have known for some time that more women than men are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease," said fellow researcher Asger Wretlind. "Although this still warrants further research, we were able to detect biological differences in lipids between the sexes in a large cohort, and show the importance of lipids containing omegas in the blood, which has not been done before. The results are very striking and now we are looking at how early in life this change occurs in women."

Click here to read more in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia.