Healthy Fats can Help Prevent Osteoarthritis

Eating healthy omega-3 fatty acids, rather than saturated fats, can help prevent osteoarthritis in mice, a new study suggests.

The study, conducted by Duke Medicine explains why obesity raises osteoarthritis risk.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. Common symptoms of the condition include pain and swelling in the joints, usually hands, knees, hips or spine, according to Medline Plus. The condition occurs due to loss of slippery material in the joints called cartilage.

A common assumption was that more weight could damage joints in the lower part of the body. However, the assumption doesn't explain why even hands are affected by osteoarthritis. Turns out that it is the kind of fat that a person eats and not weight per se that increases osteoarthritis risk.

"Our results suggest that dietary factors play a more significant role than mechanical factors in the link between obesity and osteoarthritis," said Farshid Guilak, Ph.D., Laszlo Ormandy Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke and the study's senior author.

Saturated fats come from animal products, which is why it is so common in our diets. Omega-6 fatty acids come from corn oil, soybean oil, nuts and seeds, while omega-3 fatty acids come from fish and some nuts.

"A healthy diet would include roughly equal ratios of these fats, but we're way off the scale in the Western diet," Guilak said in a news release.

In the present study, researchers used mice with osteoarthritis of the knee caused by injury to the joint. The mice were fed diets rich in one of the three fats: rich in saturated fat, rich in omega-6 fatty acids and rich in omega-6 fatty acid plus omega-3 fatty acids.

Researchers found that mice that got omega-3 fatty acids supplements had healthier joints as compared to mice that were eating foods with high levels of saturated or omega-6 fatty acids.

The study was conducted on mice, so more research is required before a co-relation can be drawn between fat consumption and arthritis.