Eating fatty food in the days leading up to surgery may prompt a heightened inflammatory response in the brain that interferes for weeks with memory-related cognitive function in older adults — and, new research in animals suggests, even in young adults.
The study, building upon previous research from the same lab at The Ohio State University, also showed that taking a DHA omega-3 fatty acid supplement for a month before the unhealthy eating and surgical procedure prevented the effects on memory linked to both the high-fat diet and the surgery in aged and young adult rats.
Three days on a high-fat diet alone was detrimental to a specific type of fear-related memory in aged rats for as long as two weeks later — the same type of impairment seen in younger rats that ate fatty food and had a surgical procedure. The team has traced the brain inflammation behind these effects to a…
