Study to Evaluate the Effect of a Vegetal Oil on Cognitive Impairment

The cognitive impairment syndrome is defined as a decrease of the intellectual performance with respect to a previous step in time. The Cognitive impairment has to be considered as a functional alteration with a continuous and physiological evolution in which happen a set of different circumstances:

• A increasing and normal reduction, that appears after the age of sixty, also known as Age-associated memory impairment (AAMI)
• A mild cognitive impairment (MCI), with a recent and mild loss of memory, but higher to that expected because of patient's age and educational level.
• A severe pathological decrease of the mental abilities, also known as, depending on its characteristics: Severe cognitive impairment (SCI), senile dementia and Alzheimer's disease (1).

In the next years it is expected that this disease will become one of the main health and aged-related problem in aged people.(2) Nowadays, there are 35,6 million people with any kind of dementia, and it is estimated that every year, 7,7 million of new patients are diagnosed. (3) The amount of people affected will probably duplicate every 20 years, if effective treatments to stop its evolution are not developed. The forecast estimate up to 81,1 million of patients in 2040, which make this disease in a XXI century real epidemic.(4)

Before reaching the level of dementia, SCI or Alzheimer's disease, the patient will suffer a progressive mild cognitive impairment. In this level, the disease can be early diagnosed and it would be worth to act on it.

Evidences of the Polyunsaturated oils use on the prevention and/or treatment of cognitive impairment.

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) can help to improve the cognitive functions. Neuronal tissues, as the brain, retina and the neurone-covering membranes (myelin) include high levels of PUFA. (5) PUFA's act on the order transmission in the Nervous System. Population studies reported the beneficial effect of fish oil, with a high PUFA concentration, on the memory of patients suffering a mild cognitive impairment. (6) It can be also beneficial for Alzheimer's patients, as they are deficient in PUFA's. A diet rich in PUFA'S can improve the cognitive function on patients con cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. (6-8) Epidemiological studies suggest that oils rich in short chain PUFA, should play a beneficial role stopping the initial progression of Alzheimer's disease.

The previous data confirm the possibility of a beneficial effect of the product to study (a mixture of vegetable oils, rich in triglyceride and lecithins) due to the common characteristic of the product with those PUFA's already marketed.