Omega 3 Fatty Acids in Brain and Neurologic Health

Ronald Ross Watson PhD is a professor of Health Promotion Sciences in the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. He was one of the founding members of this school serving the mountain west of the USA. He is a professor of Family and Community Medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Arizona. He began his research in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health as a fellow in 1971 doing field work on vaccines in Saudi Arabia. He has done clinical studies in Colombia, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and USA which provides a broad international view of public health. He has served in the military reserve hospital for 17 years with extensive training in medical responses to disasters as the chief biochemistry officer of a general hospital, retiring at a Lt. Colonel. He published 450 papers, and presently directs or has directed several NIH funded biomedical grants relating to alcohol and disease particularly immune function and cardiovascular effects including studying complementary and alternative medicines. Professor Ronald Ross Watson was Director of a National Institutes of Health funded Alcohol Research Center for 5 years. The main goal of the Center was to understand the role of ethanol-induced immunosuppression on immune function and disease resistance in animals. He is an internationally recognized alcohol-researcher, nutritionist and immunologist. He also initiated and directed other NIH-associated work at The University of Arizona, College of Medicine. Dr. Watson has funding from companies and non-profit foundations to study bioactive foods' components in health promotion. Professor Watson attended the University of Idaho, but graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a degree in Chemistry in 1966. He completed his Ph.D. degree in 1971 in Biochemistry from Michigan State University. His postdoctoral schooling was completed at the Harvard School of Public Health in Nutrition and Microbiology, including a two-year postdoctoral research experience in immunology. Professor Watson is a distinguished member of several national and international nutrition, immunology, and cancer societies. Overall his career has involved studying many foods for their uses in health promotion. He has edited 120 biomedical reference books, particularly in health and 450 papers and chapters. His teaching and research in foods, nutrition and bacterial disease also prepare him to edit this book. He has 4 edited works on nutrition in aging. He has extensive experience working with natural products, alcohol, exercise, functional foods and dietary extracts for health benefits and safety issues, including getting 12 patents. Dr. Watson has done laboratory studies in mice on immune functions that decline with aging and the role of supplements in delaying this process as modified by alcohol and drugs of abuse.

I: Overview of Neurological Changes: Targets for Dietary Omega-3 Fatty Acids 1. Enhanced longevity and role of omega-3 fatty acids; 2. Molecular gerontology: Principles and perspectives for interventions; 3. Peroxisomal pathways, their role in neurodegenerative disorders and therapeutic strategies; 4. Unregulated lipid preoxidation in neurological dysfunction; 5. Obesity, Western diet intake, and cognitive impairment; 6. Genetic risk factors for diabetic neuropathy; 7. n-3 fatty acid-derived lipid mediators against neurological oxidative stress and neuroinflammation; 8. The impact of omega-3 fatty acids on quality of life II: Fatty Acids and Brain 9. Mammalian fatty acid amides of the brain and CNS; 10. Low omega-3 fatty acids diet and the impact on the development of visual connections and critical periods of plasticity; 11. The effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on maternal and child mental health; 12. Pain as modified by polyunsaturated fatty acids; 13. Fish oil supplementation prevents age-related memory decline: Involvement of nuclear hormone receptors; 14. Role of omega 3 fatty acids in brain and neurological health with special reference to clinical depression; 15. Omega 3 fatty acid supplementation for major depression with chronic disease; 16. The effectiveness of fish oil as a treatment for ADHD 17. Fatty acids and the aging brain; 18. Cerebrovascular changes: The role of fat and obesity; 19. The role of omega-3 fatty acids on Alzheimer's disease III: Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Structural Changes in Neuronal Tissues 20. Substantia nigra modulation by essential fatty acids; 21. The role of omega-3 fatty acids in hippocampal neurogenesis; 22. Imaging brain DHA metabolism in vivo, in animals and humans IV: Fatty Acids in Brain and Neurological Function in Infants and Children 23. Obesity and migraine in children; 24. Dietary omega-3 sources during pregnancy and the developing brain: Lessons from studies in rats V: Fatty Acids and Neurological Outcomes 25. Omega-3 fatty acids and cognitive behavior; 26. Lipid and lipid signaling in Drosophila models of neurodegenerative diseases; 27. Polyunsaturated fatty acids in relation to sleep quality and depression in obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome; 28. Omega-3 fatty acids in intellectual disability, schizophrenia, depression, autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; 29. Effect of omega 3 fatty acids on aggression; 30. Multiple sclerosis: Modification of fish oil; 31. Deuterium protection of polyunsaturated fatty acids against lipid peroxidation: A novel approach to mitigating mitochondrial neurological diseases VI: Dietary Fats, Obesity and Adverse Neurological Effects 32. Obesity, cognitive function and dementia: A life-span prospective; 33. Dairy products and cognitive functions; 34. Obesity and chronic low back pain: A kinematic approach; 35. Fatty acids and the hippocampus VII: Contaminants and Removal from Fish Oils 36. Fish oil supplements, contaminants, excessive doses; 37. Introduction to fish oil oxidation, oxidation prevention and oxidation correction