Fish consumption linked to higher IQ

Children who eat fish at least once a week sleep better and have IQ scores that are 4 points higher, on average, than those who consume fish less frequently or not at all. Previous studies showed a relationship between omega-3s, the fatty acids in many types of fish and improved intelligence, as well as omega-3s and better sleep. But they've never all been connected before.

This work, conducted by Jianghong Liu, Jennifer Pinto-Martin and Alexandra Hanlon of the School of Nursing and Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Adrian Raine, reveals sleep as a possible mediating pathway, the potential missing link between fish and intelligence.

For the work, a cohort of 541 9- to 11-year-olds in China, 54 percent boys and 46 percent girls, completed a questionnaire about how often they consumed fish in the past month, with options ranging from "never" to "at least once per week." They also took the Chinese version of an IQ test called the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, which examines verbal and non-verbal skills such as vocabulary and coding.

Their parents then answered questions about sleep quality using the standardized Children Sleep Habits Questionnaire, which included topics such as sleep duration and frequency of night waking or daytime sleepiness. Finally, the researchers controlled for demographic information, including parental education, occupation and marital status and number of
children in the home.

Analyzing these data points, the Penn team found that children who reported eating fish weekly scored 4.8 points higher on the IQ exams than those who said they "seldom" or "never" consumed fish. Those whose meals sometimes included fish scored 3.3 points higher. In addition, increased fish consumption was associated with fewer disturbances of sleep, which the researchers say indicates better overall sleep quality. Lack of sleep is associated with antisocial behavior; poor cognition is associated with antisocial behavior, fish consumption has positive health benefits. Children should be introduced to it early on.
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Vitamin D enhances healing of burns

Patients with severe burns who have higher levels of vitamin D recover more successfully than those with lower levels. Despite improvements in burn care many patients are still at risk of poor recovery. Complications can range from delayed wound healing through to infections. Patients with severe burns are at high risk of infection that may lead to life-threatening sepsis.

Vitamin D is known to have antibacterial actions that may combat infection and therefore aid in wound healing of burn patients. In order to investigate the role of vitamin D in recovery from burn injuries, researchers assessed the recovery progress, over one year, in patients with severe burns and correlated this with their vitamin D levels.

The study found that patients with higher levels of vitamin D had a better prognosis, with improved wound healing, fewer complications and less scarring. The data also showed that burns patients tend to have lower levels of vitamin D. These data suggest that vitamin D supplementation immediately following burn injury may have potent health benefits to the patient, including enhanced antimicrobial activity to prevent infection, and improved wound healing.

Major burn injury severely reduces vitamin D levels and adding this vitamin back may be a simple, safe and cost-effective way to improve outcomes for burns patients. The effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation to improve outcomes in burn patients would need to be verified in clinical trials.

Low vitamin D levels were associated with worse outcomes in burn patients including life threatening infections, mortality and delayed wound healing . It was also associated with worse scarring but vitamin D levels can improve the healing process.
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