Masons out to get real oil on ageing

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

Fish oil, Freemasons and Alzheimer's disease make a mysterious mix which could give researchers insights into healthy ageing.

Professor Craig Anderson, of Auckland University, is leading a team studying Freemasons and their spouses, looking at conditions such as stroke, prostate cancer and hip fracture that particularly affect the elderly.

They will hunt out links to diet and lifestyle, particularly any protective effects of the so-called Mediterranean diet, which is rich in fruit, vegetables, grains, olive and fish oils, and low in saturated fats.

"One of the key hypotheses is the relationship between these various oils in our diets and trace elements in relation to major cancers and cardiovascular disease and degenerative diseases of the brain," said Professor Anderson.

"We have the opportunity to look longitudinally, which is the best way of looking at causality."

A number of studies have suggested that certain fish and vegetable oils are beneficial, but they all looked at heart disease.

Brain degeneration in older people could be due to hardening of brain arteries, so diets higher in fish oils might help protect against that process, said Professor Anderson. Some studies also suggested a possible relationship between the oils and prostate cancer.

Participants will fill out questionnaires, undergo physical, blood and memory tests and be asked for toenail clippings and a sample of hair, to be analysed for deficiencies of trace elements zinc and selenium.

The study, funded by the Freemasons, has begun as a pilot in South Auckland and is expected to involve 600 people. Professor Anderson hopes to secure funding from wider sources to expand it into a national Freemasons study of more than 17,000 people, tracking them for the rest of their lives.

He said it would be the first long-term health study of elderly New Zealanders.

A South Auckland Freemason, who asked not to be named, said he and his wife were pleased to take part because, "it's a study that will help all older people."

Professor Anderson said the information gathered should be applicable to the wider community, although the Freemasons' membership did not contain a representative proportion of Maori and Pacific Islands people.