Effect of Dietary Supplemental Fish Oil in Alleviating Health Hazards Associated With Air Pollution

Effect of Dietary Supplementation With Fish Oil in Alleviating Cardiopulmonary Hazards Associated With Air Pollution

This study aims to evaluate whether dietary supplementation with fish oil can protect against the cardiopulmonary alterations linked to air pollution

The investigators conduct a randomized controlled trial among 70 healthy college students in Shanghai, China. These students fulfilling the recruitment criteria will be randomly divided into two parallel groups to receive either fish oil [marine-derived n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA)] or sunflower seed oil. Participants in fish oil group receive 2.5 g/day (two 1.25-g capsules daily) in divided doses. The sunflower seed oil capsules are identical. All interventions started at 7:30 a.m.to avoid issues related to diurnal variation. Health endpoints, including blood pressure, skin color, fractional exhaled nitric oxide and pulmonary function were evaluated and biological samples such as morning urine, fast blood, saliva sample,buccal cells and skin tape stripping will be collected at week 1 before supplemenatation, and week 8, week 10, week 12 as well as week 14 during the supplementation phase.The investigators measure personal real-time exposure to PM2.5 and personal temperature and relative humidity.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Equal to or older than 18 years old.
• No history of smoking and alcohol addiction.
• No chronic diseases or respiratory or allergic diseases,such as hypertension,diabetes,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,other respiratory/cardiovascular diseases, asthma, rhinitis or other allergic diseases reported by volunteers.
• No allergies to n-3 PUFA or fish.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Current smokers or ever smokers
• Chronic drug use due on cardiovascular or respiratory diseases
• Participants are taking fish oil,anti-inflammatory drugs, or antioxidant supplements (such as vitamin C or vitamin E)