Eating more fish or taking fish-oil supplements could help reduce the symptoms associated with lupus. The incurable disease has a wide range of symptoms, can occasionally be fatal and affects an estimated 4,500 in Ireland North and South.
The University of Ulster carried out a study to assess whether fish-oil supplementation could reduce symptoms of the disease. This claimed beneficial effect had circulated for some years in the popular media. The study was done by Dr Emeir Duffy, from the university's school of biomedical sciences, and by Dr Gary Meenagh from Musgrave Park Hospital.
Lupus or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus is a disorder of the immune system, the body's defence system that normally protects against bacterial and viral infection. With lupus this system goes wrong and begins to attack the body's own healthy cells and tissues.
It can cause serious inflammation leading to painful joints, fever, skin rashes, kidney problems and extreme fatigue. In a small number of cases the damage is serious enough to cause death.
"We have been investigating how fish oil can improve the quality of life for lupus sufferers," Dr Duffy said. "Participants in the study who were taking fish-oil supplements three times per day for 24 weeks saw a reduction in disease activity and an improvement in quality of life and reported an overall feeling of improved health by the end of the study compared to those taking a placebo supplement."
Notably, those taking the fish oil also showed a reduction in fatigue severity, she added, "the most debilitating symptom for lupus sufferers".
Sources of fatty fish include mackerel, lake trout, herring, sardines, tuna and salmon. Steroids are the main drug used in treatment, but there is no cure.