Efeitos do ômega-3 nas doenças inflamatórias intestinais: uma revisão da literatura.

Introduction: Polyunsaturated omega-3 (ω3) fatty acids have many beneficial effects on human health. Among these, it has anti-inflammatory effect, decreasing the synthesis of derivatives of the arachidonic acid (AA). Therefore, it is believed that the supplementation of fish oil containing eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) could reduce the effects of inflammatory processes by decreasing the synthesis of eicosanoid precursors of inflammation, as well as the use of anti-inflammatory drugs. Objective: The purpose of this paper was to describe the effects of therapy based on nutritional supplementation of omega-3 in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in a literature review. Materials and Methods: This is a review of the literature made in journals indexed in Medline, Lilacs, Scielo and Pubmed databases, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, and covered the articles published between 1989 and 2014. Results: Of 179 analyzed articles on inflammatory bowel disease, after inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, 18 articles were selected from randomized clinical trials, observational, epidemiological, cohort and case-control in humans. Conclusions: The dose of ω3 used in these experiments was on average 4,5g/day. EPA and DHA are incorporated into the tissue of the intestinal mucosa of patients with IBD that complement the diet with fish oil resulting in anti-inflammatory effect with improvement in clinical outcomes, in the intestinal mucosa histology, in the results of sigmoidoscopy, as well as a lower relapse rate and decreased use of corticosteroids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]