Virgin olive oil & fish fatty acids help prevent acute pancreatitis

OLEIC acid and hydroxytyrosol - present in a particularly high concentration in virgin olive oil - and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids – found in fish – affect the cellular mechanisms involved in the development of acute pancreatitis, concluded scientists the University of Granada Physiology Department, where the researchers examined the role of the Mediterranean diet ingredients in the prevention and mitigation of cell damage.
This is the first study to examine how fatty acids and antioxidants affect the cellular mechanisms that respond to local inflammation in the pancreas. Study author, María Belén López Millán, affirms that, "there is increasing evidence that there are oxidative-inflammatory processes involved in the origin of chronic diseases and that diet plays an important role in such processes. The antioxidant (phenolic compounds) and anti-inflammatory (omega-3 fatty acids) effects of diet components (nutrients and bioactive compounds) prevent/mitigate the pathological incidence of oxidative-inflammatory processes."
The results of this study have been partially published in the journal Proceedings of the Nutrition Society.