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A 15-year-old girl has died after falling from a ski chairlift Wednesday night in the Abitibi region of northwestern Quebec. Quebec provincial police say the...
Tropical Storm Pabuk Triggers Evacuations in Thailand, Report

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Thailand is bracing for Tropical Storm Pabuk which is set to hit the region on Friday. The Philippines has already been hit with mass flooding...
Jacob Hoggard Got Married In Vancouver (Reports)

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Jacob Hoggard is a newlywed. The Hedley frontman allegedly tied the knot with Rebekah Asselstine in Vancouver on New Year’s Eve, according to online reports...
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It was only two days ago that someone found a dead rat in their soup at a popular restaurant in Vancouver. No, this wasn't...
Sarah McIver returned to Canada after arrest in China (Reports)

Sarah McIver returned to Canada after arrest in China (Reports)

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Albertan Sarah McIver has been released from custody in China, Global Affairs Canada says. McIver had been detained over a work-permit issue related to her...
Bosnian 'Srebrenica defender' acquitted of war crimes charges

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According to the Sarajevo paper, the Appellate Chamber of the Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina acquitted Oric in the renewed proceedings of all charges raised by...
Bre Payton dies suddenly Friday at age 26

Bre Payton dies suddenly Friday at age 26

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The 26-year-old writer and broadcaster passed away Friday after being found unresponsive by a friend. Fox News commentator and Federalist writer Bre Payton has died...
First Nations win case over $4 benefit from Ontario (Reports)

First Nations win case over $4 benefit from Ontario (Reports)

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The provincial and federal governments have been short-changing First Nations in Ontario for more than a century, a superior court judge ruled last week...
Astoria NYC transformer explosion, plant lights up night sky

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New Yorkers thought a UFO had landed, or some other space oddity, after a blue light lit up the night sky. It turned out to...
Manitoba trapper accidentally snares cougar near Swan River

Manitoba trapper accidentally snares cougar near Swan River

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A Swan River-area trapper will hand over the carcass of a massive cougar to provincial wildlife officials today, just as soon as it’s thawed. Herb...

Levi Norwood shooting: Va. teen charged with killing mother

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A teenager accused of killing his mother and 6-year-old brother in Virginia has been arrested on Saturday. Police said 17-year-old Levianthan "Levi" Henry Norwood was...

Terry Mills dead: Showbiz agent dies aged 38 after contracting covid...

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The boss of Big Talent Group has died, aged 38, with his passing announced by Max Bowden on his Instagram account. The actor, who starred...

NASA TESS: Second Earth sized world in ‘Goldilocks zone’

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NASA's TESS spots possibly “second earth” in the area. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star’s habitable...

Jury still out on omega-3s for depression

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(Reuters Health) – There is not enough evidence to support over-the-counter omega-3 fatty acid supplements as a treatment for depression, according to a new review.

“A number of other reviews investigating the impact of omega-3 fatty acids on depression and depressive disorders have also been conducted, and all of these also find discrepancies between studies, and inconsistencies in findings, and essentially find it difficult to draw convincing conclusions,” said lead author Katherine Appleton of the University of Bournemouth in the U.K.

“All reviews also conclude with the need for further evidence,” she said.

The new review included 26 randomized controlled trials involving almost 1,500 adults with major depressive disorder in total. The trials compared people who were given omega-3 fatty acid capsules and people given placebo pills.

Only one study compared omega-3 capsules to an antidepressant medication.

While people who took the omega-3 capsules did report lower levels of depression symptoms compared to the placebo group, there was only a small difference that would likely not be meaningful for most people, the authors write in the Cochrane Library.

Side effects and adverse events may have increased for some people taking omega-3 capsules, but the results varied widely from study to study. The quality of evidence from each study was low to very low, in the authors’ rating.

In the one study including antidepressants, there was no difference between omega-3 fatty acid supplements and antidepressants for depressive symptoms.

The results are “promising, but not conclusive,” said Giuseppe Grosso, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Catania in Italy, who was not part of the review.

It’s not clear why, or how, the omega-3 fatty acids naturally found in fish oils would improve depressive symptoms, although inflammation and cell communication changes, among other pathways, have been suggested, Appleton told Reuters Health by email.

“One of the problems with understanding results from clinical trials in general is that they are looking for an average effect, while many experts agree that the ideal approach would be to figure out which subsets of depressed patients could benefit from particular treatments, an approach the (National Institutes of Health) has called 'personalized medicine',” said Dr. Elizabeth Sublette of Columbia University in New York, who was not part of the new review.

“At this stage we don't yet know how to predict which depressed patients will respond to omega-3 supplements,” Sublette told Reuters Health by email. “They remain one potential treatment that may be worth trying, and I would encourage both doctors and patients to keep an open mind about this topic until more evidence of higher quality can be obtained.”

Most omega-3 supplements are composed of natural oils, so there is no evidence to suggest the results of the trials would have been different if the omega-3 acids came from eating fish rather than taking capsules, she said.

A bottle of 50 to 100 capsules of omega-3 fish oil supplement costs between $10 and $20 at most drugstores.

More research is needed to assess the potential positive and negative effects of using these supplements to treat major depressive disorder, Appleton and her colleagues write.

“Many possible treatments for depression are currently being investigated, but the evidence for many of these treatments is still incomplete,” she said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1HFLp0f The Cochrane Library, online November 5, 2015.

Royal Wedding: Page boy’s viral photobomb (Picture)

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