Omega-3 pills fail to work in Alzheimer's patients in boosting memory

CHICAGO (AP) - Researchers are reporting disappointing news about omega-3 fatty acid pills and Alzheimer's disease.

Pills containing the fatty acid DHA are promoted as boosting memory. But they didn't slow mental and physical decline in older patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Those results are in a multimillion-dollar government-funded study released Tuesday in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Laurie Ryan is program director of Alzheimer's studies at the National Institute on Aging. She calls the results discouraging. But she also notes that the institute is spending millions of dollars on research into other possible treatments. Those include lifestyle changes, drugs and biomarkers that might lead to more targeted drug treatment.