Olive Oil May Protect against Ulcerative Colitis

Ulcerative colitis is one of the inflammatory bowel diseases.  (The other is Crohn’s disease, or regional ileitis.)  Its symptoms can be extremely distressing, and surgery (removal of all or part of the colon) is sometimes required.  Consequently, anything that can protect against its development is of considerable interest.  A presentation at the Digestive Disease Week falls in this category.  UK investigators reported that a diet rich in olive oil could prevent ulcerative colitis.

Researchers from the University of East Anglia, UK, enrolled 25,600-odd subjects aged 40-74, who were followed for an average of 3.9 years.  They all completed a 7-day food diary at the start of the study.  During the study, 22 subjects developed ulcerative colitis.  After classifying the subjects into three groups (tertiles) based on their oleic acid intake, it was found that those in the highest tertile had a 90% reduced risk of developing ulcerative colitis, compared with those in the lowest tertile.  (The middle tertile fell in the middle with regards to risk of colitis.)  The amount of olive oil in the highest tertile amounted to about two or three tablespoonfuls a day.

Further work is clearly necessary to see whether these results are reproducible, and if oleic acid is truly protective.  Then it will be necessary to see if oleic acid (an omega-9 fatty acid) could be used therapeutically in patients with ulcerative colitis.  Certainly an approach worth following, even if this particular study is merely ‘hypothesis-forming’.