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Omega-3 diet helps Arctic ground squirrels to hibernate a little warmer than normal
By feeding arctic ground squirrels special diets, researchers have found that omega-3 fatty acids, common in flax seed and fish oil, help keep the animals warmer in deep hibernation.
A University of Alaska Fairbanks-led study fed ground squirrels either a diet high in omega-3s or a normal laboratory diet, and measured how the animals hibernated afterward. Researchers found that the omega-3 diet helped the animals hibernate a little warmer than normal without negatively affecting hibernation. The omega-3 diets also increased the amount of a heat-producing fat, called brown adipose tissue, the animals pack on.
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IMAGE: Two wild arctic ground squirrels touch noses in the northern Brooks Range during summer. view more
Credit: Photo by Rhiannan William
By feeding arctic ground squirrels special diets, researchers have found that omega-3 fatty acids, common in flax seed and fish oil, help keep the animals warmer in deep hibernation.
A University of Alaska Fairbanks-led study fed ground squirrels either a diet high in omega-3s or a normal laboratory diet, and measured how the animals hibernated afterward. Researchers found that the omega-3 diet helped the animals hibernate a little warmer than normal without negatively affecting hibernation. The omega-3 diets also increased the amount of a heat-producing fat, called brown adipose tissue, the animals pack on.
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Sarah Rice is the lead author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at UAF’s Institute of Arctic Biology. She says during the winter, arctic ground squirrels enter a state of extreme hibernation. They can take their body temperature below freezing, when they re in hibernation their heartbeats five times a minute, and they breathe once a minute, they re just this incredible animal. It s almost like in a suspended state of animation. And how they do that, you know, some people discovered certain things with it, but we don t know exactly how it works completely.
Arctic ground squirrels can hibernate for up to eight months and they appear to awake from their winter sleep without the impacts of starvation or muscle loss. Rice wanted to know how they stayed in such good shape without exercise or food.
Hibernation could be used to treat heart conditions, scientists claim
Inducing a deep state of stasis could be helpful for those who suffer from stroke or cardiac arrest
A skull recovered from the Sima de los Huesos
Credit: Philippe Desmazes/AFP
Hibernation could be used to treat heart conditions, scientists have claimed, as fresh evidence emerges that ancient humans may have slept for months to survive brutal winters.
Prof Kelly Drew, from the Institute of Arctic Biology at University of Alaska Fairbanks, said inducing a deep state of stasis could be helpful for those who suffer from stroke or cardiac arrest.