DHA supplements are making the news a lot lately. If you haven’t read about DHA, surely you’ve read about omega-3 efas. In general, there’s two types of fatty acids within our bodies, omega-3 and omega-6. We have lots of omega-6’s inside our diets. But not omega-3’s. With industrialized farming methods, and also with how our bodies naturally lose omega-3’s as we grow older, it becomes clear that we should really supplement our intake of omega-3’s, especially of DHA, to maximize our longevity and optimize our health. Let’s take a glance at what DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, does in our bodies, including the benefits we obtain from it.
One of the more important functions of DHA inside our bodies is that it promotes brain health and even brain growth. This is one reason that pregnant mother’s tend to be given supplements with DHA. (Ask your doctor, first!) Also, this is the reason why lack of DHA in the body has been positively linked to a greater chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease. In addition to helping our brains function and grow, DHA aids in the connection between our brains and our bodies. This is called “psychomotor function”, and the healthy growth and development of this is especially essential in small children. Another issue with DHA is that the lack of it has been linked to ADHD and in addition to academic performance in children at school.
Scientists and doctors aren’t sure why there is this link between DHA and good thinking processes. One thought is that DHA helps reduce inflammation in the body. Inflammation is thought to be one of the big keys in both cancer and heart problems, as well as in many other age-related diseases. Indeed, inflammation is perceived as one of the processes that age us in the first place.
Part of the issue is the fact that as our bodies age, our bodies create free-radicals. DHA is thought to reduce the cases of toxins inside our bodies. This results in a fewer instances of cancer as well as coronary disease as well as hypertension and stroke.
Besides all of these benefits, DHA seems to promote the chemicals inside our brains which make us feel good–serotonin, for instance–and also the other chemicals in our brains that affect memory. Although there’s still a lot more to understand about DHA in the body, it’s pretty clear that you should probably be considering some kind of DHA supplementation.
Lee Cole is an enthusiastic fitness and exercise enthusiast! To learn more about DHA Supplements, take a look at Lee’s blog, DHA Supplements Guide.