Why is DHA fish oil supplementation so important? First, let’s talk about what DHA in fish oil is.
You may have heard the talk about fatty acids in fish oil being beneficial to your health, specifically omega-3 fatty acids, and there are two basic components of these fatty acids, EPA and DHA. Both are important, but DHA is particularly important for a number of reasons.
DHA fatty acid, specifically, is a major part of your brain’s mass. And in particular, with your brain being made up of 50% fats, and with half of THOSE fats comprised of DHA, you can imagine just how particularly central DHA is to your brain’s health. In other words, it comprises literally 25% of your brain’s mass.
Benefits of DHA Fish oil
It used to be that we got plenty of DHA in our diets even WITHOUT taking DHA fish oil supplements. That’s because the foods we ate, including grass fed beef, had plenty of omega-3 fatty acids already in them. However, today, we eat so many processed foods that we simply can’t get the levels of DHA fish oil in our diets that we used to. And even if we didn’t eat so many processed foods, today, soils are depleted and pollutants exist such that the foods that come out of them simply can’t be as nutritious as they once were; neither situation was particularly prevalent even 50 years ago.
Where does that leave us? Specifically, we are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids, particularly DHA.
It’s no surprise, then, that we also suffer from various ills caused by DHA deficiency, including depression, ADD, and even the pervasive anxiety disorders you hear so much about. Yet, so many doctors simply reach for the prescription pad to prescribe the latest anti-anxiety or ADD medication to try to treat the symptoms — when in fact the cure very often is to simply return DHA levels to normal so that the brain has the food it needs. Again, with our brains comprised, literally, of one quarter their mass in DHA, it’s no surprise that a deficiency can in fact cause mental disease and defect, including these disorders.
Children benefit, too.
It’s been shown that infants and children who get adequate DHA in their diets are less likely to suffer from learning difficulties, and this can be accomplished by supplementing with DHA in formula for infants and with supplementation for older children.
Do you suffer from depression, learning difficulties or anxiety disorders yourself?
What’s the fix if you suffer from the aforementioned difficulties?
Simple; replace the DHA fish oils we used to have in our diets naturally via supplementation, and watch those levels return to normal. Although adequate DHA in our diets may not entirely correct every single incidence of depression, anxiety, or ADD, it’s an easy and accurate supposition that the prevalence of these disorders will go way down once proper DHA levels are achieved. That is only a good thing — and all done with the perfectly natural supplement of DHA fish oil.
