Healthcare, Health Insurance, Vitamins, Nutrition

DHA supplements are something a lot of health conscious folks are taking. DHA, called docosahexaenoic acid, is one of the all important omega-3 essential fatty acids. You must have omega-3′s in what you eat for good health. Unfortunately, you can’t make omega-3 essential efas in your body from other chemicals. You need to eat omega-3′s. Cold water fish and free-range fowl and other animals are a few good sources of DHA and of omega-3′s in general. But there’s a problem with eating all of that fish and free-range game. In as much as the fish is concerned, there’s the issue with mercury. And free-range fowl and other animal proteins can be very expensive. Also, there’s the difficulty of being a vegetarian. It would be great if you can get to the source, if you might just eat whatever the fish eat to obtain

You see our biggest source of omega-3 fatty acids is big, cold-water fish like tuna. The tuna get the omega-3′s from smaller fish they eat. Eventually, farther down the food chain, the original way to obtain omega-3 fatty acids is algae that grows in the sea. If you could just acquire the essential fatty acids directly from the algae, you could potentially skip the fish part. That works well for vegetarians. One more reason why this might be a really great idea is the big ocean fish often times have mercury and other toxins built up in their bodies.

There’s one special population group that this all affects more than others. That’s expecting mothers. You see, DHA is recommended for brain health in fetuses and also in young children. But expectant women are not recommended to eat lots of seafood, or even to take omega-3 essential fatty acid supplements, because of the condition with toxins.

Some companies make DHA supplements straight from algae. This is great for expectant mothers, simply because they know they can’t get toxins that might hurt their children this way. There are also some infant formulas out now that had DHA supplements.

In case you are not pregnant, or even female, there are a few other ways to acquire omega-3′s without eating seafood or other forms of meats. They come through walnuts and flax seeds. Eggs incorporate some DHA. Probably the best way, however, is to have a vitamin or other pill which includes DHA supplements.

Lee Cole is an avid health and travel insurance expert. He often writes about health, travel and visitor health insurance.

DHA supplements are so important to brain health as a consequence of all the omega-3 efas, DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid is the one which is most prevalent in the brain. Although numerous studies have not shown that omega-3 fatty acids can help cure Alzheimer’s, there is a link between getting the right quantities of omega-3 essential fatty acids in your diet and not developing Alzheimer’s in the first place. Not only has a link between omega-3′s and Alzheimer’s been found, but a link between omega-3′s and strokes exists, too!

The problem with omega-3 fatty acids is we can’t manufacture them in our bodies from other substances. We have to get our omega-3′s from our diets. This is a difficult issue, because our diets don’t contain the omega-3′s they used to. One big way people get omega-3′s nowadays is through eating fish, specifically cold water fatty fish. So, you should expect that folks who consume a lot of fish don’t develop as many problems like strokes as people that don’t. And usually this is basically the case…but not always.

In the USA, we have an area known as the “stroke belt”. This is a section of the South where stokes are statistically more widespread than in other areas. Specifically, the stroke belt includes North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. What’s odd in regards to the stroke belt is people who live there are more prone to eat more servings of fish in a given week than folks in other places of the country. So, you would probably expect people in the South to have less instances of strokes, not more.

Scientific study has been looking into this. And have determined that although people in the South eat more fish, they are more likely to eat fried fish. Apparently frying destroys a number of the omega-3 efas in the fish. So, it’s not just eating fish that counts. It’s how we cook it.

Another issue might be the species of fish eaten. Omega-3 efas are much more usual in fish that come from cold, Northern waters. Fish like tuna, by way of example, tend to have a much higher omega-3 fatty acid concentration than fish from tropical waters. Additionally, farm raised fish of any species have less omega-3′s than fish caught wild. Fish don’t make omega-3 fatty acids. They get them from their diet. Additionally , the diet of farmed fish is usually deficient in omega-3′s.

Lee Cole is an avid health and exercise enthusiast! To find out more about dha supplements, take a look at this article on Lee’s website about DHA Supplements.