What Exactly Are DHA Supplements And Why Should You Be Taking Them?

If you’re not taking DHA supplements you should be.

One of the biggest breakthroughs that science has discovered in recent years in naturally improving your health is the role of DHA (and EPA) in so many aspects of our general health. Today we would like to examine exactly what DHA is and why top quality DHA supplements are so important to your health.

DHA stands for Docosahexaenoic acid. It is what is known as a long chain fatty acid, or otherwise known as an essential fatty acid. DHA makes up a large proportion of the fats in our brain and is one of the most important fats in the development of the fetal brain.

Many people assume that eating fat is bad for you. This is far from the truth and there are a number of fats, known as essential fatty acids, that are in fact extremely important for your health. Evidence is that our diets are low in these fats, particularly in DHA, and that increasing our intake of essential fatty acids can have important positive impacts on so many areas of our health.

Certainly there is clear evidence that eating some kinds of fat is bad for you. Saturated fats for example, normally found in meat and dairy products, should only be consumed in smaller quantities than is now the case for most of us. However essential fatty acids have been found over and over again in studies to be very important to our health and our consumption of these should be increased.

The most important of these essential fatty acids is DHA, however EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid) is also important. Neither of these fats is manufactured in our body and both must be taken from our food. Current science shows that the average American diet is largely deficient in both DHA and EPA.

Both of these fats are known as Omega 3 fatty acids. You may have heard of the benefits of omega 3, this refers to the benefits of DHA and EPA. There are a number of sources of DHA and EPA but for our purposes they are primarily found in fish and in particular fish oil, and for various reasons are best taken as DHA supplements or EPA supplements, in fact the best way is to take omega 3 supplements which combines the 2.

The range of health benefits from increasing our intake of omega 3 fatty acids is extraordinary. To get a full idea of many of the health benefits of increasing our intake of omega 3 fatty acids just read the categories in the right-hand column of this website. Each of these covers a specific health condition which the research has shown can be improved by increasing our intake of omega 3 fats. It is probably fair to say that in the history of the health supplements industry no other product has had such widespread acceptance of its health benefits and has had such a meteoric rise in consumption.

Omega 3 supplements, or DHA supplements, are increasing in sales faster than any supplement in history and for good reason.

The benefits of increasing our intake of DHA and EPA range from increases in our heart health including a lower risk of heart attack and stroke and even death to improvements in depression, diabetes, acne and skin health, postpartum depression, memory and concentration, macular degeneration, prostate cancer, lowering of triglycerides and much more.

As well as DHA and EPA there are other omega 3 supplements. A third one that has gained some popularity over recent years is called ALA. This is a plant-based Omega 3 fatty acid. For vegetarians who do not eat fish it is an alternative to taking DHA supplements however the research shows that ALA is not as effective at improving our health as DHA and EPA, primarily because ALA needs to be converted into DHA in the body, and particularly ineffective process. And it is now possible to get vegetarian DHA supplements anyway.

If you’re just starting to research the benefits of EPA DHA supplements then please read some of the articles listed in our categories to find out more about some of the specific conditions listed above.

The reality for most of us is that we will not be able to increase our intake of DHA and EPA sufficiently by increasing our intake of fish. Although fish is the optimum source of these 2 essential omega 3 fatty acids, fish is expensive. It is also important to source oily fish because not all fish have high levels of DHA and EPA.

On top of this fish is generally contaminated with toxins such as Mercury and heavy metals and this reason the EPA recommends that we not eat too much fish. The best DHA EPA supplements are free of contaminants such as these and can safely be taken daily.

However if you are new to the importance of good DHA supplementation in your diet it’s important to understand that not all Omega 3 supplements are the same. The reason for taking supplements is for their DHA and EPA fats and various supplements have wildly differing amounts of these 2 essential fatty acids. The best DHA supplements have around 2 1/2 times as much DHA as average fish oil supplements.

Not only that but the best omega 3 supplements have also been shown to work more effectively. For these reasons it is important to choose you’re DHA supplements carefully. To assist we have written to article about how to choose the best fish oil supplements and how to compare fish oil supplements by price which you may find interesting. Read the rest of this entry