Docosahexaenoic acid

All right, number five, brain.

Did you realize that most of your brain is mainly fat and cholesterol? And so you need DHA, which is an omega-3 fatty acid for cognitive function.

What was that? Memory, focus, concentration, okay? All right, number six, saturated fat reduce and release bile salts.

the very thing that you need to help break down fats is actually made from cholesterol.

So the middle one there, the series two prostaglandins, something like prostaglandin E2, we specifically target that with anti-inflammatory medication.

Now, if we come back and have a look at the other side of the coin, if the cell grabs an omega-3, that ends up producing something that we call EPA and DHA.

Basically, these are what's found in fish oil.

And the products that we have from conversion of these are not that inflammatory, very much less inflammatory than on the other side.

But the problem is, is that if you're not absorbing enough over and above the little that you can make, then you're much more likely to develop anemia and all of the complications that go along with that.

The next substance is DHA, docosahexaenoic acid.

This is absolutely mandatory for building and maintaining our big human brain.

Now, many plant-based gurus out there will tell you that there are omega-3 fatty acids in plants.

And indeed there is ALA, but there is no DHA in any plant on the earth.

Many humans are very poor converters of ALA into DHA.

And therefore, unless you're getting DHA, in your diet, you're going to have a deficiency and this is going to affect your brain function.

I have a video about DHA rich foods.

So you can look at tocotrienols as a natural version of nitroglycerin because it's very powerful in increasing the oxygen to the heart muscle itself.

Now, vitamin E in general is necessary to allow the omega-3 fats, especially DHA, to work in the brain.

So if you're deficient in vitamin E, You could be taking a lot of fish oils and DHA directly and not notice a lot of change.

One of the biggest reasons why people are deficient in vitamin E is they consume too many refined grains.

So refined grains are a big reason why you might be deficient in vitamin E, or it could be you're just not consuming enough foods that are high in vitamin E.

But can you tell me, just so visually people can understand this, when we eat something, how is it that these nutrients are getting to our brain? What exactly in our brain is changing?

Dietary Deficiency Impairs Synapse Development again takes this concept of an adequate diet as you would find in countries that eat a lot of fish and a deficient diet and this omega-3 DHA here more than 10 times higher in the hippocampus.

So here's the impact of on the basic and fundamental component of the nervous system, which is a neuron and synapses.

Here in blue is the body of the neuron, and it has many branches like roots of a tree.

Yeah.

Women, you know, they literally give over of themselves in pregnancy to the brain, to the developing brain.

If you remember that picture I showed, which you didn't see, your editor saw, of the neurons with adequate DHA having twice as many branches and twice as many synapses.

That's what you want to build when the brain's developing.

And then we're kind of scratching our head why our dogs are getting dementia.

Now, I'm not saying that a dog can't get dementia that is eating a higher fat diet, but I think this is part of the epidemic that we're seeing with cognitive decline is that are we appropriately supporting the brain that it needs with the fat that it needs? Inflammation control, omega-3, again, going back a little bit to essential fatty acids, EPA and DHA are among the most anti-inflammatory tools that we have.

We need fat for them.

And then satiety, palatability.

And we, you know, we still are... trying to figure the long chain omega-3s out in terms of their impact on brain health and, you know, our ability to make long chain omega-3s, all of that.

But generally our ability to convert omega-3, you know, the alpha-linolenic acid into DHA, DPA and EPA is limited.

And so it's kind of like a precautionary thing to consider taking a supplement of DHA and EPA because we know that people with dementia tend to have lower levels in their brain.

We know that probably half the fat in the brain is DHA, and it's really important.

Now, there was a study that just came out that showed giving 2000 milligrams of DHA per day for two years increased DHA levels in the blood and tissues, but it didn't reduce cognitive decline.

And so that, you know, got on the radar of a lot of people and they started saying, well, I guess it doesn't matter if we take EPA and DHA.

But the reality is all they used was DHA.

And some of the critics are saying EPA, it has a synergistic effect with DHA and we need both.