Article Title: DHA Effects in Brain Development and Function
Author: Lotte Lauritzen, Paolo Brambilla, Alessandra Mazzocchi , Laurine B. S. Harsløf, Valentina Ciappolino, and Carlo Agostoni
Source: Nutrients Open Access Journal Group (MPDI)
Source Date: January 4, 2016
Link: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/1/6/htm
Summary:
It is believed that the accumulation of DHA in the brain takes place during the brain growth. This will take up to two years of age. After two years of age, the amount of DHA in the brain are kept forever. Minimal DHA expansion after two years happen. The factors to how much DHA a baby receives is based upon maternal transfer & dietry supplements. You get the most DHA accumulation during third trimester of pregnancy. And during the third trimester, the whole-body DHA accretion is about 50 mg/day; AA (arachidonic acid) can be 100 mg/day. Post-natal accumulation of the fatty acids found in infant tissue is from the maternal breastmilk. With this study, they were able to test the IQ from children by examining the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the fatty acid desaturase gene cluster. They based their tests upon 3 groups of children. one is breast-fed, one is formula-fed (LC-PUFA), and the other is normal-fed. The results came out to be that breast-fed children had higher IQ overall among the 2 other categories. And Australia was also generally higher than NZ, UK, and Spain. While this was expected in their study, there was still one unknown factor whether breast-fed children's mothers each had different amounts of Omega-3 intake.
Another study done suggested that the group of kids who continued supplementation were strong at problem solving while only being 9 months of age. However, a contrasting study prove to stronger with children who have low socioeconomic status with a low consumption of fish. On top of that, girls had the opposite effect when they also had iron deficiency anemia. They have done little study with children in high-income countries though. 4000 American children were tested and founded that the omega-3 LC-PUFA consumption was stronger in girls than boys though. The research group believed that they were starting to find a trace of this PUFA study to be an example of gender-related nutrition. They decided to test the omega-3 LC-PUFA intake on 6158 subjects who were over teh age of 65. They discovered that high amounts of fish consumption in these subjects protected their cognitive abilities allowing them to stay mentally healthy.
DHA plays the largest role during brain development when you are young.
ReplyDeleteDo you think there is a variable that is not being considered when we look at the outlying results found in poor countries who have higher problem solving capabilities despite the lack of fish?
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ReplyDeleteThe amount of DHA present in someone's brain for the rest of their life is determined once they are only two years old.
ReplyDeleteFor diseases that cause the individual to display a low amount of DHA such as Alzheimer's, would it be possible to tell at the age of two if a child will have that disease in the future?
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ReplyDeleteMothers who consumed DHA had children with higher IQs but socioeconomic status and gender have impacts on these results.
ReplyDeleteHow mechanically did omega-3s negatively affect girls with an iron deficiency anemia? (I have that and take omega-3s!)
Poorer country has a higher population of people with good problem solving skills.
ReplyDeleteMight other factors like life experience, reaching maturity earlier, and striving for living accounts for the difference?
Naturally breastfed babies with mothers who have omega-3's in their diets show clear cognitive advantages over those who don't.
ReplyDeleteAre there any theorized factors that scientists think may be contributing toward the higher IQ's of children in poorer countries despite their lower omega-3 levels?
DHA accumulates during the third trimester of pregnancy.
ReplyDeleteIn many studies DHA supplementation is shown to work better in females, why is this?
Children have greater increases in cognitive development from drinking breast milk from mothers who are taking DHA supplements, rather than taking supplements directly.
ReplyDeleteDoes the environment have an affect on how much DHA aggregates in the child? How do the children from Australia have much higher IQ's than children from New Zealand, the UK, and Spain?
Babies fed breast milk had higher cognitive ability as a result of their mothers consuming omega-3's.
ReplyDeleteWhat are the product options currently for formula that has omega-3's in it? How does omega 3 supplemented formula compare to breast milk?
Intake of DHA via breastmilk vs formula has different effects on infant cognitive development.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like there are lots of variable involved in this study. Did the researchers discuss how their control was maintained?
Children who were breast fed from mothers who had DHA supplementation showed an increase in problem solving skills at the age of nine compared to children who were not breast fed.
ReplyDeleteWhat biologically causes the breast fed transfer of omega-3s to have a larger impact than normal supplementation?