You have more control over the quality and length of your life than you’ve ever imagined. In this article, we’re asking you to do something that’s easier than single-digit addition, something everybody already recognizes as so good for infants—and now for you too.

We want you to preserve your health. Preserve your eyes. Preserve your memory. And the beautiful part is that this simple step is good for you whether you’re pregnant, post-pregnant or getting on in years.


If you’re a regular reader, you know we’re always talking about “major agers”: how they affect your body and the specific, practical things you can do to counteract them. Understanding aging gives you insights into the action steps for extending your own warranty.

When it comes to aging, we’re concerned with acute inflammation from immediate infections such as colds or the flu. And we’re concerned with chronic inflammation because that can trigger a negative response that ages your entire system.

Chronic inflammation occurs when your immune system is even more overworked and stressed out than you are, leaving your body underequipped to deal with problems and making your system more vulnerable than a nervous patient in a too-small exam robe. Voila! You’re more susceptible to aging processes including damaged nerves.

There’s a fat that can fight this inflammation for you! It’s an essential fatty acid that can prevent deterioration in your retinas by as much as 30% or more; boost the IQ of kids by as much as 20 points (it’s present in breast milk and that’s why you find it in almost all infant formulas now); prevent post-partum depression in up to 30% of women and—the real biggie—decrease deaths from heart attacks by more than 30%.

What is this amazing fat? An omega-3 fatty acid called DHA (docosahexanoic acid). Research in people ages 4 to 80 shows it helps with brain development and vocabulary scores and decreases Alzheimer’s risk. While we tend to think of fat as being more negative than a political campaign, this kind of fat is pretty darn wondrous.

DHA is a fat that goes into your membranes and decreases inflammation. It seems to be the key in helping your cell membranes withstand the stress of inflammation, much like football pads allow linemen to withstand more hits than a bumper car.

During pregnancy, your body nourishes your growing baby with DHA and this powerful omega-3 is also there for your infant in your breastmilk.

If you don’t have enough of it, you can develop nerve dysfunction (depression in some), deficient eyesight (dry macular degeneration) or fading memory (why did I go into the living room?).

Your brain requires DHA to grow and to create new functional connections needed for memory and learning. DHA’s ability to keep inflammation from triggering fatal heart rhythms is thought to be responsible for the more than 30% decrease in heart attack deaths during the famous Lyon diet heart study, which found that a Mediterranean-style diet can be heart-protective.

Want to know why this specific omega-3 is so darn good? The truth is we really aren’t sure it is DHA, but the trail of evidence is pretty strong. Omega-3 refers to its position on the carbon chain that gives the fat the ability to help your membranes withstand shocks and to latch onto stuff that decreases inflammation.

Of all the omega-3s in your brain and retinas, 97% are DHA. The three common omega-3s are ALA (alpha lenolenic acid in foods like flax seeds and walnuts), EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid found in cold water fish) and DHA. Many foods, such as fish, have mixtures of ALA, EPA and DHA. Some algae, which fish eat, have mainly DHA. That’s where the fish get their DHA, and we prefer to get ours from these same fish. How much evidence is there to support DHA as the keep-’em-healthy ingredient for your brain, eyes and heart? Enough that it’s the only omega-3 food additive approved for baby formula. When DHA supplements were given to roughly half of 200 fourth graders in a randomized controlled study researchers saw better cognitive performance in the supplement group 16 weeks later. DHA also seems to lengthen gestational periods if taken in pregnancy, preventing preterm labor in some cases.

In a recent animal study, rats given DHA after traumatic concussions learned mazes better than those who ate regular rat chow. That learning difference persisted even after those rats lived longer than the human equivalent of great-grandfathers.


So here’s what we recommend: Get 600 milligrams of DHA in food or supplements each day. That’s the equivalent of 2 grams of metabolically distilled fish oil. And by the way, some swear that 600 mg of DHA a day decreases the pain and inflammation of osteo and rheumatoid arthritis—and the scientific evidence says they’re as right on as your spouse was when he proposed to you.

That’s how good DHA-omega-3 is for you. That’s why we take it and recommend it to all of our family members as well. So for now, enjoy understanding what DHA is doing as you walk 30 minutes a day, knowing that both choices are keeping your brain, heart, eyes and joints a whole lot younger.