Some of you may have read a press release from the 2009 ICAD that two studies of DHA (an omega-3) and AD did not show any improvement in person with AD (healthy people did have some memory improvements) I posted some comments on the alz.org and want to share them here also.

I am not especially surprised that DHA did not improve people who already have AD but at the same time, I don’t think we should give up on them. In populations around the world, rates of dementia, diabetes, heart disease, etc., correlate very well with per capita fish consumption – the more fish, the less disease; but we are talking about a life time of this type of diet starting as a fetus in the mother who eats this way (look up studies by Dr. Hebbern - NIH.)

Steve and I spent most of our lives eating convenience foods, which are loaded with hydrogenated oils, so we can hardly expect that less than 1 gram of DHA per day in a body that weighs 80,000 grams at this point in our lives is going to make up for having a poor diet for the first 50 plus years. What we can hope for is to reduce the ongoing damage as we make new cells from this point forward by eating a healthier diet, including foods that contain the essential fatty acids and essential amino acids, antioxidants, basically fish, meats, poultry, eggs, dairy, whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, and stay away from the processed stuff/junk food and foods with a high sugar content. This may be the most important part of the Ultimate Cocktail. It could even be that if DHA is taken as part of a “cocktail” it will be more beneficial – or perhaps the quantity used in the studies is not even close to what is needed to be effective. Just as a point of comparison, we are using more than 100 grams of coconut oil/MCT oil per day for Steve, but this study used less than 1 gram of the DHA oil. The other study reported used 2 grams/day.

Neurons have the potential to live up to 120 years and most of our neurons have been there since childhood, so how much of the damage can we really expect to undo? When one of the DHA studies was recruiting a few years ago, I started Steve on fish oil (at least two years before we started the coconut oil), making certain that he did not get less than DHA 900mg a day, which they were giving in the study. I already knew that omega-3s are essential, so I didn’t want to risk that he would be in the placebo group for something that is so important to our overall health. The omega-3s are considered “essential” fatty acids, because your cells need them, but your body cannot make them. So we are continuing to use fish oil for general health reasons even if it doesn’t particularly improve someone with AD. We also use ground flax and eat walnuts, etc. to get other types of omega-3s. DHA is just one of the omega-3 fatty acids, and each has a different use in cells structures, and one omega-3 may be more important to certain cell types than the others. If you use a good fish oil, it actually has more than just the DHA and EPA omega-3s that they are required to list. I talked with the folks at Carlson labs, for example, and there are more than a dozen other fatty acids in their fish oil. My personal feeling is that the more options you give your body in the way of substrates to work with, the more likely it is that your body will be able to make what it needs. That is why we choose to continue to use coconut oil rather than limiting ourselves to just one medium chain triglyceride.

By the way, it turns out that the “stearic acid,” a saturated fat that has been vilified in other posts, actually increases HDL (good) cholesterol? Hmmm!! Reminds me of eggs and how they were supposed to be so bad for you and now they are not.

I don't know if it is good for your brain or not, but it DOES work on chronic pain. And I understand it is also good for your heart.

I take it. My husband does not.