DHA & the Omega-3 Revolution

Better Nutrition, August, 2001 by Liz Brown

Milestones in DHA-supportive Research

The Pediatrics study. There were several groundbreaking studies which came out in 1998, the first of which appeared in the journal, Pediatrics. The authors of this study, L. John Horwood, Msc, B.A., and David M. Fergusson, Ph.D., reported that in an 18-year study of over 1,000 children, those who were breastfed as infants were "more intelligent" and had attained greater academic achievement than those who had been fed standard infant formula.

The children who had been breastfed were even 38 percent more likely to complete high school than were the formulated kids. The authors described it this way: "The weight of evidence clearly favors the view that exposure to breast-feeding is associated with small, but detectable, increases in childhood cognitive ability and educational achievement, with it being likely these increases reflect the effects of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid levels and, particularly, DHA levels on early neurodevelopment." How is this supportive of DHA? Since the DH-enriched formulas out there match breast-milk levels of DHA, the connection is clear.

The Pediatric Research study. In this study, conducted by E.E. Birch, and colleagues, 79 healthy full-term infants received either a standard infant formula (not fortified with DHA or AA) [control group] or the same formula enriched with DHA or DHA and AA for 17 weeks. The visual acuity (vision), growth and fatty-acid profile of these babies were compared--over the first year of life--with those of exclusively breastfed infants. The infants fed DHA and AA developed vision on par with breastfed babies; the visual development was significantly poorer in the standard-formula-fed group. To put it in perspective, infants fed standard formula had a visual deficiency of about "one line on an eye chart." In fact, the beneficial "effects of dietary supply of DHA on [visual] acuity were still" evident at 52 weeks [one year later], even though DHA was only provided for the first 17 weeks. The study concluded that: "early intake of DHA and AA appears necessary for optimal development of the human brain and eye."

The prestigious Nutrition Information Center of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center issued a statement about this study, saying: "The Nutrition Information Center applauds this research which lends support to our conviction that optimal brain and eye development requires docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). This study supports the conclusion of many other similar well-controlled studies which have been reported in the literature over the last 20 years."

The Lancet study. In this study, 44 term infants were randomly assigned to receive a standard formula or a DHA (long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid) enriched formula, which they received from birth to age 4 months. At 10 months of age, cognitive (learning) measurements were used to compare both groups. The results were impressive. The authors found that "an infant's three-step problem solving ability is significantly improved with [DHA and AA-supplemented formula]."