Can DHA Cut Your Risk Of Alzheimer’s In Half?

How Do You Increase Your DHA Levels?

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney

As our population ages, the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease is increasing along with it.

Currently an estimated 7.4 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s.

And the number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is expected to double by 2060.

And the cost of Alzheimer’s is high!

The health-care cost of Alzheimer’s was estimated to be $355 billion last year and is increasing each year.

That doesn’t include lost time and wages by family members involved in taking care of a relative with Alzheimer’s.

But the highest cost is to the Alzheimer’s patients. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to be surrounded by friends and family and not be able to recognize any of them. We expect our golden years to be golden. But what good is a healthy body, if you have lost your mind?

Worse yet, we have no effective drugs for preventing or treating Alzheimer’s.

We know that lifestyle changes can reduce our risk of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. These include:

A primarily plant-based diet like the MIND diet.
A good fitness program.
Maintaining a healthy weight.
Keeping blood pressure and blood sugar under control.

If we do all those things, we can dramatically reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. The problem is that each of them has only a small effect by themselves. And that’s a lot of changes for the average American to master!

What if there were one thing that dramatically reduced our risk of Alzheimer’s and was simple to implement. A recent study (A Sala-Vila et al, Nutrients, 14, 2408, 2022) has suggested that one thing might be DHA. It’s that study I’m going to be talking about today.

How Was This Study Done?

The investigators used data from the Framingham Offspring Study, which consists of children of participants in the original Framingham Study and their spouses. Data is collected every 4 years from participants in this study with a goal of identifying risk factors for diseases.

Participants in the Framingham Offspring Study were first tested for the DHA content of their red blood cells (the most accurate measure of DHA status) between 2005 and 2008. The study I am reporting on today consisted of 1,490 participants in the Framingham Offspring Study who had RBC DHA measurements, no diagnosed dementia, were 65 or older at the beginning of the study, and whose APOE genotype had been measured (APOE-ɛ4 is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s).

These participants were followed through 2018 (an average of 7.2 years) and were screened regularly for a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease or other forms of dementia using a rigorous set of criteria.

DHA levels were divided into quintiles, and the risk of developing Alzheimer’s or dementia was compared for those in the highest quintile of RBC DHA to those in the lowest quintile of RBC DHA. These data were corrected for non-modifiable risk factors (age, sex, and APOE-ɛ4 status), diabetes status, and cardiovascular disease.

When the investigators compared participants in the highest RBC DHA quintile (DHA >6.1% of RBC fatty acids) to participants in the lowest RBC DHA quintile (DHA < 3.8% of RBC fatty acids),

DHA reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s by 49%.

- This corresponds to a gain of 4.65 Alzheimer’s-free years.

- The author’s estimated this would lead to an additional 2.7 years of life and would save around $500,000 in health care costs.

DHA reduced the risk of all-cause dementia by 44%.

- This corresponds to a gain of 4.03 dementia-free years.

The effect of DHA on Alzheimer’s and Dementia risk for participants carrying the APOE-ɛ4 gene was even more dramatic.

Participants in the highest DHA quintile gained 7.59 Alzheimer’s-free years and &.30 dementia-free years.

The authors concluded, “In a cohort of dementia-free participants from the Framingham Offspring Study aged 65 years and older, we observed that those with a baseline RBC DHA proportion above 6.1% (the top quintile) had nearly half the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease (and all-cause dementia), and had an estimated 4.7 extra years of life free from Alzheimer’s Disease compared with below 3.8% (bottom quintile.”

“In addition, we observed a trend for a stronger association between RBC DHA and risk for dementia in APOE-ɛ4 gene carriers, a finding that needs further research.”

“Our results, which concur with a growing foundation of experimental research, suggests that an increased DHA intake may be a safe and cost-effective strategy in preventing Alzheimer’s Disease in specific populations.”

The authors also said, “Our results imply that certain people may benefit from DHA-based interventions than others.” The people who would benefit the most would be:

Those with low DHA status.

Those carrying the APOE-ɛ4 [Note: This observation requires further research.]

How Do You Increase Your DHA Levels?

Now you know that optimal levels of DHA in your cell membranes may significantly reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia, there are only two questions:

#1: What is your DHA status? My recommendation is to start with an OmegaQuant test. It is not a standard test, but your doctor can order it for you. You are aiming for:

An Omega-3 Index of 8% or greater for heart health.

DHA levels of 6% or more for brain health.

If your values are low, the test will give you suggestions for optimizing your status.

#2: How do you increase your DHA levels? Here the recommendations are a bit more complex.

DHA is an essential fatty acid, so our bodies can’t make.

Our bodies can convert EPA to DHA, but the efficiency of that reaction is around 2%.

So, that means diet and supplementation are the only ways to increase DHA levels. But that is not as simple as it seems.

Most omega-3-rich foods and omega-3 supplements contain more EPA than DHA. For example:

In wild herring, the EPA to DHA ratio ranges from 1.2:1 to 1.7:1

In most fish oil supplements, the EPA to DHA ratio ranges from 1.5:1 to 3.2:1.

These are great for the heart, but not optimal for the brain.

If you want to focus on brain health, my recommendation is to balance omega-3-rich foods and fish oil supplements with a vegan omega-3 supplement made from algal oil. They usually have DHA:EPA ratios ranging from 3:1 to 4:1 unless the algae have been genetically modified.

Finally, you will want to repeat the OmegaQuant test every 6 to 12 months and modify your DHA and EPA intake until you have reached your target.

And don’t forget to add as many as you can of the modifiable lifestyle changes that decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Things like:

A primarily plant-based diet like the MIND diet.
A good fitness program.
Maintaining a healthy weight.
Keeping blood pressure and blood sugar under control.

Supplementation is never the total answer.

The Bottom Line

A recent study showed that optimizing your DHA status may:

Decrease your risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease by 49% and all-cause dementia by 44%

The protection may be strongest for people who currently have low DHA status and/or are genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s.

For more information on this study and how you can raise your DHA status, read the article above.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

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My posts and “Health Tips From the Professor” articles carefully avoid claims about any brand of supplement or manufacturer of supplements. However, I am often asked by representatives of supplement companies if they can share them with their customers.

My answer is, “Yes, as long as you share only the article without any additions or alterations. In particular, you should avoid adding any mention of your company or your company’s products. If you were to do that, you could be making what the FTC and FDA consider a “misleading health claim” that could result in legal action against you and the company you represent.

For more detail about FTC regulations for health claims, see this link.

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/health-products-compliance-guidance

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About The Author

Dr. Chaney has a BS in Chemistry from Duke University and a PhD in Biochemistry from UCLA. He is Professor Emeritus from the University of North Carolina where he taught biochemistry and nutrition to medical and dental students for 40 years. Dr. Chaney won numerous teaching awards at UNC, including the Academy of Educators “Excellence in Teaching Lifetime Achievement Award”. Dr Chaney also ran an active cancer research program at UNC and published over 100 scientific articles and reviews in peer-reviewed scientific journals. In addition, he authored two chapters on nutrition in one of the leading Biochemistry textbooks for medical students.

Since retiring from the University of North Carolina, he has been writing a weekly health blog called “Health Tips From the Professor”. He has also written two best-selling books, “Slaying the Food Myths” and “Slaying the Supplement Myths”. And most recently he has created an online lifestyle change course, “Create Your Personal Health Zone”. For more information visit .

For the past 54 years Dr. Chaney and his wife Suzanne have been helping people improve their health holistically through a combination of good diet, exercise, weight control and appropriate supplementation.