Omega-3 DHA May Protect Soldiers, Athletes From Traumatic Brain Injury

U.S. researchers have found in experiments with rats that taking the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexanoic acid (DHA) may protect the brain against the type of traumatic injury  experienced by military personnel and football players. Docosahexanoic acid is one of the main fatty acids found in the brain, where it may play a number of neuroprotective roles. For the experiment, five groups of 16 adult male rats were fed 3, 12 or 40 mg of DHA per kg of body weight – roughly equivalent to doses found in supplements taken by humans – for thirty days before being subjected to an “impact acceleration traumatic brain.”  According to the researchers, the tissue damage caused by traumatic brain injury was significantly reduced in rats taking the highest dose of DHA: 40 mg per kilogram of body weight.