Did you realize that the organ situated on the top of your body and encased in a hardy bony structure requires an inordinate amount of energy to keep you alive and mentally active?

In fact, other tissues of the body sense the dominance of the brain, and will make sacrifices when necessary to keep it alive and healthy. For example, if we are on a starvation diet and the important nutrient glucose is in short supply, the tissues of the body, such as muscle, will decrease their glucose consumption so that the brain, a glucose-consuming machine, will have enough of this nutrient.  This is also true for certain vitamins such as Vitamin B-7 (Biotin).  When its supply is low, the tissues of the body cease using the vitamin to allow a greater supply for the brain, which requires significant amounts of this vitamin for the synthesis of neurotransmitters.  The body knows its master and will do all that is necessary to maintain a healthy brain.

This organ, the brain, consumes the equivalent of a quarter pound of fuel (glucose) per day,  more than any other organ in the body except muscles during heavy exercise. But, it does have a tremendous amount of work to carry out each day. The bulk of the energy is used to manufacture neurotransmitters required to initiate and propagate electro-chemical signals via the electrical circuitry of the nervous system.  The brain controls virtually everything we do: hormone release, breathing, growth, memory, eating, and sleeping, as well as emotional state functioning of your brain.

In protecting the brain from age-associated damage, we examine the requirement of the essential nutrients, the omega-3 fatty acids in supporting health of our nervous system.

FISH IS FOOD FOR THE BRAIN The old wives tale may be accurate.  The major constituent of the brain is fat (comprising 70% the weight excluding water), and roughly half of this fat is the OMEGA-3 fatty acid, DHA/EPA. Since we cannot synthesize this essential fatty acid, we must obtain it from our diet.  Fish is the  major source of the OMEGA-3 fats (DHA/EPA).

Why does our brain have so much DHA? Several studies of people in fish-eating communities that consumer significant quantities of the OMEGA-3 fats have shown a protective effect on the brain with respect to improved mental function, and a decreased incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease  and Dementia, relative to communities with low intake of these essential fats.  Further, the OMEGA-3’s have been demonstrated to be of critical importance to the development of the pre-natal nervous system.  Thus, these critical fats, especially DHA, play a crucial role during development of the fetal nervous system and later in life in protecting the nervous system from degeneration.