Do We Need More DHA?

Everyone needs DHA, and most of us need more than we are getting. DHA is one of the essential fatty acids, meaning human beings need to eat it, since they cannot make it. DHA is an omega-3 essential fatty acid with a carbon chain containing 20 carbon atoms. (The "docosa" in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is the Greek word for 20.) We get DHA directly from eating algae, or from eating things that exist in the food chain that begins with algae, like krill and fish. Most of the omega-3 essential fatty acids in our diet come from plant sources, and these have a carbon skeleton with 16 or 18 carbon atoms, i.e. linolenic acid. Human beings can convert smaller chain omega-3 fatty acids to the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids like DHA, but for every milligram of DHA we make in this internal conversion process, we need to eat 1000 mg of a shorter chain essential fatty acid. One quarter of the weight of our retina and brain is DHA! If you are trying to regenerate damaged tissues in your eyes, eat more DHA regularly.