Fish oil contains the omega-3 fatty acid DHA, along with other fatty acids such as EPA and ALA, which are all essential nutrients that can give your body a wide range of benefits, reports the Linus Pauling Institute. Even though your body requires DHA --- short for docosahexaenoic acid --- for your brain to function properly, you may not be getting enough DHA if you eat a typical Western diet, the University of Maryland Medical Center, or UMMC, cautions.
Benefits
The DHA in fish oil may provide many health benefits. Besides its role in brain function, DHA also may lower the risk of heart disease, reduce the symptoms of conditions such as depression and rheumatoid arthritis, and help babies' vision and nervous systems develop properly, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. DHA lowers the risk of heart disease in multiple ways, reports the Linus Pauling Institute, including lowering blood pressure and triglycerides, decreasing inflammation, slowing down the growth of plaque in artery walls, reducing the risk of blood clots, and helping to regulate heart rhythms.
Amounts
While there's no official recommended daily amount of DHA in the United States, taking between 1,000 and 2,500 mg of DHA daily can give you health benefits from it, reports the UMMC, which adds that you can get 1,250 mg of DHA from eating two to three servings of fatty fish per week. The National Institutes of Health recommends taking different amounts of DHA to try to gain health benefits from it, such as 1,400 mg of DHA daily to reduce blood pressure and 2,000 mg of DHA per day to reduce rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, such as joint stiffness.
Sources
You can get the DHA in fish oil either by eating fatty fish or by taking fish oil supplements. A wide variety of different types of fish are good dietary sources of DHA, including salmon, tuna, herring, and rainbow trout, says the Linus Pauling Institute. If you want to get DHA in supplement form, the UMMC recommends taking supplements that provide between 3,000 and 4,000 mg of standardized fish oils per day.
Cautions
Although fish oil and the DHA it contains are likely safe to take in doses of 3,000 mg or less each day, you should be aware that taking fish oil can cause side effects such as heartburn, bad breath, diarrhea, nausea, nosebleeds and belching, cautions the National Institutes of Health. It's also important to keep in mind that taking more than 3,000 mg per day may reduce your blood's ability to clot, increasing your chance of bleeding, the National Institutes of Health says.
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