{"id":2686,"date":"2012-03-07T16:00:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-07T21:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/college.web.unc.edu\/?p=2686"},"modified":"2024-07-02T13:27:37","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T13:27:37","slug":"dha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=2686","title":{"rendered":"The deal with DHA: Earliest foods can affect brain function"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Six-month-old Lincoln Perkins wears a specialized net that reads electrical impulses in the brain. (Used with permission, Salisbury Post, 2012).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In every baby\u2019s brain, there\u2019s a building\u00a0boom.<\/p>\n

Huge amounts of iron, proteins, and fatty acids are put to work in a construction frenzy that begins mere weeks after sperm meets egg. New cells, new synapses, new neurons \u2014 the fetal brain can make up to a quarter million every\u00a0minute.<\/p>\n

It takes a lot of raw materials to keep up that\u00a0pace.<\/p>\n

Some of the human brain\u2019s most important abilities are cemented before birth. We build our capacity for things like memory and higher cognition in the womb, and that capacity is all we have as long as we\u00a0live.<\/p>\n

Neuroscientist Carol Cheatham, <\/a>an assistant professor in the department of psychology in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, is working to find out exactly how the nutrients a mom passes on to her baby \u2014 first through the placenta and later through her breast milk or in formula \u2014 can affect brain power for\u00a0life.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s taking a close look at one particular nutrient: DHA, a fatty acid found in certain fish and eggs, and now in baby formula and prenatal vitamins throughout the\u00a0U.S.<\/p>\n

In Cheatham\u2019s lab in Kannapolis, North Carolina, a baby named Lincoln<\/a> sits on his mom\u2019s lap, watching pictures of toys flash on a screen in front of him. Covering his scalp like a helmet is a net of 128 soft, spongy suction\u00a0cups.<\/p>\n

Each of the suction cups is a sensor that picks up on electric impulses from Lincoln\u2019s brain. This is how Cheatham measures memory and cognition in study subjects who can\u2019t talk\u00a0yet.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s studying Lincoln and other six-month-olds, some formula-fed and some breastfed, to find out how the fatty acids in their food affect their developing\u00a0brains.<\/p>\n

The electric impulses from the sensors create an image, a curving line that shows Lincoln\u2019s brain activity as he checks out each passing\u00a0toy.<\/p>\n

Most babies\u2019 brains produce a line that plunges when a new toy appears on the screen, meaning that the brain is hard at work processing the image. Then the line sweeps back up, rising into an arc \u2014 that\u2019s the brain committing the image to memory \u2014 before settling back to the\u00a0baseline.<\/p>\n

When a familiar toy appears, the line dips only slightly before flattening out again. The brain realizes it\u2019s seen the toy before, so it doesn\u2019t expend the energy to process it\u00a0again.<\/p>\n

When the waves for new toys and for familiar toys are virtually identical, Cheatham says, \u201cit means the baby can\u2019t tell the difference between old and new pictures. The brain is processing like crazy on both kinds, trying to figure out what they are. It\u2019s like it\u2019s not putting them into memory at\u00a0all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctors have said for a long time that baby brains fed on breast milk perform better, but Cheatham is finding that the difference isn\u2019t as simple as breastfeeding versus\u00a0formula-feeding.<\/p>\n

The breastfeeding advantage disappears when a mom can\u2019t synthesize the fatty acid DHA, Cheatham says. About 7 percent of U.S. women can\u2019t. There\u2019s less DHA in their plasma during pregnancy \u2014 meaning that less DHA reaches the fetus during crucial brain-development time \u2014 and lower DHA in their breast\u00a0milk.<\/p>\n

Cheatham\u2019s still analyzing data from this study, but her early results show that babies whose brains have trouble remembering are those who don\u2019t get enough\u00a0DHA.<\/p>\n

If you have kids, or even if you don\u2019t, you may have seen the letters DHA on all kinds of product labels in the grocery store. In 2008, U.S. manufacturers started putting it in supplements, prenatal vitamins, and infant formula. In fact, you\u2019d be hard-pressed to find prenatal vitamins and infant formula that don\u2019t include\u00a0DHA.<\/p>\n

You need DHA (or docosahexaenoic acid) throughout your life to keep your brain functioning at its best. But DHA is especially important for the hungry baby brain. It powers the development of vision, attention, memory, and cognitive\u00a0functioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s in every cell wall, it\u2019s in every neuron,\u201d Cheatham says. \u201cIt allows things to move in and out of the neurons more freely. It allows receptors to implant themselves in the synapses more\u00a0readily.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your body makes DHA from the food you eat, namely omega-3 fatty acids. When a baby has a DHA deficiency, it could mean that the breastfeeding mom needs to cut down on omega-6 fats and add more omega-3 fats to her\u00a0diet.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you also have to consider mom\u2019s genotype,\u201d Cheatham says. \u201cIf you have a certain genetic makeup, you can take the fatty acid from flaxseed, nuts, and plants, and turn it into DHA inside your body.\u201d But another genetic makeup may prevent some of us \u2014 about 7 percent of the U.S. population \u2014 from making our own\u00a0DHA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf mom has a genotype where she can\u2019t make her own DHA, she\u2019s not going to have sufficient DHA to pass across the placenta or through her breast milk,\u201d Cheatham says. These mothers should be taking DHA\u00a0supplements.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, clinical trials haven\u2019t been able to prove that DHA from supplements and infant formula has the same benefits as DHA made in the body. \u201cOn a molecular level, it looks for all the world like it should have an effect,\u201d Cheatham says. \u201cBut only about 60 percent of trials have found that it does.\u201d She thinks the genetic difference in a small percentage of study participants is skewing the\u00a0results.<\/p>\n

In Canada, about 11 percent of the population can\u2019t make their own DHA. In eastern China, it\u2019s 50 percent. In the Inuit, it\u2019s nearly 100 percent. \u201cFor generations, the Inuit have had a really fatty-acid-rich diet,\u201d Cheatham says. \u201cSo the gene for making DHA has actually disappeared from their entire\u00a0genome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same thing could happen in other populations through fetal programming, which refers to the way babies are conditioned for the world by their experience in the uterus and the\u00a0placenta.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I know about the human body is that it doesn\u2019t put a lot of effort into things that aren\u2019t necessary,\u201d Cheatham says. \u201cIt has a lot of redundant systems, but if one system\u2019s working fine, the redundant one will back\u00a0off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Babies today are getting lots of supplemental DHA, in addition to what most mothers produce naturally. Additional amounts come from prenatal vitamins \u2014 which most mothers continue to take while breastfeeding \u2014 or from infant\u00a0formula.<\/p>\n

And the result, Cheatham theorizes, \u201cis that the system thinks there\u2019s a lot of DHA in the world and that there\u2019s no need to make it. And then at 12 months, when the baby\u2019s weaned off of formula and it comes time for the system to take over, where is the system? It\u2019s been down-regulated to the point that it may not be able to be up-regulated\u00a0again.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what does all this new DHA in our systems mean for developing fetuses? Or for long-term health in adults? And how can we make sure each infant gets the specific nutrients he or she\u00a0needs?<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll take more studies and bigger sample sizes to answer all Cheatham\u2019s questions. So far, her samples have been relatively small, mainly because it\u2019s tough to find participants who belong to that 7 percent of the population who can\u2019t make\u00a0DHA.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s even tougher to find the 2.5 percent of U.S. babies who not only can\u2019t make their own DHA, but whose mothers also can\u2019t make DHA. That\u2019s a group Cheatham would really like to look at more\u00a0closely.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll find bigger samples in Singapore, Vietnam, and eastern China, where the typical diet is high in fish and 50 percent of the population cannot make DHA. She and her colleagues have already proposed some preliminary studies in\u00a0China.<\/p>\n

Without a genetic test, there\u2019s no way to know whether you\u2019re part of the 7 percent, Cheatham says. But finding out could make a powerful difference in a baby\u2019s\u00a0life.<\/p>\n

Children with cognitive delays caused by nutrient deficiency may never catch up with their peers when it comes to brain power. And a better understanding of individual differences in fatty-acid requirements can help doctors and parents make sure each child gets the right diet for optimal brain\u00a0development.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be a pie-in-the-sky idea,\u201d she says, \u201cbut I\u2019m hoping that one of the things that\u2019ll come out of my research eventually is that testing for this becomes routine. It\u2019s not difficult. We just take saliva and run it upstairs to the genetics\u00a0lab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Cheatham also is an assistant professor in the Nutrition Research Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[ By Margarite Nathe, Endeavors<\/a> magazine ]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In every baby\u2019s brain, there\u2019s a building boom. … Neuroscientist Carol Cheatham is working to find out exactly how the nutrients a mom passes on to her baby \u2014 first through the placenta and later through her breast milk or in formula \u2014 can affect brain power for life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-natural-sciences-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2686"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45160,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions\/45160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}