Gold standard for the brain
IT’S astonishing but dementia is now the leading cause of death in the UK, claiming more lives than heart disease, lung cancer or stroke. Alzheimer’s Research UK says someone develops dementia every three minutes, with 209,600 new cases each year. The charity says that women over 60 are twice as likely to develop dementia as breast cancer. And 35 per cent of women and 24 per cent of men born in 2015 will develop dementia in their lifetime.
The disease gradually dissolves quality of life leaving formerly happy, intelligent people confused and distressed, lost without the memories of the life they had before.
As more and more people succumb, more and more people find themselves caught up as carers, slowly watching their loved ones vanish yet unable to do anything other than offer simple day-to-day comforts.
There might be no remedy – but there are things you can do for yourself to help the body keep the disease at bay.
Research is increasingly recognising that omega-3, a fatty acid found in fish oil, is vital to brain, eye and heart health, especially as we get older. DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is a primary component of the brain and particularly of the cerebral cortex, the area responsible for memory, language, creativity, judgment, emotion and attention.
In fact omega-3 DHA accounts for up to 40 per cent of polyunsaturated fatty acids in the brain and so is essential to overall brain health.
Low DHA levels have been associated with several mental disorders such as depression and memory loss as well as dementia.
In the eye, omega-3 DHA is naturally concentrated in the retina, a layer that receives the image formed by the lens. Studies show that large quantities of DHA may help reduce age-related degeneration of the macular, the part of the eye responsible for our central vision. It can also help reduce dry eye syndrome, a chronic disease when the eye does not produce enough tears or when the tears evaporate too quickly.
Important DHA sources are fish, calamari and the tiny ocean creatures, krill, although it can also be found in walnuts, leafy greens and soy products.
HOWEVER it is difficult to obtain enough omega-3 from natural sources, so a dietary supplement is a perfect way to make up the difference. But all omega-3 is not equal. Most of the benefits come from DHA and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and while both are available in various forms it is Bioglan Calamari Gold that is becoming widely appreciated. It contains golden calamari oil which compared to fish oil has a higher concentration of omega-3 DHA – making it the gold standard of omega-3 health supplements.
Bioglan Calamari Gold contains five times the amount of omega-3 DHA as cod liver oil and three times as much as fish oil.
The 1,000mg capsules provide 400mg of DHA, considerably more than the minimum recommended amount of 250mg, along with EPA. INFORMATION: Bioglan Calamari Gold is available from Holland & Barrett stores nationwide.