Omega-3 Intake Needs to be Increased in Premature Infants
Abstracted by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, from “Higher dose of docosahexaenoic acid in the neonatal period improves visual acuity of preterm infants: results of a randomized controlled trial”, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 2008. Posted November 12, 2008.
A new study (1) has found that the amount of omega-3 fats for pre-term infants need is more than previously thought. As the most common cause of infant death in the United States, accounting for one-third of infant deaths in 2002, pre-term birth is defined as being born before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy (2). About 12.5% of babies (more than 500,000 per year) in the United States are born prematurely. The premature birth rate has increased by more than 30% since 1981 (3) and costs our health care system $26 billion per year (4). Research has recently pointed to high cholesterol levels during pregnancy (5) as a contributing factor to preterm birth.
In the study, families of infants born less than 33 weeks into pregnancy were given either 6 500-mg capsules of either tuna oil (rich in the omega-3 fat DHA = 74 infants) or soybean oil (control group = 69 infants) per day (given to mothers who chose to breast feed) or a formula with similar make up (given to mothers not breastfeeding) for 4 months. At 2 and 4 months after the study began, the researchers performed an eye test on the infants called a sweep visual evoked potential (VEP) test to measure visual acuity, that is, vision for detail and patterns (6).
While no visual improvements were seen after two months of supplementation, significant improvements were seen at four months. Infants in the supplement group (both formula and breastfeeding) had a 17% better performance on the sweep VEP test, with visual acuity 1.4 cycles per second higher than in the control groups.
The significance of this study is that the amount of DHA given to the infants is higher than that normally provided by the mother through the western diet. Research has shown that the developing infant needs 50 mg of omega-3 fatty acids per kilogram of bodyweight per day during the last trimester of pregnancy (7).
For the researchers, “This study shows that infants fed milk with DHA concentrations exceeding the concentration in human milk of most Western women or preterm formulas had improved visual acuity at 4 months [of supplementation] over infants receiving standard DHA doses.”
Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at
www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com
Reference:
- Smithers LG. Higher dose of docosahexaenoic acid in the neonatal period improves visual acuity of preterm infants: results of a randomized controlled trial. Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, Oct 2008; 88: 1049-1056.
- “Fact Sheets: Preterm Birth” posted on http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals/14332_1157.asp
- Martin, J.A., et al. Births: Final Data for 2004. National Vital Statistics Reports, volume 55, number 1, September 29, 2006.
- “Preterm Births Cost U.S. $26 Billion a Year; Multidisciplinary Research Effort Needed to Prevent Early Births” posted on www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=11622.
- Catov JM. Early pregnancy lipid concentrations and spontaneous preterm birth Amer Jou Obst Gynecol 2007; 197(6):610.e1-610.e7.
- “Sweep Visual Evoked Potential Test” posted on http://www.childrenshospital.org/clinicalservices/Site1340/mainpageS1340P8sublevel40.html
- Clandinin MT, Chappell JE, Heim T, Swyer PR, Chance GW. Fatty acid utilization in perinatal de novo synthesis of tissues. Early Hum Dev 1981;5:355–66.