April 10, 2025, Sioux Falls, SD: Earlier this week, the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) updated its guidance for health professionals regarding the role of DHA in the prevention of preterm and early preterm birth, marking the first time the agency has publicly promoted DHA for this issue.
Research indicates that long-chain omega-3s reduce the risk of preterm birth, so experts recommend that all women of childbearing age consume at least 250 mg per day of DHA plus EPA from diet or supplements, and an additional 100 to 200 mg per day of DHA during pregnancy.
Unfortunately, most women fall woefully short of these recommendations. In fact, as ODS states in its guidance, “When combined with EPA, the total average daily intake of DHA plus EPA from food is 78.7 mg and the average daily intake from food and supplements is 97.7 mg.”
ODS added that the authors of a 2024 clinical practice guideline stated that intakes up to 1,000 mg per day of DHA or DHA and EPA do not raise safety concerns in women who are pregnant, and especially those at risk for preterm birth.
Regarding preterm birth specifically, ODS pointed out that while results from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have not shown consistent benefits from maternal supplementation with EPA and/or DHA during pregnancy on infant cognition or visual development, long-chain omega-3 supplements, particularly DHA, have been shown to reduce the risk of preterm and early preterm birth.
Further, the agency highlighted a 2022 statement from the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL) that included two large trials that were published after the 2018 Cochrane Review confirming the relationship between DHA and preterm birth. The ISSFAL statement highlighted a 12% reduction in the risk of preterm birth and a 35% reduction in the risk of early preterm birth among those taking long-chain omega-3 supplements.
“This is an important step forward since a major agency of the US government has finally officially recognized that a marine omega-3 – DHA – can reduce risk for a human health condition — preterm birth,” said Dr. Bill Harris, President of the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI). “Hopefully, this will open the door for other agencies to make specific omega-3 recommendations for other conditions.”
“We are happy to see the recommendation for the use of omega-3s in pregnancy by the Office of Dietary Supplements,” commented Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson, Director of Research for OmegaQuant Analytics. “Our goal is to help clinicians and individuals implement these recommendations to help move the needle on improving pregnancy outcomes for women in the US and worldwide.”
Several years ago, OmegaQuant launched the Prenatal DHA and Mother’s Milk DHA tests to help women measure, modify and monitor their DHA status in blood and breast milk. Because there are so many factors that can influence one’s DHA status, just keeping track of your DHA intake is often not enough to know whether your body getting an optimal amount.
“We believe women should not only be in interested in their intake of this important nutrient but equally so when it comes to knowing their blood or milk level of DHA. That’s why we highly encourage women to make sure they measure their DHA level before, during and after pregnancy,” Dr. Jackson added.
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Updated Health Professional Guidance – Dietary Supplements and Life Stages, Pregnancy
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About OmegaQuant:
OmegaQuant is an independent, CLIA-certified lab that offers nutritional status testing to researchers, clinicians and the public. OmegaQuant performs analysis in Sioux Falls, SD, for commercial and academic research collaborators, and for consumers interested in monitoring their nutritional status in both blood and breast milk. Its goal is to offer the highest quality fatty acid analytical services to researchers and to provide simple tests of nutritional status to consumers, with the ultimate purpose of advancing the science and use of certain nutrients to improve health. Internationally, OmegaQuant works with the University of Stirling, based in the Scotland, to help process blood samples from Europe. Learn more @ www.omegaquant.com
About FARI:
FARI was established in 2020 as a non-profit foundation that brings together nutrition scientists and biostatistical experts with strong publication records and expertise in fatty acids to accelerate discovery of the relationship between fatty acids, especially omega-3s, and health. FARI is currently the only organization focused directly on discovering and publishing research evaluating the health effects of individual fatty acids. Learn more @ www.faresinst.org