Are Vegans Being Sold a Story on DHA? It seems so. For years now, vegans have increasingly been told that if they don’t take DHA supplements, they may be putting themselves at risk for dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
I’ve always been skeptical of how certain those claims sound, because the actual evidence has never seemed nearly that clear-cut to me.
Now a new study from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) has added another wrinkle to the story, finding that omega-3 supplement users showed statistically faster cognitive decline over about five years of follow-up.
Important: this was an observational study, so it does NOT prove causation.
But it does raise interesting questions — especially since many of the claims made for DHA supplementation also rely heavily on observational evidence.
In this new video I break down:
* what the study found,
* its limitations,
* why I think the evidence around DHA supplements is far more uncertain than many vegans are being told,
* and why I personally follow a more precautionary approach toward long-term supplementation.
Links referred to:
Article about study:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-05-omega-supplements-linked-faster-cognitive.html
New study itself:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2274580726000932?viaihub
ESPEN Guidelines recomending against DHA:
https://www.espen.org/files/ESPEN-Guidelines/ESPEN-guideline-on-nutrition-and-hydration-in-dementia-update-2024.pdf
DHA/Omega 3 Playlist of my videos:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYmM_Ej6JHAn9vcO4jzd4lQxbGxrqdTsm
Subscribe on Substack (notify of videos not on YouTube!):
https://vegsource.substack.com/
O U R W E B S I T E
https://www.vegsource.com
