A recent study done on the Omega 3 levels of non supplemented people showed that in spite of dietary recommendations and nutritional education, 98% of people DO NOT get enough Omega 3’s to make much difference in their health.
A simple and accurate way to determine if you are is to do the finger stick Omega 3 ratio test. Many years back I used to sell that test and over those years had done literally hundreds. It was very rare indeed that anyone doing the test had a healthy Omega 3/6 ratio (known as the Land’s ratio) unless they followed my guideline of 4-6 caps of purified Fish Oil on a daily basis or in much rarer cases followed a high Omega 3 low Omega 6 diet (see fast learner.org).
The recent meta analysis I panned in one of my blogs shows several typical behaviors:
- The willingness of ‘experts’ to weigh in on large meta analysis that use the same input studies that have shown negative fish oil results before without recognizing the recycled nature of the data and touting it as “new and definitive” research.
- The willingness of experts to ignore the tiny amounts of fish oil and the complete or deliberate ignorance of said experts concerning the Land’s ratio lately known as the “Omega 3 index”
- And I could not resist a quote from one of the expert Cardiologists tapped by “How Stuff Works” see below.
- The unending of the “just eat fish” argument without being able to cite what magical unknown fish components are responsible for small amounts of fish consumption reducing the incidence of heart disease when fish oil does not. Maybe it’s the lead mercury cadmium or plastic derivatives that are routinely found in the fish we eat! I refer you to pub med to read about the Helsinki Heart Study which years ago pointed out that large amounts of fish consumption yield large enough amounts of methyl mercury which is toxic to the heart and most likely responsible for the high rates of cardiac disease and death in this fish eating country. You can also find articles there that show that eating one wild caught cod fish a week is enough to induce mercury levels that are toxic. You can also find my speeches on YouTube that detail how the krill product I tested had 50X the arsenic allowed in drinking water.
Or you can just eat fish!
But if you do be aware that a recent well done study by a respected group of individuals some of whom are actually clinicians showed that 98% of non supplemented people do not get enough fish oil http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/9/9/930
In other words a whole ton of people are not getting enough!
You will also see in the commentary that one Dr Susan Steinbaum is astute enough to mention the need for studies using the Land’s ratio (Omega 3 Index) to document how well the doses achieve meaningful levels.
In addition, if you go here you will see an encouragingly mixed group of responses ranging from the usual- “just eat well and live well and you’ll be fine!” This is the same expert opinion on aging often used to tell you, you are wasting your money on supplements and treatments. Meanwhile people are not living a whole lot longer or better including many of those who say “just eat well and live well”. Either we really don’t know what that means and are telling people to do the wrong things, or it doesn’t really work. You decide.
The encouraging part comes when you read the number or experts who state that the studies included in the JAMA meta analysis underdosed everyone and so the negative results are not surprising, A few even mention the Omega 3 index!
One guy even does what I used to do before I had a more potent purified fish oil. He gives his patients 20 capsules a day. Now this tells me he has to be using a run of the mill triglyceride product containing only low doses of Omega 3’s but hey, it’s a start!
As someone who has been saying this stuff for over a decade I had just about given up on reaching anyone but lo and behold some of the “experts” are actually learning the simple truth about how the body uses Omega 3 fish oil.
But not everyone.
I could not resist this quote from one of the experts from “How Stuff Works”- a Canadian Cardiologist identified as Dr. Gerstein.
Here it is:
“The good news is that taking a regular fish oil pill as a supplement doesn’t seem to do any harm. Except, Gerstein says, all those extra fatty acids, not to mention all the money spent, may end up, quite literally, down the drain.
“You’re making expensive urine,” Dr.Gerstein says.”
While it may be a lot to expect a Cardiologist to understand Omega 3 metabolism, “How Stuff Works” health writer John Donovan did tap him as an expert.
Truthfully, Almost 100% of the fats processed and excreted by your body are excreted in the stool not the urine unless you have a shunt between your bowel and your bladder. The correct interpretation by our dear doctor would be that fish oil pills give you expensive stool and have nothing to do with the urine.
Stick with your statins doc!
This reminds me of the Nationally famous urologist who got in TV in response to the infamous Theodore Braskey “Fish oil increases prostate cancer study” telling everyone to stop taking fish oil now!”
That study was refuted soon after but continues to be cited in the media.
I always love hearing from the experts about urine and stool. Surprising how many of them are full of both.
I guess we could all just take statins. That would give us expensive stool for sure.
Doc