OmegaMatters

EPISODE #37

Title: Omega-3 & Bleeding Risk

Recording date: July 30, 2024

Broadcast date: August 15, 2024

Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris and Kristina Harris Jackson

Guest: Dr. Mohammad Alkhalil

About this episode: 

In this episode Drs. Harris & Jackson are joined by Dr. Mohammad Alkhalil from Newcastle upon Tyne. He's an interventional cardiologist, who trained originally in Damascus and then in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He did his cardiology training in Toronto and then went on to get a PhD at Oxford. So we have a very well-educated, unusually well-educated cardiologist joining us today. Our topic is going to be omega-3 and bleeding, and we're going to start by asking Dr. Alkhalil to tell us what got him interested in the whole omega-3 story, as well as digging deeply into why bleeding was also of interest. He will talk in-depth about his latest paper published in the Journal of the American Heart Association on omega-3 and bleeding risk. For more information on OmegaMatters, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/


To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #36 

Title: Omega-3 & Niacin for Heart Health (Why So Many HDL Drugs Failed)

Recording date: May 9, 2024

Broadcast date: July 24, 2024

Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris and Kristina Harris Jackson

Guest: Dr. Greg Shearer

About this episode: 

In this episode we welcome Dr. Greg Shearer, who is a professor of nutritional sciences at the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on how the downstream products of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids, sometimes called lipid mediators, affect disease-related outcomes. The paper discussed in this episode relates specifically to Omega-3s, Niacin and HDL Function. For more information on OmegaMatters, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/


To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #35 - Going Behind the Headlines… Is Fish Oil Bad for Healthy Hearts?

Recording date: May 31, 2024

Broadcast date: June 1, 2024

Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris and Kristina Harris Jackson

Background and key takeaways:
For this special edition of OmegaMatters, Drs. Bill Harris and Kristina Harris Jackson review a recent BMJ paper that concluded fish oil was bad for healthy hearts. There are several points of contention in this paper that Dr. Bill Harris reviews in detail.

·      Why a new BMJ paper is generating sensational headlines around fish oil and heart health

·      How this new research has come to the — misleading — conclusion that fish is bad for healthy hearts but ok for this with existing heart issues

·      Why “reporting” fish oil intake is not as important giving people fish oil and measuring its effects

·      How the latest BMJ paper compares to a study published in BMJ in 2020 that examined fish oil use and heart health — in a nearly identical study population and came to a very different conclusion

·      How the mainstream press took the only negative from the recent BMJ paper (fish slightly increases Afib risk in healthy people) and disregard the several positive findings

·      How most mortality stats are positive for omega-3 use and should hold more weight than individual CVD outcomes 

·      Whether the data were extracted properly — there are extreme discrepancies in the data from the Chen et al. study vs. the Li et al. study

·      Why the bigger picture of omega-3 supplement use on health writ large in the UK Biobank is strongly in favor of the use of omega-3

·      Why examining circulating levels of omega-3 is a better determinant of health outcomes vs. just reporting omega-3 intake

·      In the UK Biobank, higher omega-3 levels are associated with lower risk for several major mortality outcomes. None of this was ever mentioned by Chen.

Important papers discussed:

·      Regular use of fish oil supplements and course of cardiovascular diseases: prospective cohort study

·      Associations of habitual fish oil supplementation with cardiovascular outcomes and all cause mortality: evidence from a large population based cohort study

Omega-3 Blood Levels and Stroke Risk: A Pooled and Harmonized Analysis of 183 291 Participants From 29 Prospective Studies


To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #34 - Considerations for Buying an Omega-3 Test

Recording date: April 8, 2024 

Broadcast date: May 16, 2024

Hosts: Drs. Harris and Jackson

Guest: Dr. Kevin Maki 

Background and key takeaways: 

Dr. Kevin Maki is the founder and chief scientist of Midwest Biomedical Research where they specialize in designing and conducting clinical trials related to cardiometabolic health, clinical nutrition, and cognitive function. And he's also an adjunct professor and dean's eminent scholar at Indiana University in the School of Public Health in Bloomington, and the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Lipidology.

·      What’s the difference between all of the omega-3 tests out there; a new research paper published in the Journal of Nutrition wanted to answer that very question — Journal of Nutrition: Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Status in Humans: A Narrative Review of Commercially Available Options

·      Why clinical trials need to assess omega-3 status to reach better conclusions about the effectiveness of omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA) for certain health benefits

·      Why in the near future clinicians will be routinely assessing omega-3 status; and why for people with low status, doctors can recommend an intervention to raise the status

·      Why choosing the Omega-3 Index to test omega-3 status makes the most sense, but if the ultimate goal is to get people testing their omega-3 status in the first place, then testing is better than not testing at all

·      What are some important considerations for buying an omega-3 test? The availability, the convenience, the cost, insurance coverage, the simplicity of the results…

·      Why the arachidonic acid to EPA ratio is a useful test 

·      Why it is virtually impossible to compile and compare studies if researchers are not using the same metrics to do baseline and ending omega-3 status

·      Why you cannot tell what your omega-3 level is just by the omega-3 products you are taking (i.e. omega-3 supplements and/or fish) — i.e., why you can’t guess what you should test

·      Why we need more clinical trials that recruit people with low status and then have an intervention to increase the status up to optimal levels

·      What is the difference between measuring omega-3s in plasma vs. red blood cells

·      Which tests are covered by insurance

·      Why getting the Omega-3 Index into more mainstream channels will help the people who need it most — i.e., the ones with the lowest omega-3 levels

To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #33 - How Diet & Supplementation Impacts the Omega-3 Index

Recording date: April 1, 2024

Broadcast date: April 10, 2024

Hosts: Drs. Harris and Jackson 

Guest: Dr. Laurel Wentz

About this episode: 

Dr. Laurel Wentz talks about her deep dive into the Omega-3 Index and supplementation and diet and everything that affects the Omega-3 Index. She recently published a large paper that discusses what it takes to increase the Omega-3 Index with Food and Supplements. Dr. Wentz is an associate professor of nutrition at Appalachian State University. She's also a registered dietitian and a board certified specialist in sports dietetics, so she's got a lot of practical knowledge on this and many other topics related to nutrition and health. She focuses on the impact of nutrition, on metabolism, inflammation and immune function during exercise. 

To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #32 - The Omega-3 Index and Heart Remodeling

Recording date: February 12, 2024 

Broadcast date: March 4, 2024

Hosts: Drs. Harris and Jackson

Guest: Dr. Raymond Kwong

Background and key takeaways: 

Dr. Raymond Kwong, Director of the Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI Center at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. And he's an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kwong is most interested in studying the heart and how it remodels itself or heals itself after a heart attack. In this episode, Drs. Harris and Jackson speak with Dr. Kwong about how omega-3s play into the heart remodeling process when someone experiences a heart attack or other heart-related event.


To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #31- The Omega-3 Index and Stroke Risk

Recording date: January 19, 2024

Broadcast date: February 1, 2024

 Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris & Kristina Harris Jackson

Guest: Dr. James O’Keefe 

Background and key takeaways: 

Dr. James O’Keefe is a preventative cardiologist at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City. He's also the director of the Duboc Cardio Health and Wellness Center and director of Preventative Cardiology at St. Luke's in Kansas City and the Mid America Heart Institute. Dr. O’Keefe has also joined the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI) to dig deeper into some of the questions he encounters in the clinic. In addition to that, he's an excellent communicator, a regular on Dr. Radio, has been on The Drive, which is  Peter Attia's podcast and has given several TED talks and written numerous books. So today we're going to talk about some of the research In this episode, Drs. Harris and Jackson speak with Dr. O'Keeffe about research he did with FARI around Omega-3s/Omega-3 Index and stroke. 

To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #30 - Omega-3s and Dementia Risk

Recording date: December 19, 2023 

Broadcast date: January 5, 2024 

Hosts: Dr. Bill Harris

Guest: Dr. Aleix Sala-Vida

Background and key takeaways: 

Dr. Aleix Sala-Vila got his PhD in 2004 in biomedicine from the University of Barcelona and did four postdoctoral fellowships, which increased his breadth and depth of understanding in the nutrition field. He has experience from cell culture work all the way up to epidemiology and is particularly interested in how nutrients affect chronic disease. In this episode, Drs. Harris and Sala-Vila talk about omega-3s and how these nutrients affect the chronic disease of dementia. Aleix has got 151 publications, 76 of which have to do with fatty acid. So he's a bonafide expert in this field.



To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #29 - How Omega-3s Really Affect Athletic Performance

Recording date: October 6, 2023

Broadcast date: November 15, 2023

Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris: & Kristina Harris Jackson 

Guest: Dr. Gregory Peoples, Medical Sciences Researcher, University of Wollongong, Australia

Background and key takeaways: 

Dr. Gregory Peoples is a senior lecturer and researcher in medical sciences at the University of Wollongong in Wollongong, Australia. He is prolific in the field of omega-3s and heart, lung and skeletal muscle physiology. In this episode of OmegaMatters, the conversation focuses on some just a few of his 145 peer-reviewed papers on the topic of if and how omega-3s affect physiology in highly trained individuals. 

To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/

EPISODE #28 - How Omega-3s Affect Learning & Behavior 

Recording date: August 31, 2023

Broadcast date: September 25, 2023

Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris: & Kristina Harris Jackson

Guest: Dr. Alex Richardson, Founder & Director of the Food and Behavior Research Lab 

Background and key takeaways: 

For 30 years, Dr. Alex Richardson has been based at Oxford University and the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics. And for the last 20 years, she's been the founding Director of the UK-based charity Food and Behavior Research, known as Fab or Fab Research Lab. She is in the top 3% of academic researchers worldwide based on the impact of her over 90 publications. With her more prominent work coming from her studies of how omega-3 fatty acids affect behavior, learning and mood, particularly in children. 

To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.

To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.

To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/