Benefits of Omega-3 and the Omega-6 GLA

Increase Omega 3 consumption, targeting 1,250 – 1,500 mg of combined EPA and DHA acid per day by eating more fish and through a high quality fish oil supplement like Gene Smart Omega 3. Consume at least 400mg of GLA daily through a high quality supplement like Gene Smart Borage Oil.

The Omega fats and their effect on inflammation has been Dr. Chilton’s primary area of interest for over 30 years.

Gene Smart Principle: Add Omegas

Since fat is such a troubled topic for Americans, let’s start at the beginning. Fat can be divided into two categories: saturated and unsaturated. Fats are neither “good” nor “bad”—they all perform very important functions—however, the proper balance is essential, and it is that balance that has been upset. Suffice to say that we now eat many more saturated and monounsaturated fats than we used to, and get far fewer polyunsaturated fats—a development that has not been good for our health.

The long-chain polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) can be further divided into two categories: the omega-3 fatty acids and the omega-6 fatty acids. Again, while we do need omega-6s for various reasons, the omega-3s tend to be anti-inflammatory and cardioprotective, while consuming too many omega-6 fats can lead to an overproduction of inflammatory messengers.

The recommended levels of Omega 3 and GLA are the levels of that the scientific literature has shown to reduce inflammatory messengers, lower blood lipids, and help prevent a number of inflammatory diseases. Even better, they’re the numbers that Dr. Chilton’s laboratory has shown to markedly reduce inflammatory gene expression. Also, increasing these fatty acids will shift your circulating ratios of long-chain omega-6s to long-chain omega-3s from greater than 15:1 to less than 5:1. Again, these ratios are well within the American Heart Association guidelines in terms of concentrations of omega-3s. Further, new studies that identify omega-3 levels as a predictor of heart disease suggest that a 5:1 ratio of long chain Omega-6s to Omega-3s will reduce heart-attack rates greater than 50 percent.

In addition, studies have shown that combining Omega-3s with calorie reduction enhances weight loss.

Omega Fats and the Industrial Revolution

A dramatic shift in our Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio

The shift in the ratios of which type of fats we eat that has taken place in the last hundred years is truly radical and very scary.

For hundreds of thousands of years, hunter-gatherer humans consumed an estimated ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids of 2:1. These ratios were maintained for over 100,000 generations, until the Industrial Revolution. Then—unbelievably—in just three short generations, everything changed.

Dr. Chilton’s laboratory examines this ratio in study patients every day, and tends to find that even in young, healthy volunteers, that ratio is now greater than 15:1. It is often much, much worse in those with poor eating habits. Three generations is .003 percent of how long humans have existed on this earth—the equivalent of less than a single second in a 24-hour day. But in that period of time, less than the blink of an eye, we completely changed the fat bioactives in our food supply.

To make matters worse, the majority of the omega-3s that we consume in our modern diet are not the beneficial long-chain omega-3s, but the short-chain omega-3s, alpha-LNA. In fact, alpha-LNA—which is derived from oils such as flax-seed oil—is the short-chain omega-3 that makes up more than 90 percent of our omega-3 intake. Not only would a hunter-gatherer’s ratios have been better, but the majority of his omega-3s would have been long-chain, from fish or other marine products.