Wisdom Wednesdays: Cool new research on the impact of omega 3 fatty acids on the health of your arteries

Protect your heart and arteries with this one powerful nutrient.

In this episode, we dive into fascinating new research showing how omega-3 fatty acids like DHA can stabilize arterial plaque and dampen inflammation - reducing your risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Timestamps:
- 00:45 - How arterial plaque buildup causes inflammation and instability
- 02:30 - Study on DHA's effects on plaque inflammation
- 04:15 - How DHA reduces immune cell invasion and inflammation
- 06:00 - DHA encourages immune cells to leave plaque
- 07:30 - How much DHA we should be taking

Key Takeaways:
- Unstable arterial plaque prone to rupture causes most heart attacks/strokes
- DHA reduces inflammatory immune cell invasion into plaque
- DHA dampens inflammation by reducing NF-kB activation
- Recommendations on supplements

Don't miss this fascinating deep dive into using omega-3s like DHA for heart and artery health. Tune in now to protect yourself against cardiovascular disease!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of the podcast. Just
before we get into it, another reminder that my latest book,
The Heartiness Effect, is now on pre sale at Amazon
and there is a short term offer with twenty six
percent off it, so if you want to save yourself
some money and get amongst it. And now on with

(00:30):
the podcast. So welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays.
Today we are diving into a really important topic for
your health, and it's about arterial plaque inflammation and how
Amiga three fairy acids could be your secret weapon in
protecting your cardiovascular system against cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.

(00:53):
I recently reviewed a pretty fascinating research paper, so you
don't have to and you'll understand why when you know
the title. It was called docosahexenoic acid attenuits VCA M
one expression and nuclear factor cap of BRAVO activation in

(01:15):
tumor necrosis factor alpha treated human aortic endothelial cells. It's
a mouthful, and yes it was as complicated as it sounds,
but stick with me because the insights from this study
are potentially life saving. So let's start with the basics.
As you probably will know, arterial plaque is the build

(01:36):
up of cholesterol, fats, and immune cells in your arteries,
and over time, this plaque can become inflamed, unstable, and
prone to rupture. And it's really the unstable or soft
plaque that we need to worry about because when it
does rupture, it can cause a heart attack or a stroke.
But here's the good news. Certain nutrients can influence how

(01:59):
stable that plaque is, and one of the most powerful
is a mega three fatty acids, especially those find in
fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and macerol, or in good
quality fish oil or if you're vegetarian or vegan, alga
oil will provide this. Now, the research paper i read
focused on one specific a Mega three D it's a

(02:22):
or docosahexaenoic acid. Researchers treated human aortic and endothelial cells.
So what they did is got those cells and put
them in a test tube and they treated them with
TNF alpha tumor of crusis factor alpha. That is a
potent inflammatory molecule that is actually released in the body

(02:43):
during times of stress or inflammation, and you can actually
measure it on a blood test. Now, what this actually
does did by putting these cells in a petri dish
and then pouring over our applying TNF alpha. It actually
simulates what happens in our own during inflammation. And then
what they did is they added DA to see which

(03:05):
effective have and this is where it gets really interesting.
DA significantly reduced the expression of something called VCAM one,
which stands for vascular celle at hazing molecule one. Now
VCAM one, it's like velcrow for immune cells. It helps

(03:27):
them to stick to the walls of your blood vessels
and then enter into the plaques where it makes them
more inflamed and unstable. And it's basically your body reacting
to the build up of plaque those immune sales go
into it. Now, by reducing VCAM one, d ITSA essentially

(03:47):
makes the blood vessels less sticky, limiting the invasion of
pro inflammatory immune sales into the plaque, and basically it's
turning down the inflammation volume. The study also found the
DHA reduced activation of NFkB nuclear factor kappa bravo that

(04:08):
is a central player in the body's inflammatory response. So
think of it as the master switch for inflammation. F
When it's flipped on, you get a cascade of inflammatory
signals inside your body and a bit of damage. So
what DJA doing here is twofold. It's actually reducing the

(04:29):
immune cells entry into the plaque and it's dampening the
inflammatory response from outside of sorry, from the inside out,
and it basically then what's pretty cool is they found
that then encourage the immune sales to leave the plaque.
Now this is not from this study but from broader

(04:51):
research that I think is just as critical. Amiga threes
don't just stop immune sales from coming in, it appears
with recent research they may also encourage the existing immune
sales to actually leave the plaque and therefore stabilize it.
And this happens via protein called CCR seven, and it

(05:14):
kind of acts like an exit sign, guiding immune sales
out of the plaque into the lymphatic system. And that
is what they're actually supposed to do, but often they
don't and that's when creates are that it contributes to
the instability of the plaques. Now, whise there is more

(05:34):
research needed to fully understand this mechanism, the early signs
are really really promising. And the takeaway here is that
we often think of a mega three's as something nice
to have for general health. But this research reminds us
that DITA and EPA, which is another key a Mega three,
they are powerful targeted anti inflammatory agents. They actively support

(05:59):
vastular health by stabilizing plaque, reducing immune sale invasion, and
potentially helping with cellular cleanup. And we know from other
research that they are potent anti inflammer trees that are
linked to both cardiovascar health and to briant health. And
I have talked on this podcast before reasonably recently that

(06:20):
people with an Amiga three index, which you can get
measured by the way at amigaquant dot com. I have
no relationship with these guys. I just think they offer
a brilliant service and it's pretty cheap to measure it.
And it's basically looking at the ratio of Amiga three
to Amiga six sales in your red blood cells, which

(06:42):
are a kind of a reflection of what they've been
like over the last number of months. And they found
that people with an Amiga three index of eight or
more live five years longer than people with an a
Mega three index of five or below, which is potent.
You don't find any other nutrient that has that sort

(07:04):
of an impact. And this research is showing one of
just one of the ways by which mega threes are
beneficial to the heart and a cardiovascuar system. So how
much of it should we be taking? So, based on
clinical research and expert guidelines from a number of different artiers,
here's what my recommendation are. Here's what I actually take,

(07:27):
so total and mega threes APA and DJA anywhere between
two and three grams per day or two thousand to
three thousand milligrams per day. I generally take three thousand
with the days that I remember, and if I'm meaning fish,
I don't bother taking it that day. But make sure
that you're getting at least a thousand milligrams of EPA

(07:51):
and DSA combined, because there are some other constituents in it,
and higher DJA seems to be especially important if you're
concerned about your arteries. So if you have existing cardiovascular
disease or there's a history of it in your family,
and the deity would be the one you want a
little bit more of. That's particularly important. Now we can

(08:14):
obviously get this through high quality fish, eating lots of
fish per week, probably three servings per week, but for me,
it's more about the outcome. It's not so much about
the fish or the fish oil that you're taking. It's
really about getting your Amiga three index up and that's
where getting it measured by a megaquant dot com and

(08:39):
in supplementing to make sure that you get your level
up to eat that is the best thing that you
can do. Rather than just say, hey, I'm going to
take this amount of supplements, it's really about let's get
an outcome measure in your blood stream. So, in summary,
amiga threes aren't just heart friendly and Brian friendly, they're
actually protectors of our arteries. They work on the cellular

(09:00):
level to reduce inflammatory chaos that leads to this unstable
plaque which then leads to plaqu rupture and cardiovascular events.
So don't underestimate the par of those tiny little fatty acids.
And I think this and other research suggests that we
should really be ramping up the amount of amiga threes

(09:23):
in our diet, and particularly if you want to protect
your arteries as you age. So that's it for this week, folks,
catch you next time.