Omega-3s

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Omega-3s

Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats that are essential nutrients for health. They are found in fish, fish oil, chia seeds, flaxseeds, and walnuts. These fatty acids play a crucial role in brain function as well as normal growth and development, and are beneficial for heart health.

Category
Nutritional supplement
Molecular Formula
C20H30O2 (EPA), C22H32O2 (DHA)
Mechanism of Action
Omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and lower triglycerides. They also have anti-clotting effects and may help improve heart rhythms.
Evidence Grade
A

Other Names

  • Alpha-linolenic acid
  • Eicosapentaenoic acid
  • Docosahexaenoic acid

Primary Benefits

  • Improves heart health
  • Supports mental health
  • Reduces weight and waist size
  • Decreases liver fat
  • Supports infant brain development
  • Fights inflammation

Recommended Dosage

Adults 250-500 mg of combined EPA and DHA
Children 50-100 mg of combined EPA and DHA

Side Effects

  • Fishy breath
  • Nausea
  • Diarrhea
  • Heartburn

Precautions

  • People with heart disease or high triglycerides might require medical supervision
  • Pregnant women should consult with their doctors

Interactions

  • May interact with blood thinners
  • Can affect blood sugar levels, which may interfere with diabetes medications

Key References

  • Siscovick DS, et al. Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (Fish Oil) Supplementation and the Prevention of Clinical Cardiovascular Disease: A Science Advisory From the American Heart Association.
How to Optimize Female Hormone Health for Vitality & Longevity | Dr. Sara Gottfried
Optimizing Women's Health: Hormones, Nutrition, Exercise, and Genetics Insights 1:52:57 0
“I would say fish oil yes, I think a thousand milligrams as a general recommendation is good but I also have a food first philosophy so my preference would be that they're having salmon or some kind of Smash fish and they're getting that as the primary source of their Omega-3s.”

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Dr. Bill Harris on the Omega-3 Index: Increasing Omega-3 to Promote Longevity & Transform Health
Understanding Omega-3 Impact: Health Benefits Through Diet and Research 25:52 0
“we called it the omega-3 index we didn't really know what to call it didn't want to call it red blood cell epa plus dha is too much and we picked red blood cells because that had been used in past studies and it makes sense because it's a long-term marker of omega-3 status because the omega-3s are in the membrane of the red cell and in most other tissues in the body all other tissues”

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Dr. Bill Harris on the Omega-3 Index: Increasing Omega-3 to Promote Longevity & Transform Health
Understanding Omega-3 Impact: Health Benefits Through Diet and Research 49:46 0
“correlated the omega-3 index to cause mortality is able to even predict uh mortality very very interesting study um i shared it on social media but i would love to talk about it yeah yeah sure that was a it's gonna be probably one of my capstone studies i think in in hindsight um it was a collaboration among 17 different cohorts like like the framingham studies of cohort women's health initiatives mesa epic these are all and from all around the world these are groups that have been recruited at one point in time blood samples taken fatty acid levels measured in that blood and then the investigators just follow this group of people over time to see what happens what kind of diseases they get you know who gets who dies who doesn't and so we had 17 of those pooled together and around 40 45 000 people all together where we had omega-3 levels at the beginning and then roughly um the total follow-up time when you're when you're looking at risk for death all cause mortality you obviously look in a given window of time because if you wait long enough it's one hundred percent everybody…”

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Dr. Bill Harris on the Omega-3 Index: Increasing Omega-3 to Promote Longevity & Transform Health
Understanding Omega-3 Impact: Health Benefits Through Diet and Research 1:09:35 0
“the ways that omega-3s may be protective we may have never thought of yet still which makes it hard to explain to people how they work”

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Why Exercise Intensity Matters for Longevity | CrossFit for Health 2024
The Power of Exercise: Boost Longevity, Health, and Wellness 40:15 0
“the question is like what type of Omega-3 was involved and then disuse atrophy study coming out of Dr Chris MC glor's Lab at Queens University”

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Leading Cardiologist: Your Doctor Is WRONG About Cholesterol | Dr. William Davis
Challenging Health Myths: Nutrition, Heart Health, and Gut Microbiome Insights 1:36:49 0
“What if your score is 700, but you did vitamin D and eliminate wheat and grains and sugars, eliminate small 'LDL' particles, and got omega-3s at a healthy level, got iodine, your thyroid, and address your SIBO”

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Gary Brecka: The TRUTH About Biohacking, Light Therapy, and Nutrients
Optimizing Health: Lifestyle, Nutrition, Sleep, Exercise, and Social Connections 1:13:20 0
“the most important nutrients that we're missing and what are the supplements that we should be taking okay um so you know when you call something essential um that means it's necessary for life right so if you we have two essential fatty acids you know if you don't get these fatty acids they're they're essential for Life Omega-3s yeah Omega-3s omega-3 fatty acids um EPA dhas they're eight essential amino acids.”

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The Root Cause of Metabolic Dysfunction w/ Dr. Casey Means
Understanding Metabolic Health: Risks, Dysfunction, and Dietary Recommendations 1:03:23 0
“if we ate seven tablespoons fish oil per day that might be a problem for humans right there are actually studies in Eskimos who eat lots of fish that like there we can exceed the amount of Omega-3s that we want it can lead to potential clotting issues and maybe even hemorrhagic strokes”

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The Shady Reality of the $Billion Supplement Industry | The Dr. Hyman Show
Understanding Supplement Quality, Nutrition Myths, and Modern Health Realities 38:24 0
“We check your magnesium level. We check your level of B vitamins like homocysteine and methylmalonic acid which measure B12, folate, B6 effectiveness. We measure omega-3s. We measure vitamin D. We can measure zinc. We can measure copper. We can measure iodine.”

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Let Food Be Thy Medicine: EAT THIS To Heal The Body & STARVE CANCER! | Dr. William Li
Food as medicine to prevent disease and promote health naturally 56:52 0
“Omega-3s are so important to our health, I mean this has been shown time and time again. That's a supplement that's definitely worth taking.”

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Simple Fixes For A Good Night’s Rest – Shawn Stevenson (4K)
Improving sleep quality through lifestyle choices and health awareness tips 41:09 0
“a deficiency in Omega-3s is clinically shown to disrupt our sleep cycles.”

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Simple Fixes For A Good Night’s Rest – Shawn Stevenson (4K)
Improving sleep quality through lifestyle choices and health awareness tips 1:05:26 0
“What are the sleep Super Foods ooh good question I mentioned cherries earlier yep that's a top tier uh good sleep food salmon another top tier good sleep food and I'm going to share another one with you that you know it's one of these Foods been around for a long time but and also it has number one the mega 3s are there as well eggs great we identify it often times for it's like a morning food it's not the fact of any of these Foods you're just going to eat and fall asleep all right but eggs are remarkable in the the choline choline is involved in the Sleep process as well and those Omega-3s are really helpful and also just amino acids because when we're talking about when I've said hormones and neurotransmitters several times today these are essentially cellular DMS all right it's enabling your cells to talk to each other that's what a hormone is and at its core hormones are proteins if you're deficient in certain amino acids you can't even make that [ __ ] anyways so your body will do a patchwork job but if you provide your body with the…”

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Is This the Missing Longevity Nutrient?
The Vital Longevity Nutrient Revealed for Optimal Health Benefits 7:30 0
“So those two and three that age well, we thought it'd be omega-3s because all they eat are fish. And instead, right, they completely surprised us by showing that in fact it was C15, this odd chain saturated fat that predicted the healthiest aging dolphins and has emerged today, which we'll talk about.”

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Biomarkers For Slowing Eye Aging, Featuring ‪Joseph J. Allen
Optimize Eye Health: Insights on Aging and Preventative Measures 47:44 0
“As well as taking some supplementations including lutein and zeazanthin, vitamin D, uh curcumoids, and there's some other good benefits in the research and as well as omega-3s.”

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Dr. Robert Lustig: How Sugar & Processed Foods Impact Your Health
Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Nutrition and Metabolic Health 17:19 0
“so over here we have omega-3s heart healthy anti-inflammatory anti-alzheimer's save your life and over here we have trans fats the devil incarnate consumable poison because you can't break the trans double bond you don't have the desaturates to break that trans double bond so it basically accumulates lines your arteries lines your liver causes chronic metabolic disease causes insulin resistance Omega-3s don't even get broken down for energy because they're so important they stay intact because your brain needs them your heart needs them whereas trans fats can't be broken down because of that trans double bond one save your life other one kill you they're both nine calories per gram if you explode them in a bomb calorimeter because a calorie burned is a calorie burned but a calorie eaten is not a calorie eaten because one will save your life one will kill you”

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Dr. Robert Lustig: How Sugar & Processed Foods Impact Your Health
Understanding the Complex Relationship Between Nutrition and Metabolic Health 2:38:14 0
“number one got to get rid of the sugar number two got to add fiber number three got to add Omega-3s number four got to do something about the emulsifiers”

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These FOODS & HABITS Boost Brain Health & REDUCE INFLAMMATION | Mark Hyman
Boost Brain Health with Anti-Inflammatory Foods and Healthy Habits 55:22 0
“you need a lot of good fats a lot of omega-3s”

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Dr. Casey Means: Transform Your Health by Improving Metabolism, Hormone & Blood Sugar Regulation
Transform health by improving metabolism, hormone regulation, blood sugar control. 1:31:10 0
“we could talk about nutrition the biochemistry of nutrition all day but in my review of sort of the biology and the biochemistry like there's five main things I think we can strive for in our food that can really help meet the needs of our cells and and when it really comes there are obviously more things our body needs but if we strive for these five things we will ultimately I think eat a really healthy diet and that is fiber, Omega-3s, adequate healthy protein, a good amount of probiotics and high antioxidant sources”

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The Insulin & Glucose Doctor: This Will Strip Your Fat Faster Than Anything!
Optimal Health Through Balanced Diet: Managing Insulin for Better Outcomes 40:05 0
“you are depriving the brain of what it needs what is it exactly you're depriving the brain of in that situation yeah yeah so at least among other things at least it would be the the essential omega-3 fats so there are three Omega-3s and you humans can only we can only get one from Plants but it's one that the humans don't use we need the other two and they only come from animal Source foods”

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Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Micronutrients for Health & Longevity | Huberman Lab Podcast #70
Optimizing Health and Longevity Through Nutrients and Lifestyle Choices 40:00 0
“One of the major prescription omega-3s out there is, both of them actually, Lovaza, which is a mixture of DHA and EPA, as well as Vascepa, which is a highly purified EPA.”

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Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Micronutrients for Health & Longevity | Huberman Lab Podcast #70
Optimizing Health and Longevity Through Nutrients and Lifestyle Choices 42:16 0
“Well, normally I ask about mechanism and then I talk about protocols, but in the- Or the why. I mean, we haven't gotten there yet. And we definitely will get there, but I think a number of people nowadays are just really excited about what they can do for their health, and so, here, we're just raising the importance of omega-3s, and then we'll definitely get to the why and the underlying mechanism.”

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Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Micronutrients for Health & Longevity | Huberman Lab Podcast #70
Optimizing Health and Longevity Through Nutrients and Lifestyle Choices 42:39 0
“Yeah, I think four grams is, I mean, in fact, Bill Harris, Dr. Bill Harris, he's just one of the pioneers on omega-3 fatty acid research. He was on our podcast last August. And he was saying the reason FDA chose that was literally just because how much they could get people to take.”

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Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Micronutrients for Health & Longevity | Huberman Lab Podcast #70
Optimizing Health and Longevity Through Nutrients and Lifestyle Choices 44:41 0
“So I take four grams a day. I take two in the morning, two grams in the morning, and I take two grams in the evening. I take my EPA in the morning, and I take my DHA in the evening.”

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Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Micronutrients for Health & Longevity | Huberman Lab Podcast #70
Optimizing Health and Longevity Through Nutrients and Lifestyle Choices 1:00:41 0
“But it seems to me that these animals have to either be taking fish oil or eat plants that are very rich in omega-3s in order for the meat to actually contain sufficient omega-3s.”

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The Most Important Daily Habits For Health & Longevity – Dr Rhonda Patrick (4K)
Essential Omega-3 for Health, Longevity, and Disease Prevention Strategies 5:40 0
“with um a low omega-3 index are probably affect it's affecting their cardiovascular health inflammation is a big also a Big Driver of cardiovascular disease and Omega-3s are really good at lowering inflammation in many different ways”

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The Most Important Daily Habits For Health & Longevity – Dr Rhonda Patrick (4K)
Essential Omega-3 for Health, Longevity, and Disease Prevention Strategies 11:08 0
“how much salmon or Cod or halit do I need to eat per week if I was going to try and get this through my diet right I mean that's that's a question that I don't have empirical data to back up but Al so so here's my sort of thoughts on that um I do think that wild Alaskan salmon is one of the best sorts of Omega-3 because um that is a fish that has a very low level of contaminants like Mercury um pcbs per gram or per ounce I guess is usually measured per ounce of of the fish right so salmon would be a great source now how much of that do you have to eat uh it's really you know depends on the cooking method like how how cooked was it because you can degrade some of the Omega-3s are somewhat heat sensitive so I don't know how much you You' have to do a test right so you'd have to say okay I typically eat salmon two nights AEK week or three nights a week and and then you want to wait 120 days right because it takes that long for your red…”

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The Most Important Daily Habits For Health & Longevity – Dr Rhonda Patrick (4K)
Essential Omega-3 for Health, Longevity, and Disease Prevention Strategies 33:01 0
“I like to also have some smoked salmon and eggs so like my Omega-3s.”

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The Most Important Daily Habits For Health & Longevity – Dr Rhonda Patrick (4K)
Essential Omega-3 for Health, Longevity, and Disease Prevention Strategies 59:15 0
“Omega-3s there's been so many randomized control trials on Omega-3s improving cognition especially when it's it has to be two grams or more.”

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The Most Important Daily Habits For Health & Longevity – Dr Rhonda Patrick (4K)
Essential Omega-3 for Health, Longevity, and Disease Prevention Strategies 1:09:07 0
“eating a very high sugar and high fat meal it really that's the real those are the two real big movers of it um but even if you're just doing a ton of fat without like fiber or protein fat is Harsh on the gut and so what ends up happening is your gut epithelial cells there's like things holding them together tight junctions they open up and they let little pieces of bacter so our microbiome I mean we got trilli leaky gut is exactly what it is it's intestinal permeability and it allows pieces of bacteria to get for every for every like bro science term I've got you've got the specific term that comes out of medicine is it brain F it's a reduction in mental Clarity is it leaky gut it's so the the wall lining of the intestine is opened up to yeah intestinal permeability or leaky gut as it's called that's what you're doing so meals cause that to happen transiently uh some people have like a very big problem with leaky gut but so transiently you're letting bacteria get into your bloodstream and this is what happens is it's pieces of bacteria they're…”

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The Most Important Daily Habits For Health & Longevity – Dr Rhonda Patrick (4K)
Essential Omega-3 for Health, Longevity, and Disease Prevention Strategies 1:48:46 0
“Omega-3s but it it's been shown to cut disuse atrophy by like 50% so and this but this is something that's not going to happen like you have to preload it so you have to it it the Omega-3s accumulate in the muscle membranes and it takes about four weeks for that to happen so you have to plan ahead or just be the person that's already taking him”

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The Most Important Daily Habits For Health & Longevity – Dr Rhonda Patrick (4K)
Essential Omega-3 for Health, Longevity, and Disease Prevention Strategies 2:49:20 0
“exercise is one of the most robust ways you can have an anti-inflammatory response because your body is naturally you know there's one thing I mean we talked about taking Omega-3s I mean there's ways to reduce inflammation by by by taking certain phytochemicals or Omega-3s but exercise is forcing your body to use all of its genetic Pathways to counter that inflammation and it does it for a long time it's not just a as quick as you metabolize it how long is it in your BL what's the halflife of the compound deal this is like days after right”

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