Speaker 1: Hey, everyone, welcome to another edition of the podcast. Just
Speaker 1: before we get into it, another reminder that my latest book,
Speaker 1: The Heartiness Effect, is now on pre sale at Amazon
Speaker 1: and there is a short term offer with twenty six
Speaker 1: percent off it, so if you want to save yourself
Speaker 1: some money and get amongst it. And now on with
Speaker 1: the podcast. So welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays.
Speaker 1: Today we are diving into a really important topic for
Speaker 1: your health, and it's about arterial plaque inflammation and how
Speaker 1: Amiga three fairy acids could be your secret weapon in
Speaker 1: protecting your cardiovascular system against cardiovascular disease and heart attacks.
Speaker 1: I recently reviewed a pretty fascinating research paper, so you
Speaker 1: don't have to and you'll understand why when you know
Speaker 1: the title. It was called docosahexenoic acid attenuits VCA M
Speaker 1: one expression and nuclear factor cap of BRAVO activation in
Speaker 1: tumor necrosis factor alpha treated human aortic endothelial cells. It's
Speaker 1: a mouthful, and yes it was as complicated as it sounds,
Speaker 1: but stick with me because the insights from this study
Speaker 1: are potentially life saving. So let's start with the basics.
Speaker 1: As you probably will know, arterial plaque is the build
Speaker 1: up of cholesterol, fats, and immune cells in your arteries,
Speaker 1: and over time, this plaque can become inflamed, unstable, and
Speaker 1: prone to rupture. And it's really the unstable or soft
Speaker 1: plaque that we need to worry about because when it
Speaker 1: does rupture, it can cause a heart attack or a stroke.
Speaker 1: But here's the good news. Certain nutrients can influence how
Speaker 1: stable that plaque is, and one of the most powerful
Speaker 1: is a mega three fatty acids, especially those find in
Speaker 1: fatty fish like salmon, sardines, and macerol, or in good
Speaker 1: quality fish oil or if you're vegetarian or vegan, alga
Speaker 1: oil will provide this. Now, the research paper i read
Speaker 1: focused on one specific a Mega three D it's a
Speaker 1: or docosahexaenoic acid. Researchers treated human aortic and endothelial cells.
Speaker 1: So what they did is got those cells and put
Speaker 1: them in a test tube and they treated them with
Speaker 1: TNF alpha tumor of crusis factor alpha. That is a
Speaker 1: potent inflammatory molecule that is actually released in the body
Speaker 1: during times of stress or inflammation, and you can actually
Speaker 1: measure it on a blood test. Now, what this actually
Speaker 1: does did by putting these cells in a petri dish
Speaker 1: and then pouring over our applying TNF alpha. It actually
Speaker 1: simulates what happens in our own during inflammation. And then
Speaker 1: what they did is they added DA to see which
Speaker 1: effective have and this is where it gets really interesting.
Speaker 1: DA significantly reduced the expression of something called VCAM one,
Speaker 1: which stands for vascular celle at hazing molecule one. Now
Speaker 1: VCAM one, it's like velcrow for immune cells. It helps
Speaker 1: them to stick to the walls of your blood vessels
Speaker 1: and then enter into the plaques where it makes them
Speaker 1: more inflamed and unstable. And it's basically your body reacting
Speaker 1: to the build up of plaque those immune sales go
Speaker 1: into it. Now, by reducing VCAM one, d ITSA essentially
Speaker 1: makes the blood vessels less sticky, limiting the invasion of
Speaker 1: pro inflammatory immune sales into the plaque, and basically it's
Speaker 1: turning down the inflammation volume. The study also found the
Speaker 1: DHA reduced activation of NFkB nuclear factor kappa bravo that
Speaker 1: is a central player in the body's inflammatory response. So
Speaker 1: think of it as the master switch for inflammation. F
Speaker 1: When it's flipped on, you get a cascade of inflammatory
Speaker 1: signals inside your body and a bit of damage. So
Speaker 1: what DJA doing here is twofold. It's actually reducing the
Speaker 1: immune cells entry into the plaque and it's dampening the
Speaker 1: inflammatory response from outside of sorry, from the inside out,
Speaker 1: and it basically then what's pretty cool is they found
Speaker 1: that then encourage the immune sales to leave the plaque.
Speaker 1: Now this is not from this study but from broader
Speaker 1: research that I think is just as critical. Amiga threes
Speaker 1: don't just stop immune sales from coming in, it appears
Speaker 1: with recent research they may also encourage the existing immune
Speaker 1: sales to actually leave the plaque and therefore stabilize it.
Speaker 1: And this happens via protein called CCR seven, and it
Speaker 1: kind of acts like an exit sign, guiding immune sales
Speaker 1: out of the plaque into the lymphatic system. And that
Speaker 1: is what they're actually supposed to do, but often they
Speaker 1: don't and that's when creates are that it contributes to
Speaker 1: the instability of the plaques. Now, whise there is more
Speaker 1: research needed to fully understand this mechanism, the early signs
Speaker 1: are really really promising. And the takeaway here is that
Speaker 1: we often think of a mega three's as something nice
Speaker 1: to have for general health. But this research reminds us
Speaker 1: that DITA and EPA, which is another key a Mega three,
Speaker 1: they are powerful targeted anti inflammatory agents. They actively support
Speaker 1: vastular health by stabilizing plaque, reducing immune sale invasion, and
Speaker 1: potentially helping with cellular cleanup. And we know from other
Speaker 1: research that they are potent anti inflammer trees that are
Speaker 1: linked to both cardiovascar health and to briant health. And
Speaker 1: I have talked on this podcast before reasonably recently that
Speaker 1: people with an Amiga three index, which you can get
Speaker 1: measured by the way at amigaquant dot com. I have
Speaker 1: no relationship with these guys. I just think they offer
Speaker 1: a brilliant service and it's pretty cheap to measure it.
Speaker 1: And it's basically looking at the ratio of Amiga three
Speaker 1: to Amiga six sales in your red blood cells, which
Speaker 1: are a kind of a reflection of what they've been
Speaker 1: like over the last number of months. And they found
Speaker 1: that people with an Amiga three index of eight or
Speaker 1: more live five years longer than people with an a
Speaker 1: Mega three index of five or below, which is potent.
Speaker 1: You don't find any other nutrient that has that sort
Speaker 1: of an impact. And this research is showing one of
Speaker 1: just one of the ways by which mega threes are
Speaker 1: beneficial to the heart and a cardiovascuar system. So how
Speaker 1: much of it should we be taking? So, based on
Speaker 1: clinical research and expert guidelines from a number of different artiers,
Speaker 1: here's what my recommendation are. Here's what I actually take,
Speaker 1: so total and mega threes APA and DJA anywhere between
Speaker 1: two and three grams per day or two thousand to
Speaker 1: three thousand milligrams per day. I generally take three thousand
Speaker 1: with the days that I remember, and if I'm meaning fish,
Speaker 1: I don't bother taking it that day. But make sure
Speaker 1: that you're getting at least a thousand milligrams of EPA
Speaker 1: and DSA combined, because there are some other constituents in it,
Speaker 1: and higher DJA seems to be especially important if you're
Speaker 1: concerned about your arteries. So if you have existing cardiovascular
Speaker 1: disease or there's a history of it in your family,
Speaker 1: and the deity would be the one you want a
Speaker 1: little bit more of. That's particularly important. Now we can
Speaker 1: obviously get this through high quality fish, eating lots of
Speaker 1: fish per week, probably three servings per week, but for me,
Speaker 1: it's more about the outcome. It's not so much about
Speaker 1: the fish or the fish oil that you're taking. It's
Speaker 1: really about getting your Amiga three index up and that's
Speaker 1: where getting it measured by a megaquant dot com and
Speaker 1: in supplementing to make sure that you get your level
Speaker 1: up to eat that is the best thing that you
Speaker 1: can do. Rather than just say, hey, I'm going to
Speaker 1: take this amount of supplements, it's really about let's get
Speaker 1: an outcome measure in your blood stream. So, in summary,
Speaker 1: amiga threes aren't just heart friendly and Brian friendly, they're
Speaker 1: actually protectors of our arteries. They work on the cellular
Speaker 1: level to reduce inflammatory chaos that leads to this unstable
Speaker 1: plaque which then leads to plaqu rupture and cardiovascular events.
Speaker 1: So don't underestimate the par of those tiny little fatty acids.
Speaker 1: And I think this and other research suggests that we
Speaker 1: should really be ramping up the amount of amiga threes
Speaker 1: in our diet, and particularly if you want to protect
Speaker 1: your arteries as you age. So that's it for this week, folks,
Speaker 1: catch you next time.