Can EPA and DHA Support Immune Health?

About the author: Judy Blatman is OmegaQuant’s consumer health writer. Her blogs tee-up practical suggestions for health, with an emphasis on omega-3s and omega-3 testing, so readers can decide their own path to good health. Prior to her work with OmegaQuant, she had an extensive public relations career, representing dog food, coffee and OTC anti-itch medication, luxury resorts, liquor, and more. Judy’s knowledge about dietary supplements developed during her 16 years spearheading communications for Council for Responsible Nutrition, where she led an award-winning healthy lifestyle consumer education initiative focused on diet, dietary supplements and exercise. Starting her own communications firm during COVID led her back to one of her original career aspirations—writing. She is fond of collecting handbags, playing with other people’s dogs, and binge-watching the latest comedies, dramas and thrillers. Learn more.

 

 

There are several nutritional options and lifestyle choices that can contribute to overall good health, including supporting your immune system. And yes, omega-3 EPA and DHA are among those nutritional choices that may contribute to your bodily defenses that fight germs, viruses, bacteria, and sometimes even cancer.

In today’s blog, we’ll explore how omega-3s can support your immune system, the specific connection between omega-3 EPA and DHA and inflammation, whether your omega-3 EPA and DHA status is connected to your immune function, and how to know if you’re personally getting enough of these important nutrients.

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How Do Omega-3s Support Your Immune System?

If you picture your immune system as one, isolated part of your body, you’d be mistaken. Here’s a better snapshot: your immune system consists of a network of organs (for example, your skin, spleen, tonsils, adenoids and others) and proteins, chemicals and white blood cells that function to protect you from external immunity attackers (such as germs, inflammatory agents, bacteria, pathogens and more).

Some of those invaders will get through, meaning there may already be threats that have crossed your body’s physicals barriers, or abnormal pre- cancer cells and growing cancerous cells—these are considered internal threats. Fortunately, a healthy immune system steps up, fighting both external and internal stressors.

You may have heard that omega-3s “boost” your immune system, but that’s not technically right as it implies stimulation of your immune function—and overstimulation can be dangerous, leading to chronic inflammation, tissue damage, and unwanted autoimmune responses. Instead, omega-3s modulate, balance and fine tune immune and inflammatory responses, restoring calm and order. Learn more here and here.

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What Does Inflammation Have to Do with Your Immune Health?

A lot. There are two types of inflammation that your body deals with: acute and chronic.

Acute inflammation is the body’s response to a short-lived injury (stubbing your toe), short-term infection (a common cold) or temporary stress (thinking you’re being followed in a parking lot) that if not addressed will weaken your body’s immune function. Acute inflammation is the right response to these situations as your body helps alleviate the threat quickly. For example, swelling or skin discoloration associated with that stubbed toe, a fever in response to your cold, these are signs that your body is healing and that the short-term threat is almost gone.

On the other hand, chronic inflammation is long-lasting and problematic. When your body generates too much inflammation, it can create a host of other issues, even beyond weakening your immune system. For example, chronic inflammation can lead to coronary heart disease or autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

This article says that factors such as aging, obesity, and a typical American diet can change the way immune cells speak to each other and with the microbes that regulate them. When your immune system doesn’t know how to properly modulate inflammation and keeps sending out more white blood cells, its first-line inflammation-fighters, chronic inflammation can grab hold. The author further advises that chronic inflammation may be responsible for 80% or more of noncommunicable diseases.

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EPA, DHA and Inflammation: What’s the Connection?      

Omega-3s are known as anti-inflammation warriors. And these two main omega-3 components—EPA and DHA—are considered the elite omega-3 soldiers in this fight.

Omega-3s, specifically EPA and DHA, have a unique connection to fighting inflammation because they not only reduce the inflammation, EPA and DHA properly modulate it. Of specific importance in that regulatory process is that EPA and DHA don’t just block the inflammatory response, they shut it down.

William S. Harris, Ph.D., president and founder of the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI), and co-inventor of the Omega-3 Index, says that it’s not just EPA and DHA’s anti-inflammatory properties that are important, but it’s also that they are pro-resolving of the inflammation. “If you don’t have omega-3s [EPA and DHA] on-board, the active process of shutting down the inflammation once it starts is inhibited, so the inflammation stays longer.” Watch here.

VIDEO: The Unique Role Omega-3s Play in Inflammation

 

What Does the Research Say About Omega-3s and Immune Health?

Quite a lot of good things, according to this study referenced earlier in this blog, but here we’d like to focus on the study authors’ conclusions, which are encouraging and also forward-thinking. They advise that “omega-3 fatty acids, specifically EPA and DHA, have a significant impact on the immune system by influencing cell membrane fluidity, signaling pathways, and gene expression.”

Research, they say, demonstrates including both EPA and DHA in the diet, “can improve immune responses” and “help resolve inflammation while maintaining immunological balance.”

They also believe that a “huge opportunity” exists for “personalized dietary methods that might optimize immune function” as the relationship between diet and gene expression gains traction. They would like to see further research related to nutrigenomics as they see that as “crucial to fully understand the complexities of how omega-3 fatty acids affect immune health.” More here.

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Does Your Omega-3 Status Matter for Immune Function?

In a word, yes. Here’s why. We’ve discussed how omega-3s EPA and DHA help support a healthy immune system, especially as they relate to regulating inflammation. However, that doesn’t mean that any amount of EPA and DHA in your diet (including supplements) will be sufficient to access fish oil’s benefits.

Rather than guess whether you’re getting enough fish oil you can take a simple, at-home test to assess your personal omega-3 status. Specifically, the Omega-3 Index test measures your long-term EPA and DHA levels. The optimal test results are an Omega-3 Index of 8-12%, associated with better heart, brain, eye and overall health outcomes. (And as an aside, the Omega-3 Index is also a risk factor for identifying heart disease, similar to cholesterol, and used by scientists worldwide in research studies.)

In other words, if your score is in the optimal range, you’re doing something right with your EPA and DHA intake. Whereas, if your score is between 4-8%, you’re in the intermediate range, with room for improvement. The undesirable range of below 4% puts you in the highest risk category for negative health outcomes. For many people raising your score can be achieved by eating more fatty fish or adding a fish oil supplement (or raising the dose, if you are already taking one).

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Most People Fall Short on EPA and DHA

Despite the potential benefits of omega-3 EPA and DHA, this study found that nearly 98% of Americans had an Omega-3 Index below the optimal target of 8%. Further 54% of Americans had an Omega-3 Index below 4%, a level considered high risk.

Fortunately, most people can make relatively simple changes to raise their score. Here are steps you can take:

1. You won’t know if you’re getting enough omega-3 EPA and DHA until you test your status. Consider your first Omega-3 Index test a baseline from which you can make improvements, as needed.
2. Take your Omega-3 score—let’s say it’s 4.8%—and plug that number into the Omega-3 Index Calculator, which will tell you how much EPA and DHA you need to consume per day to reach the 8% target.
3. Then, based on those recommendations, you can make dietary (and lifestyle) improvements which may help raise your Omega-3 Index.
4. Follow the recommendations (check with your doctor first) which could include adding more fatty fish and/or a fish oil supplement for 90-120 days. Then, retest to see if your changes had an impact on your Omega-3 Index.

 

How to Get Enough EPA and DHA Through Diet and Supplements

There are three main ways to obtain more EPA and DHA:

1. Your diet.
2. Nutritional supplements, especially fish or algal oil.
3. Or a combination of both.

We suggest food first; however, fish or algal oil (EPA/DHA) supplements are a reasonable choice, especially if you don’t like fish. There are many options of fatty (aka oily) fish—such as salmon and sardines—that are rich sources of EPA and DHA. Here are more choices.

There are many fish oil supplements on the market. We recommend you choose based on the dose (confirm how much you should take with your doctor or registered dietitian nutritionist), the brand (don’t necessarily go for the cheapest; reputable brands run sales and promotions without sacrificing quality), and consider if the form (triglycerides, ethyl esters, reformed triglycerides, free fatty acids) matters to you.

1. Take your supplements consistently—according to label directions and preferably at the same time of day or night.
2. Take your fish oil supplements along with another healthy fat (a fish meal or a snack such as an avocado) for better absorption.

Bottom Line: Testing your Omega-3 Index score—and retesting after three or four months—is important for maintaining your score (if it’s already optimal) or for finding out if the dietary changes you’ve made over this time frame are improving your score.

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