Omega-3 in the Clinic: Being Your Own Health Advocate

OmegaMatters: Episode 45

Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris & Kristina Harris Jackson

Guest: Tess Cheng, certified health and wellness coach.

About this episode: In this episode, Drs. Harris and Jackson talk to Tess Cheng. We are back with another Be Our Guest edition of Omega Matters. We have Tess Cheng here and she is a certified health and wellness coach of over 13 years, has been trained with a master’s in clinical nutrition from NYU and has lots of direct real-world experience using our omega-3 index test kits. For more information on OmegaMatters, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson:  Welcome to Omega Matters. We are back with another Be Our Guest edition of Omega Matters. We have Tess Cheng here and she is a certified health and wellness coach of over 13 years, has been trained with a master’s in clinical nutrition from NYU and has lots of direct real-world experience using our omega-3 index test kits. We wanted to chat with her a little bit today. Welcome. 

Tess Cheng: Thank you for having me on your show. How are you? 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: We are good. 

Dr. Bill Harris: Good. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: With the show, we wanted to talk to people who are actually using the testing with people and with themselves in the real world. And first could you tell us how do you work with people using the testing? What’s your job and how did you come into this field? It’s a lot of questions. 

Tess Cheng: Absolutely. I’m a health and wellness coach based in Miami. My background is nutrition. I was practicing as a nutritionist for many years and then I switched into wellness coaching because I believe in the holistic approach. Food plays a huge part in healthy living, but other things matter too, such as sleep, stress management, exercise, social connection. And I mainly work with my clients on a one-on-one basis to help them make changes to become healthier, to adopt sustainable lifestyle habits. 

And as we know, healthy eating habits play a huge part even though they’re not everything, but they really play a huge role in how our health is in general. What I do, I always try to help them to optimize their health by making healthy eating habits and also to increase awareness of what they’re doing and what kind of things they can do to improve on their habits. And I find that a lot of people feel that, “Oh, I’m healthy, I’m eating healthy,” but what does that mean? And when you really dig down to it, some of the habits is actually not that healthy. It’s all very subjective. And I believe in science and I believe in seeing something concrete so that when you look at the numbers you say, “Oh, perhaps something needs to be improved,” rather than just having the idea that it’s all going well. 

And at the same time, also I’m passionate about getting people to become their own self-advocates, health advocates to take charge of their health rather than waiting for doctors to say, “Oh, you need a blood work once a year.” But actually there are certain things you can do yourself to actually check to see what you’re doing is really working. And that’s when the omega-3 index kits come into it. A lot of people don’t realize because doctors don’t say, “You need to have your omega-3s tested to see how your levels are working.” A lot of people wear that of the benefits of omega-3s these days. They know that fatty fish are good for you and they say, “Oh, but fish is good.” But a lot of them don’t actually realize they can get that tested. And when you can actually do the test yourself at home, it makes it very easy. And it’s been wonderful for my clients. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: Excellent. 

Dr. Bill Harris: You’re in Miami. I assume your people down there have access to fish more so than we do here in South Dakota. Do you often see people still have a low omega-3? 

Tess Cheng:Yes, they do. Because a lot of people, they say to me, a lot of my clients say initially before they get themselves tested, they say, “Oh, I eat fish a lot.” Again, what they feel is a lot is perhaps it’s not enough to get their level up to the optimal range. And a lot of them are not supplementing it with supplements. And sometimes they feel they’re reluctant to go on supplements because they say, “Oh, but I can do it by natural courses, so if I just eat enough fish it should be fine.” But then when they get the test done, they realize that it’s not enough. They need to do something else. And if you’re dining out, very often you have access to say salmon, so you end up choosing fish that’s not of such a high level. And it’s really a good way, as I said, to actually increase curiosity about what they’re doing and some people don’t like fish. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: A lot. 

Tess Cheng: Exactly. Yes. And when they take the test and they realize that they can do something about it, then they say, “Well, perhaps it’s time for me to consider taking omega-3 supplements.” And they actually quite enjoy it. In a way, it’s almost like it’s fun. It’s like a game to them. And they get the test done and they see the numbers and they say, “It’s like a challenge. Perhaps that means do something and then get myself tested again in a few months time and see if that’s worked,” so they can see that what they do pays off and it is just much better than just thinking they’ve eaten more fish and what’s going on? They have no idea. And they really feel they can take charge. And I think that’s really empowering. Just a lot of tracking devices now, for example, like CGM, continuous glucose monitors, they can see that. And once people see the numbers, it really inspires habit changes. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: And I think I was just talking to someone about this, it’s not just having the number so you can have guidance on your dosage and know where you’re at, but you’re talking about the motivation of having a number to manage, it almost depersonalizes it, like you said, makes it a game and it’s easier to work toward it because you have the guidance and because it’s just you know what you’re working towards. I think that’s great. Do you have any individual stories about somebody who’s raised their levels had improvements? I’m sure they’re making all kinds of changes, so it’s very hard to say, “Yeah, it’s just because of the omega-3 index level,” but do you have any good stories around that? 

Tess Cheng: Absolutely. Yeah. I love to share those stories. For example, one of my clients, he had pretty high triglycerides level when we first started working together. And then he took the test and according to him, he is eating fish but probably not enough. And he took the test and he realized that his level was pretty low and that inspired him to make changes not just with omega-3s, but also to cut down on carbohydrates for example. Because with food, there’s only so much you can eat. 

And what I really enjoy about getting people to actually make changes is that once they notice they need to, for example, focus more on protein, then they’re going to eat less of the other things which might not be as healthy for you. And they will eat more protein, they need more fish, and consequently, without them really knowing it, they end up eating less carbohydrates. And with this particular client, his triglycerides levels actually got down to half of what it was after a few months. And once he saw that, he was really inspired to keep his habits and to continue to make improvements and then he ended up going to the gym more often, he just felt empowered to feel that at last he can actually take charge of his health and can see the positive size of all these habit changes. 

Dr. Bill Harris: When someone comes back with an omega-3 index of five percent, how much do you tell them to take? How do you address that problem? 

Tess Cheng: Well, it depends on whether they’re already taking supplements at all and whether they’re eating fish. If they’re not doing either of them, I would actually encourage them to eat more fish if they do like fish. Besides the fatty fish have other benefits as well, not just omega-3s. And they would do more of it. And then if they want to take supplements, I would say, “How about trying…” I would suggest going on supplements and take two a day and then we can see after three months take the test again and see what changes that make that would make to the omega-3s levels. 

Dr. Bill Harris: Makes sense. 

Tess Cheng: But very often, we really don’t know what they’re doing, but some people when they eat a lot of fatty fish anyway, when they first have the test done, even though if it’s not up to 8%, it’s not that low. But I find a lot of people these days still take omega-3s, but then they might not be taking them correctly. A lot of them perhaps don’t realize that they have to take them with food. They’re taking them on an empty stomach and then they wonder why their omega-3 level is still low, but the test tells them that something they’re doing perhaps can be improved. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: I’ve seen that as well. It’s really frustrating and I like having an objective marker so you can dig into the details of the habits and then if you’re able to find one thing to fix, that’s really empowering and even changing the product you’re using can help. Maybe you don’t like taking large capsules, you can change that. You don’t have to force yourself to take something unpleasant all the time. I think that’s helpful. But your point about this nutrition, this is just one little part of nutrition, but it’s a small win that, in the grand scheme of health and wellness habits that you have to change, this one is pretty small and targeted. Increasing fish intake could be a good small challenge. You switch out one meal, so you have fish once a week and then add that, or you start finding a good supplement and you take that and how you said that just builds and gives them some amount of confidence to make the bigger changes down the line. And I think that that is what makes this a really useful tool for a health and wellness coach that looks at everything more holistically. But this is really a very targeted nutrient specific test that fits into the picture of the overall wellness. I think that’s a really good use for it. 

Tess Cheng: Definitely. And what I love about it is that I am a fan of sardines. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: Yes, that’ll do it. The biggest hack is eating sardines. 

Tess Cheng: A lot of people, they might not even think about having sardines. And that’s what I love about the test so much is that it somehow gives them an idea of what they need to do and then I can bring in other habits. For example, if they’re out a lot, they’re traveling. A lot of my clients are business people, so they’re attending conferences, traveling, going on the plane, so they’re not necessarily eating at home. But then I say with sardines, you can have them with you, you can keep a can with you. It might be a bit fishy, but it’s handy. It’s something you can do when you’re outside. And at the same time, if you realize that your omega-3 levels need to be improved, that’s a good way to build in the habit. 

Dr. Bill Harris: Just don’t open the can of sardines on the airplane. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: No. 

Tess Cheng: I actually have done that personally. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: That’s rough. Tinned fish are such an easy win. It’s a protein snack, omega-3 snack, it’s right there, it’s already cooked. If you can learn to like them and find the right recipes, I think that’s such a good way to do it. 

Tess Cheng: Exactly. I’ve done workshops and presentations and very often if I’m doing a presentation on heart health or brain health, I always talk about sardines. And then I mentioned about the Omega-3 Index test that people can do because really a lot of people out there still don’t realize that they can actually get that tested themselves. 

Dr. Bill Harris: I know. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: Right. 

Dr. Bill Harris: That’s why we’re doing this. Get the word out. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: We’ve been very aware. 

Tess Cheng: And it’s easy, it’s quick, it’s affordable, so it is wonderful. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson: That’s what we’re trying to keep it that way, so it’s accessible to as many people as possible, and we’re really glad that you’ve had success using it. We appreciate it and thanks for sharing your stories and experiences today. 

Tess Cheng: My pleasure. It’s been wonderful having this discussion with you. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson:  Great. Well, thank you so much, Tess. 

Dr. Bill Harris: Thank you, Tess. 

Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson:  And we will be back next time on Omega Matters. Thanks for listening. Thank you so much. That was great. 

Dr. Bill Harris: Good job.