Ask Us Anything 2026
OmegaMatters: Episode 52
Hosts: Dr. Bill Harris & Kelly Patterson
About this episode: In this episode, Dr. Bill Harris and Kelly Patterson field more than a dozen questions from our audience about omega-3s and omega-3 testing. They cover all sorts of topics, from A-Fib to dementia and everyting in between. For more information on OmegaMatters, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.
SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Dr. Bill Harris: So welcome to Omega Matters 2026. This is Bill Harris. I am joined now with Kelly Patterson, who is our clinical specialist here at OmegaQuant. She is a dietician with a great history in working with the military and I’m going to welcome Kelly. She will be co-hosting Omega Matters here in 2026 with me as Christina works on some other projects. So Kelly, welcome and tell us about yourself.
Kelly Patterson: Thanks, Bill. I’m really excited to be here and to do this with you. As you said, I’m a registered dietician. I spent a long time working for the military and I’ve been with OmegaQuant for a few years now. And I’m really excited to join the Omega Matters team and talk about all things Omegas.
Dr. Bill Harris: Great. Well, yeah, I know you do a lot of talking with people about Omegas, so this should be interesting. So we’re going to do an Ask Us Anything. This is a bunch of topics that have come up over the last year that we’ve sort of curated and brought down into a few discrete categories. May not read the actual questions, but we’ll address the topics that have been raised. I hope these are helpful for you in the audience. So we’ll begin with a question about Omega-3 fatty acids and AFib, or atrial fibrillation. This is a topic that’s gotten a lot of interest, a lot of concern over the last couple of years. For many years, we thought that Omega-3 fatty acids might actually reduce risk for AFib.
And I should say AFib is an arrhythmia of the heart, a bad, unusual rhythm for the upper chambers of the heart, not the lower chambers which are the ventricles where an arrhythmia of the ventricle can be fatal. A arrhythmia in the upper chambers is not fatal, that it’s bothersome. And it can, if not treated, lead to blood clots forming in the heart which can then be pumped up into the brain and cause a stroke. So the big concern about AFib is the possibility of stroke which is why people who have AFib are typically put on blood thinners. In any event, Omega-3 for many years was thought to maybe prevent AFib or prevent worsening AFib.
That was studied very carefully in the early 2000s and found not to be the case. There was no reduced risk with high dose Omega-3 in people with AFib. But around 2018, 2019 when the REDUCE-IT study was published, which was the study of high dose EPA in high risk cardiovascular patients, they were studying other cardiovascular outcomes, but they happened to notice that there seemed to be an increased incidence of AFib in the group that got Omega-3 compared to the placebo group and that was sort of an odd finding. And then a few other studies like that started looking at their AFib results typically in kind of the safety profile area of a study. And it looked like, particularly for high dose Omega-3 studies in people with high risk for heart disease, there was an increased risk, a small increase.
We can always talk about risk in two different ways. Absolute risk is exactly how many more people are getting AFib in this case, in the Omega-3 group versus the other group, and typically it’s less than 1% more people are getting AFib in the Omega-3 group than the control group. So 0.8% is about the increase in absolute risk. Relative risk is a different thing. It’s all things being equal. What’s the percent increase in risk? And it’s about a 50% increase in risk for AFib in these high risk patient studies. So that’s kind of been confirmed. We’ve done some other research recently and just pretty close to publishing a paper with a meta analysis of about 34 studies looking at all randomized trials with Omega-3 and a placebo. Some of them are high dose, some are low dose, and we’re kind of dividing high and low at 1,500 milligrams a day.
So the low dose, of course, is below 1,500 and we kind of picked 1,500 for a variety of reasons. It’s kind of the highest level people would ever take with a dietary supplement or with food. Above the 1,500, you’re starting to get into pharmaceutical products. And actually, the lowest indicated dose for a pharmaceutical product is about 1,800 milligrams a day in Japan. So anyway, low dose is under 1,500, high dose is over 1,500, and then we have people who are at particularly high risk for heart disease and people who are not. And there’s a bunch of studies in people who are not at risk for heart disease and we were looking to see did AFib show up in them too. And what we found was there really was no increase in AFib in all these studies, except for that group, that quarter of a group that were high dose and high cardiovascular risk, and that’s where we saw the increased risk.
So I think for people who are taking dietary supplements, like to eat a lot of fish, there is no increased risk for AFib in that situation. The puzzling thing is we’ve seen other studies where we looked at blood levels of Omega-3 and looked at long-term risk for developing AFib as a function of your blood level. And we found that the highest blood levels, which were around an Omega-3 index of 7%, say, in these studies, we found there was a decreased risk for AFib. So this is kind of a puzzle because here we have high dose studies. And I think probably what’s happening is when people are on these high dose studies and they have heart disease or higher risk for heart disease, they’re getting doses that are typically driving the Omega-3 index up into a higher range, maybe 9%, 10%. And in combination with being high risk for heart disease, somehow or another that seems to be triggering an AFib event.
But the comforting thing is the high levels of Omega-3, and even in these studies where they saw an increased risk for AFib, they saw a decreased risk for stroke with Omega-3. So the big concern with AFib is stroke and we’ve seen, again, a drop. Even if there’s an increased risk on AFib, there’s a decreased risk for stroke. So there’s a lot you have to figure out, but the take-home message is if you’re taking dietary supplements of Omega-3, if you’re eating a lot of high Omega-3 fish, do not worry about it at all. That’s not going to increase your risk for AFib. And it’s just the people who are under a doctor’s care being treated with these high dose Omega-3 products where it seems to show up.
Dr. Bill Harris: So that’s a quick rundown on the AFib story. Much more to figure out yet. Next question, I think, is also on my plate and that has something to do with Omega-3 reversing damage of cardiovascular disease, maybe reversing plaque in coronary arteries that builds up the cholesterol over time. There have been some studies along these lines, and the best one that I know of was done at Harvard called the HEARTS study, HEARTS like H-E-A-R-T-S. And they found that giving a high dose of Lovaza, four capsules a day of Lovaza, which is 3.4 grams of EPA/DHA, did slow the progression over time, over about a 30-month period. It slowed the progression of growth of coronary plaques compared to the placebo group. So that’s not reversing. That’s slowing, which is good. And so I think that’s the best we know about that at this point is having a higher Omega-3 will slow that progression of a plaque deposition.
Otherwise, when people start taking Omega-3s, people want to know, “How am I going to feel different?” because you can’t, of course, feel a high triglyceride level for example. You can’t feel a high cholesterol or a high blood pressure. Those things are not something you can sense, but they’re risk factors for heart disease. Just like a low Omega-3 is a risk factor, but you can’t feel it per se. But what we’ve experienced is that people, even if they’re taking Omega-3 for maybe a heart condition, they’ll notice that their creaky joints seem to be a little bit more comfortable. They don’t ache as much. Or maybe if they got dry eye, the dryness seems to improve over a month or two of taking Omega-3, so those are the kind of things you might think of in that regard. So that’s it for reversing damage. Let’s flip over to Kelly. We’re going to talk about the Omega-3 index and the first question is can you have an Omega-3 index that’s too high?
Kelly Patterson: Yeah, we get this question a lot from a lot of folks who did a baseline test. They tested their Omega-3 index and did the right thing, either started eating more fish or taking a supplement and did a test later on and found that their Omega-3 index is either at the higher end or over their recommended range of 8% to 12%. So the recommended range for the Omega-3 index is between that 8% and 12% where we see those really good benefits, risk reduction for cardiovascular disease, or cardiovascular outcomes. And the question of “Can you be too high?” the answer is maybe, but not likely. So over 12%, what we really see are more of just diminishing returns and not as many additional benefits. We’re not seeing additional benefit over 12%. Kind of see a leveling off of those benefits. And for most people, especially if you’re purchasing a supplement, whatever dose that you’re on to get you up over that, that 12% is probably costing a fair amount of money.
So when folks ask, “Is this too high? Should I do something about that?” you’re probably not at any additional risk, but you’re also not getting any additional benefit over that 12%. So if you want to lower your dose to get into that optimal range of 8% to 12%, from a cost standpoint you can to get under the 12%, but you’re not at any additional risk. There’s no harm to being over that 12%.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. There’s just so little research in people out at levels like that, but we really just don’t know. So we think it’s best just to aim from that 8% to 12% window. Should be great. Let’s see. That’s a good one. I should mention that talking about high Omega-3s, when we studied dolphins in SeaWorld, which is of course a large mammal like humans, except they weigh about twice as much as we do, they eat nothing but fish at all. That’s everything. And their Omega-3 Index was about 19%.
Kelly Patterson: Can’t go that high.
Dr. Bill Harris: I mean, yeah. Once in a while we’ve run into a person that’s that high, but very, very, very rare.
Kelly Patterson: Yeah. Very rare.
Dr. Bill Harris: But obviously, an Omega-3 index of 19% in a large mammal is not harming them. They’re doing just fine with that. So we wouldn’t worry about that.
Kelly Patterson: Usually, you see that in people who are taking multiple products. They may not realize how much total dosage they’re actually taking. So that is something if you’re taking more than one supplement of any kind, just check and see what your total dose for the day is, not just your individual dose because that is something people will take multiple different things and not realize how much they’re getting in a whole day.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. When people ask you, “How much Omega-3 should I be taking?” what do you say?
Kelly Patterson: Well, if they have their Omega-3 index number, I refer them to … We have a calculator on our website where you can enter in your Omega-3 index number and it will, based on a paper you were part of that recommends a dose based off of an Omega-3 index level. So for a personalized recommendation, that’s really the best bet. If someone hasn’t tested their levels, it depends on their diet. If there’s someone who doesn’t eat any fish at all, usually that 1,500 milligrams per day dose would be like a blanket recommendation for someone who’s not eating any fish at all, not taking any Omega-3s. Might be a good place for them to start, but really getting tested is kind of the only way to know exactly how much you need as an individual.
Dr. Bill Harris: So when you say 1,500, I see a lot of fish oil pills that say 1,000 milligrams on the fish. Is that 1,000 milligrams of Omega-3?
Kelly Patterson: No. So you got to look at the back of the bottle and really look for the EPA and DHA doses individually. So whatever’s on the front is not necessarily just EPA and DHA. That can be just how much oil is in a capsule or in a serving. But looking at the back of the label and making sure you’re seeing the EPA and DHA dose, you add those two together and that’s the total dose of Omega-3 that you’re getting.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. Per serving, right?
Kelly Patterson: Per serving, yeah. That’s the other one is making sure that you’ve got the right serving. So as you’re serving, if it’s capsules, two capsules. If it’s a liquid, are you actually measuring out? Is it a teaspoon? Is it half a teaspoon? They vary. So it’s important to check your product, whatever you’ve bought and that you’re taking.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. Great, great. Okay. Turning to another question that’s pretty popular these days, Omega-3 and dementia, Alzheimer’s disease. This epidemic we have of increasing incidents of Alzheimer’s diseases, people are living longer and they’re keeping their heart going well with all the heart-healthy things we’re doing these days, but we’re living longer. And so that naturally means we’re having more dementia. So there’s been several studies linking, and we’ve done several of them ourselves, low Omega-3 level in the blood or in the low Omega-3 index with increased risk for developing dementia. And we just recently published a paper looking at what we call early-onset dementia, dementia that manifests before age 65. A garden variety of dementia is well over 65, but when it’s early-onset we think it’s more genetically-driven and maybe more resistant to an environmental or nutritional influence.
So when we did this study in early-onset dementia, looking at Omega-3 index as a predictor, we still found that the higher the Omega-3 Index, the lower the risk for early dementia as well. So the Omega-3 seemed to play a role in forestalling the development of dementia which is exactly what we want to do. There’ve been very few trials, randomized trials, because again, this is a very long, developing disease. And to do the study that might be five, 10 years long, giving some people high Omega-3 and some a placebo, it’s almost getting to be unethical to withhold Omega-3 in a way from that group. Because they’re so safe, there’s very little downside. The chance for benefit is there. The chance for harm is almost nil. So my view is might as well try it. Get your Omega-3 index up and it helps a lot of things.
Kelly Patterson: Is it ever too late to start for someone who wants to …
Dr. Bill Harris: Probably.
Kelly Patterson: Is earlier better?
Dr. Bill Harris: As far as we know, it’s not going to turn the disease around.
Kelly Patterson: Yeah.
Dr. Bill Harris: It’s definitely too late at that point.
Kelly Patterson: Okay.
Dr. Bill Harris: But to your point, if you start at 25 versus starting at 55, definitely starting earlier, it just makes sense that it would make … If it’s slowing a process down, you want to slow it down for years, for decades, not just try and change it and turn that battleship around when you’re in your 50s. So we really recommend people in their teens, 20s get their Omega-3 index up and keep it up. I think there’s going to be huge health benefits across the board, including dementia. People also ask if they have a particular genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s disease which is called an APOE4. It’s a particular protein in the blood that travels with lipoproteins LDL and HDL. And this APOE4, people who have that, who have two copies of it, are at 10 times higher than normal risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
Everybody’s got two copies of all these things, Mom and Dad. As you get one copy, it’s about twice the normal risk for AFib. And we’ve seen signal that people who have the APOE4 gene. They need a higher level of Omega-3 to be protected. So if you know anything about your APOE4 status and you do have one or two of the copies, I would really encourage even more attention to getting that Omega-3 index up to 8%.
Kelly Patterson: Does it matter EPA versus DHA? Especially with talking about the brain, I think people immediately go, “Okay, DHA is really good for my brain. Should I only take DHA or should I take a combo?” Does it matter for the brain specifically?
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. What our studies look at is really the blood levels of EPA and DHA and other Omega-3s and how that level relates to risk. And we do see that higher levels of EPA, non-DHA Omega-3, are also associated with lower risk. So I would not say just do DHA. I always say this: EPA and DHA together I think is the best way to go for brain health, for heart health, probably for overall health. Don’t just focus on one of the two Omega-3s.
Kelly Patterson: Is there a specific ratio of DHA to EPA? I know we get asked that a lot. People think maybe for different conditions. Or do we want similar levels in a product for, in general, all of these health benefits?
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah, I think that’s a common question and it’s a good one. I’m kind of soft in the middle there. I like to see both EPA and DHA in a product. I like to see them kind of 50/50, 60/40, 40/60, something like that. Not 90%/10%.
Kelly Patterson: Okay.
Dr. Bill Harris: I mean, I don’t think you need to do that. I think they come together and always come together in nature. In fish, you always get both of them together. They need to go together. So I don’t get real worked up about what ratio is right. As long as you’re in that close to 50/50 or 60/40 range, I think it’s fine.
Kelly Patterson: Great.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah, let’s go. We’re talking about Omega-3 sources. I think that’s kind of the next question on tap here for you to dig into people. Krill. We’ve got salmon roe. We have walnuts. We have ahi flour oil. All these things up. What are the good sources?
Kelly Patterson: There are so many options out there. It can be really confusing. We’ve got questions. Krill oil, salmon roe, walnuts, ahi flour. When it comes to supplements, the most important thing is definitely that total dose on the bottle. So turning your product over, whichever the source is, whether it’s krill or salmon roe or a regular fish oil. Algal oil as well, too. Same would apply. Look at the nutrition facts label. At the bottom portion of the nutrition facts label, there should be listed out a total dose of EPA and DHA each and you can add those two together and that gives you your overall dose. So when it comes to any of those sources of EPA and DHA, that is the most important factor by far is just total dose. You can take something that maybe has a good bioavailability, but if it’s too low of a dose it’s not going to have the impact you really want it to have. All of those things can be great sources of EPA and DHA, but again, product to product, the dose is going to be the most important thing.
Dr. Bill Harris: How is ahi flour oil differ from other sources?
Kelly Patterson: Yeah. Ahi flour is really interesting. There’s a lot of kind of emerging research on it. There’s a lot of things we don’t know yet, but it is really interesting. It’s plant-derived and so I think there’s a lot of excitement around that because currently for vegans to get EPA and DHA, to get adequate amounts of that, really their only good option is algal supplements, algae-based supplements. You can get other Omega-3s like ALA from things like walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, those types of things. But as far as EPA and DHA goes for vegans, people who are not eating any animal products, algal products are really the only current option. So ahi flour doesn’t have EPA and DHA directly in it. It does have another fatty acid called SDA that can be converted pretty well into EPA, and a little bit DHA as well too. It’s sort of a … How would you say? It’s a middle …
Dr. Bill Harris: Kind of a souped-up precursor. Yeah.
Kelly Patterson: Yeah, souped-up precursor is a good way of putting it to EPA and DHA. It skips a step as ALA can be converted into EPA as well too. SDA sort of skips the first conversion steps and can be converted a little easier in greater amounts. So the early research on ahi flour does show that it does raise EPA levels in the Omega-3 index as well too, and so it can improve EPA levels. DHA, it doesn’t appear to be as effective on, but there’s some research coming out about maintaining DHA tissue levels and so it’s possible that it’s not as reflected in the blood. But again, the research is pretty early on with that.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah.
Kelly Patterson: But as far as raising EPA levels, it does appear to be effective at raising those EPA levels, which is great for vegans to have potentially another option.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. What about ethyl esters versus triglyceride form [inaudible 00:24:50]?
Kelly Patterson: So there is a difference. Yeah. Two different types of products, really has to do with the way that the Omega-3s, the fish oil is manufactured. So ethyl esters are slightly less well absorbed, slightly less bioavailable than triglyceride form. The difference is small but significant and seems to be more significant for certain people, but you can raise your Omega-3 index with an ethyl ester product. It’s just going to take a higher dose. And so you’re going to have to take more of an ethyl ester than you will of a triglyceride product you can take less. And so a lot of people will see a price difference in those products and it’s like, “Well, you got to factor in the price difference for the dose you need to take as well, too,” which is really important.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. Good. Good point. Another question in this regard, I’ll pick up on this question about C15. It’s called Fatty15. That’s a new fatty acid in a pill that has got a lot of publicity behind it. My opinion of it is there’s a lot of smoke and not much fire here that the question I have in front of me here doesn’t negate the positive effects of Omega-3. Definitely not. It certainly doesn’t replace Omega-3. And whether anybody needs to take it at all is a very much an up-in-the-air question in my mind. So we won’t go any further. We’ve done podcasts about C15 that people can find if they look for Harris and C15.
Kelly Patterson: They have some great marketing. I can say that positively.
Dr. Bill Harris: They have some great marketing.
Kelly Patterson: Great marketing.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. Yeah, okay. Next question comes up frequently, bleeding and Omega-3. This has been a perennial question. I think of it somewhat as an urban legend. Omega-3s do thin the blood in a sense like aspirin. Taking an aspirin will kind of thin the blood, make it less likely to clot, but that’s a good thing and it’s not anything to be concerned about. In fact, people who are taking aspirin or were taking other blood thinners can take Omega-3 fatty acids as well without being concerned about increased risk for anything clinically, significant bleeding. Might you bruise a little more? Maybe. Might you bleed a little more if you nick yourself shaving? Maybe. But I would look at that as a good thing, a sign of a healthy, properly thin blood instead of thick and clotty blood that Americans tend to have. So I wouldn’t worry about Omega-3. In fact, on both of the pharmaceutical products that the FDA has approved, it says these things do not increase risk for clinical or significant bleedings and those are high doses of Omega-3. So I would definitely not worry about that.
Kelly Patterson: There were a couple of …
Dr. Bill Harris: Next question. Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Kelly.
Kelly Patterson: Oh, no. I was just going to add I think there was at least one or two pretty large meta-analyses showing that in cardiovascular procedures for patients, the high Omega-3 groups actually bled less after their procedures than the placebo group. So obviously, it was dependent on the type of surgery, but when they compare the types of surgery it’s potentially a very good thing.
Dr. Bill Harris: We saw that in a study where people were getting ready to undergo open heart surgery and they were giving them high dose Omega-3 for three or four days. The goal was to try to prevent postoperative atrial fibrillation or AFib. That’s what the study was about. The Omega-3s didn’t do that, but they didn’t increase risk for AFib. But when they did look at how much blood was lost during surgery, how many units of blood were needed during surgery, the group that got the Omega-3 had actually less blood loss and less need for transfusion. So au contraire, you don’t worry about excess bleeding when you’re taking Omega-3.
Kelly Patterson: Yeah.
Dr. Bill Harris: Quality of Omega-3 products, oxidation of Omega-3s. How do you store Omega-3s properly?
Kelly Patterson: Yeah, I mean, Omega-3s are fat. Fats can go bad. So storage and the quality of product is really, really important and there are a lot of different measures looking at what a product’s quality is at baseline. The question specifically here was about, “If I’m storing an Omega-3 product in the fridge, but I’m taking it out every single day,” I think this person was talking about a liquid Omega-3, right? “If I’m taking it out every single day and I’m opening it up in my kitchen, am I degrading the product at all?” And the big things to know with storage of Omega-3s is we want to store them in a dark, cool place. Any Omega-3 product, we really hope to see either a dark glass bottle or a dark plastic bottle so that no light is coming through, or a completely opaque bottle. And most, if not all, Omega-3 products will have preservatives in them, antioxidants, that help the fatty acids from the fats from oxidizing too much.
So if you have a good high quality product that’s in a proper package that has those antioxidants in them and you’re storing them in the fridge every day, or that you keep them in the fridge and you’re just taking it out every day, the degradation from opening it and taking some out is so little. Even over the course of months, it should be just fine. Yes, it will oxidize a slight amount, but that amount is so little when stored properly and you just take it out once a day.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah.
Kelly Patterson: The other question here was about Amazon. I get this a lot of people who they get their fish oil delivered from Amazon or they’re ordering it online and it’s either sitting in the back of the Amazon van during the day or a delivery van or it’s sitting on their front porch. And the key here is really time. So for the most part, again, with those products, if it is a good high quality product to begin with that is in an opaque bottle that has those antioxidants in them, that product can withstand a day of being heated as long as the bottle is sealed. Now if you get a delivery and your bottle is opened for some reason, then yeah, absolutely we don’t want that. But if it is sealed and in that opaque container, a day of being in the back of an Amazon truck or being out on your front porch should not be an issue. Just get it inside as soon as you can and store it in a dark, cool place and you should be just fine.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. Great. Okay. A couple of questions about SPMs, specialized pro-resolving mediators. These are compounds that are produced from Omega-3 fatty acids in the body, in certain cells in response to inflammation and these help cause the inflammation to actually actively go away. So if you got enough Omega-3 on board, your body will make some of these molecules and that will drive the inflammation down, and so it will resolve. Hence, they’re called resolvins, things like that.
Do we need to have them in a pill form? I don’t think we have the data yet to say that they’re helpful, any more helpful than taking just a regular Omega-3 with EPA and DHA and letting your body do the making of these SPM molecules. Just where and when needed, to me, that’s the best way to go. Let nature do what it’s supposed to do. If you give it the precursors, you give it the material to work with, EPA and DHA, it’ll make these SPMs. So I’ve not seen the evidence yet that taking them in a supplement form, which fundamentally is a fish oil with a tiny amount of these SPMs added, is more beneficial than taking just the fish oil.
So Omega-3 and immunity. Immunity is different than inflammation, of course, a different system. The immune system and the pro-inflammatory, they do hand-in-hand stuff, but immunity is also a field where the Omega-3s seem to be playing a role. This is a patient who asked particularly about the NLR, which is the neutrophil lymphocyte ratio. There’s two different kinds of white blood cells and one sort of an inflammation marker, one sort of immune marker. And we’ve seen that higher Omega-3 levels are linked with a more favorable NLR ratio. So that’s a good thing. We’re getting ready to publish a paper that looks at several trials that gave Omega-3 and we found it drop in NLR and people taking Omega-3 supplements. So I think that’s another good reason to take the Omega-3s. Here’s an interesting one. What do you know about Omega-3 and pets?
Kelly Patterson: Pets, yeah. Omega-3s, definitely we have a pet test that your vet can administer to see your dog’s Omega-3 levels. So checking your pet’s Omega-3 levels can be a good thing. And a lot of the times, pet food doesn’t have enough Omega-3s for a lot of the same reasons we want Omega-3s in people. Omega-3s in pets, a good thing as well too. This person asked about she gives her dog some Omega-3s and wondering about cats. In a similar way to people, but not exactly the same, our dose is going to be really, really important here. With cats, they are a lot smaller in most cases and you just want to make sure that you’re giving the right dose for your cat that you would for their body weight. I think for cats, the recommendation is between 30 and 50 milligrams per kilogram of weight for an Omega-3 dose, but again that would depend on your cat and depend on their levels and depend on their needs.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah.
Kelly Patterson: So there’s some interesting research going on for Omega-3s and pets, but yeah, your dogs can get their Omega-3 tested for sure.
Dr. Bill Harris: Good. Good. Couple of questions on my plate here. Eye health. Yeah, there’s definitely benefits of Omega-3 in eye health. We think of the front of the eye and the back of the eye. The front of the eye, you have the cornea. You have the whole question about dry eye disease, which is a front of the eye problem. And it does appear that Omega-3s will reduce the instance, be able to help with dry eye because of the anti-inflammatory properties. The back of the eye, we do see evidence that Omega-3s will reduce risk for macular degeneration, which is kind of a blindness that slowly comes on with age, possibly even glaucoma, possibly the retinopathy, which is the disease of the retina that diabetic patients can get. The Omega-3s seem to help with that as well so that’s good.
Kelly Patterson: Do you know of any research that’s been done in people who experience dry eye after eye procedures? I’m thinking especially LASIK or PRK, if Omega-3s will help with that kind of dry eye.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. Yeah. That kind of dry eye as well, right.
Kelly Patterson: Yeah.
Dr. Bill Harris: I think the most common cause of dry eye today is LASIK or PRK so that’s the situation in which a lot of people study it. They also study in people who look at screens a lot, like you and me and a whole bunch of other people, that it looks like taking Omega-3 will reduce the dry eye that comes from a lot of screen time. So Omega-3s seem to be good for about everything.
Kelly Patterson: We don’t blink enough.
Dr. Bill Harris: Next question here is about Omega-6. We probably have to do a whole episode on Omega-6, but the question is is Omega-6 inflammatory or not? And I think the answer is which fatty acid are you talking about? Talking about linoleic acid, which is by far the most common Omega-6 in our diet and in our body, the one that comes from seed oils which are certainly in the news these days, I think the Omega-6 linoleic acid is a very good, very healthy fatty acid. We’ve seen several papers. Now we just got a paper accepted today. What is today? January 22nd, 2026. Got accepted at the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that looked at linoleic acid blood levels in the UK Biobank and we looked at risk for dementia over time.
Kelly Patterson: Interesting.
Dr. Bill Harris: And we saw that the people that had the highest linoleic acid levels, highest Omega-6 levels in their blood were the least likely to develop dementia over time. And people at the really low levels of LA, linoleic acid, were more likely to develop dementia. So kind of like the Omega-3s, linoleic acid is a healthy fatty acid. We need to see, I think, more of it in our diet and not less.
Kelly Patterson: Where does this come from? Where are people getting that Omega-3s, these seed oils are so bad? And especially with things like dementia, I mean, people will say that these seed oils are the devil for things like dementia or cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Bill Harris: I know. Yeah.
Kelly Patterson: Where’s that coming from?
Dr. Bill Harris: It came in from the ’80s probably back when we first discovered that the molecular structure of EPA and arachidonic acid was very similar. They both were used by certain enzymes to produce different kinds of inflammatory molecules. We’ve discovered there’s many, many more molecules that both EPA and DHA and arachidonic are made into. They’re called oxylipins. The whole umbrella term, oxylipin. And there are some pro inflammatory molecules that are made from arachidonic acid, but there’s some anti-inflammatory molecules that are also made from arachidonic acid. So there’s this balance there just within that Omega-6. There’s favorable molecules that are made directly out of linoleic acid without it being converted to arachidonic acid that are protective. So the idea that one’s a black hat, one’s a white hat, the ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3, which I’ve talked about a lot on Omega Matters, which I think is a really fairly useless metric compared to the Omega-3 index which is laser-focused on the EPA and DHA content in red cells, that’s the important thing. Omega-6, it’s kind of a good versus good. Omega-6 is good. Omega-3 is good.
Kelly Patterson: Yeah, putting them in a ratio insinuates that one is bad, right?
Dr. Bill Harris: It implies that one is bad and one is not. Yeah.
Kelly Patterson: Right.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. Now in our complete blood test and I think in our plus blood test, we do provide an Omega-6/Omega-3 ratio for the blood because some of our clients want to see it and we’re happy to provide it. We got the data. I just don’t think it’s as useful for guiding treatment and therapy and guiding your diet as the Omega-3 index. You can certainly improve your Omega-6/Omega-3 ratio by increasing your Omega-3 level and that’s the way to do it, and that’s fine.
Kelly Patterson: Well, in some we see … Oh, sorry.
Dr. Bill Harris: Go ahead.
Kelly Patterson: Go ahead. Well, I was just going to kind of tie back to the question we had earlier about, “Can you have your Omega-3 index too high?” Something we see with people who have Omega-3 indexes higher in that range is their Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio will look “too low.”
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah.
Kelly Patterson: And again, one isn’t good, one isn’t bad. So it can be really confusing for people to see those kind of put next to each other instead of kind of standing on their own.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. And if you really wanted to lower your arachidonic acid levels in your blood, the best way to do it is to eat more EPA and DHA because eating less linoleic acid won’t do it.
Kelly Patterson: It won’t do it.
Dr. Bill Harris: Less Omega-6. I eat more Omega-3 and the Omega-3s will replace the Omega-6s in the membrane. So what to do with the blood test result is eat more EPA and DHA. That will improve everything.
Kelly Patterson: Always.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. So hey, one more question here and you can wrap on this as you wish. So Omega-3 and menopause, what do we know we need to think about there?
Kelly Patterson: Yeah. I mean, so usually when people are asking about Omega-3 and menopause, it’s about symptom relief. The symptoms associated with menopause, things like hot flashes. Even things like weight gain and other issues, that’s usually what people are asking about when they say, “Well, does it help with menopause?” particularly hot flashes, which are the most commonly experienced symptom in menopause and in, really, perimenopause is the time when most people are experiencing those symptoms. And the research is a little mixed on that. There are some studies that show that Omega-3s might be helpful in that regulation. They really don’t have a great understanding. We don’t really have a great understanding of what causes hot flashes to begin with. We know it has something to do with our temperature regulation and sensation in our autonomic nervous system, but we don’t know why that happens. It may have something to do with estrogen levels, those dropping over time and maybe causing that disruption that causes hot flashes.
But there’s mixed research on whether or not Omega-3 supplementation is helpful for that particular symptom. There’s some evidence that it might be some not. There’s other concerns with people who are going through menopause. Things like arthritis can get worse because of dropping estrogen levels. Other inflammatory conditions can get worse because of decreased estrogen levels. And there, we do know that Omega-3s can be helpful with some of that symptom management, especially things like joint pain. Omega-3s do appear to be pretty helpful. Again, another symptom a lot of menopausal women experience is increased joint pain because estrogen plays a sort of almost anti-inflammatory role. Omega-3s can help manage that as estrogen levels drop.
So on some symptoms, maybe. Omega-3s might be able to help. But the other thing we know is that menopausal women, once you have completed and no longer are menstruating, your risk for cardiovascular disease goes up a pretty good amount. So Omega-3s are even more important from the cardiovascular disease risk and things like heart attacks and strokes. It’s even more important to have higher Omega-3s in post-menopausal women because their risks … Estrogen is so heart-protective that the higher Omega-3 index is actually even more important in folks who have gone through menopause.
Dr. Bill Harris: Yeah. Well, it’s great now that we’ve sort of un-demonized estrogen with this new FDA … I’ve removed the black box warning. I encourage women, at least within the first 10 years after menopause, to be on estrogen or …
Kelly Patterson: To get treatment.
Dr. Bill Harris: Hormone replacement therapy. I think that’s really going to help …
Kelly Patterson: A lot of people.
Dr. Bill Harris: A couple generations of women that have been damaged by that bad medical advice.
Kelly Patterson: Yes. Yes.
Dr. Bill Harris: And so this is a good change. Not an Omega-3 issue, but …
Kelly Patterson: Just in general, a good thing.
Dr. Bill Harris: Just in general, a good thing. Well, hey. This is great. We’re coming up on an hour. We’ve had a bunch of things we’ve discussed. People have asked us anything and we’re trying to accommodate their requests. We’ll do this a couple times a year. I guess I would say keep looking for more Omega Matters episodes. We’ll be having more experts on to talk about their research in the coming months. Thank you for coming on, Kelly. Look forward to doing this again with you in a month or so.
Kelly Patterson: Yeah. Thanks, Bill. This has been great. I look forward to it. I’m excited.
Dr. Bill Harris: Okay. Take care all. Bye-bye.
Kelly Patterson: All right. Bye.