EPISODE #4 - Is there a relationship between the level of omega-3 fatty acids
in the blood (i.e., Omega-3 Index) and death from any cause?
Recording date: April 23, 2021
Broadcast date: April 27, 2021
Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris & Kristina Harris Jackson
Guest: Nathan Tintle, PhD, Executive Director, Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI)
Guest bio: Dr. Tintle holds a PhD in statistics from Stony Brook University. He has internationally recognized expertise in fatty acids, public health, genetics, and biomedical statistics via study design, survey instrument development, and standard and computationally intensive data analysis techniques. He has >100 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Tintle also brings prior relevant experience as an executive director of a non-profit, research institute. As a researcher and research institute director he has led initiatives securing over $8 million of funding across 30+ major federally funded grant awards, in addition to securing substantial private and public charitable donations.
Background & Key Takeaways: A new research paper examining the relationship between the Omega-3 Index and risk for death from any and all causes was published in Nature Communications April 22, 2021. It showed that those people with higher omega-3 EPA and DHA blood levels (i.e., Omega-3 Index) lived longer than those with lower levels. In other words, those people who died with relatively low omega-3 levels died prematurely, i.e., all else being equal, they might have lived longer had their levels been higher.
Numerous studies have investigated the link between omega-3s and diseases affecting the heart, brain, eyes and joints, but few studies have examined their possible effects on lifespan.
In Japan, omega-3 intakes and blood levels are higher than most other countries in the world AND they happen to live longer than most. Coincidence? Possibly, or maybe a high Omega-3 Index is part of the explanation.
Studies reporting estimated dietary fish or omega-3 intake have reported benefits on risk for death from all causes, but “diet record” studies carry little weight because of the imprecision in getting at true EPA and DHA intakes. Studies using biomarkers – i.e., blood levels – of omega-3 are much more believable because the “exposure” variable is objective.
This new paper is from the FORCE - Fatty Acids & Outcomes Research – Consortium. FORCE is comprised of researchers around the world that have gathered data on blood fatty acid levels in large groups of study subjects (or cohorts) and have followed those individuals over many years to determine what diseases they develop. These data are then pooled to get a clearer picture of these relationships than a single cohort can provide. The current study focused on omega-3 levels and the risk for death during the follow-up period, and it is the largest study yet to do so.
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