EPISODE #8 - Part 2: Interviewing an Omega-3 Legend – Dr. Jørn Dyerberg
Recording date: Jul 22, 2021
Broadcast date: Aug 16, 2021
Hosts: Drs. Bill Harris & Kristina Harris Jackson
Guest: Dr. Jørn Dyerberg
Background and Key Takeaways:
Dr. Jørn Dyerberg is a pioneer in the omega-3 fatty acid world, having made the discovery of their important heart health benefits more than four decades ago while researching the native Greenland Inuit. Along with his colleague, Dr. Hans Olaf Bang, the two embarked on an adventure that started in the late 1960s and trickled well into the 1970s. It started with their curiosity about the Inuit’s high fat diet and their very low incidence of heart disease. Their goal was to examine their blood and their diet. At the time, the Inuit subsisted mainly on a diet of high-fat seal and fish, however, the rates of heart disease were staggeringly low compared to Americans eating a much different diet but had much high rates of heart disease. Their first publication appeared in the Lancet in 1971. What this research showed is that the Inuit actually had favorable lipid levels despite their high-fat diet. It was in a subsequent publication in 1975 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that they detailed the specific omega-3s eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic (DHA, which led to several landmark publications during the following decades and a stream of interest in these newly discovered molecules.
In part 2 of this series, Dr. Dyerberg discusses the rollercoaster of omega-3 research of the past 40 years with Dr. Bill Harris. They discuss each landmark study that had a heavy impact, either positive or negative. It’s been a wild ride.
To watch this episode, visit our YouTube channel.
To read the full transcript from this OmegaMatters episode, visit https://omegaquant.com/omegamatters-broadcasts/.
To learn more about omega-3 testing, visit: https://omegaquant.com/omega-3-index-complete/
