Scientists Discovered the Most Powerful Natural Compound for Lowering Inflammation

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]On the basis of our last conversation some years ago on this podcast, I started taking Lovaza, which is a as you know, a prescription omega-3, so very high concentration omega-3 cuz I was getting it from, you know, standard sources and I thought, well, I'm hitting 50 and you know, up my omega-3 and I want clean omega-3. I don't I don't want it contaminated with mercury and other things. So, I'll take um omega-3s in the form of Lovaza. It's available in generic form now, so it's pretty inexpensive. And I I have to say my my blood profiles were pretty good, but they improved pretty dramatically when I started taking Lovaza. So, I'm grateful to you for encouraging the omega-3 uh you know, take the omega-3 path. Have you ever had an omega-3 index test done?

[00:00:46]No. To measure the Oh, oh, oh, if it's on the function test, then then it would be in it's in normal range. I know it wasn't flagged, but I don't recall what the what the level was. Yeah. You want to be in the high index, not the low, right?

[00:00:57]Well, obviously if you're taking it, you're not going to be in the low. Yeah.

[00:01:00]Usually it's around 2 g a day to get you from low to high.

[00:01:04]>> Mhm.

[00:01:04]And I and I do think that's one of the low-hanging fruits in terms of like something powerful and having an outsize effect on your health that people can do that's not that much effort. It's not like exercise and exercise effort and Or eating salmon. I don't like fish. Yeah, and and you know, a lot of people don't like fish and also there's now microplastic contamination in our in our, you know, seafood sources. There's the heavy metals, PCBs, contaminants. I mean, I still eat salmon, but like, you know, it's it's not like it used to be. So, there there are other there are other cleaner ways to get your omega-3 levels higher and omega-3 is very important for cardiovas- It's one of the most important I would I would say the most powerful naturally occurring dietary compounds for suppressing inflammation and resolving inflammation would be better way of putting it, right? I mean, and that's again at the core of aging and if you look at any sort of measure of aging, whether it's even these epigenetic aging clocks, they're very sensitive to inflammation and that's why there's so many studies coming out now showing omega-3 can slow this, you know, biological aging as measured by these epigenetic aging clocks. And that's even in randomized controlled trials showing this that it's it's doing that and that leads to functional outcomes as well. So like even if you're only slowing the clock, let's say by 3 months, um you're still having outcomes like where for example, three 3 months slowing the epigenetic aging clock by omega-3 only is going to get you like, you know, 16% lower pre-frailty. Or if you add in vitamin D and resistance training, cuz the study showed a synergy between the three, then you're talking about like lowering the chance of invasive cancer by 66% even though you're only getting >> 66% Yeah, even though you're only >> D, resistance training and >> and omega-3 Yeah, and this was this was um the the the trial was actually out of Switzerland, I believe, and it looked at omega-3, vitamin D alone or resistance training alone. And the only thing that actually slowed the vit- the aging of the clocks was by was omega-3. Now, I'll say that with a caveat, okay? The baseline exercise in this Switzerland group, 88% of these people were physically active, like doing exercise. So adding, you know, 30 minutes three times a a week of resistance training on top of that didn't slow the clock more and I wouldn't expect it to, to be honest, when you're already physically active and that's your baseline. Um [snorts] clearly they weren't getting enough omega-3 because that did slow the epigenetic aging clock. Other studies have shown if you're vitamin D deficient, severely vitamin D deficient, like African-Americans for example, who are obese or overweight, if they add in vitamin D and supplement with 4,000 IUs a day for six um six weeks, they can actually slow their epigenetic reverse their epigenetic aging as well. So, I think it again it's all like where you're starting from, but the point is that the omega-3 alone did slow the aging of these clocks. Um and you add in the resistance training and vitamin D, those alone didn't do it, but when you add it with the omega-3 there was synergy, so it kept going down.

[00:04:09]And when the three combined, it slowed the epigenetic aging by like 3.8 months, but that translated to like 66% less likely to get invasive cancer.

[00:04:20]Um and then the pre-frailty was the omega-3 alone and there's another marker I can't remember. I covered this in a newsletter a while back, but like, you know, this and this is like this isn't the first study to show this with omega-3. Um omega-3s are really I'm so I I went on this tangent. I'm sorry, Andrew. You got me on one of my favorite topics.

[00:04:37]>> excited cuz I take Lovaza, I take vitamin D, uh D3.

[00:04:41]I take a lot. I take 5 to 8,000 I use per day and I get sunlight. People actually ask me this is just a a quick window into the messaging around sunlight. Some people will say, "If I take vitamin D, do I still need sunlight?" And you know, a big part of my messaging is trying to tell people that sunlight does a bunch of other things, but I take vitamin D at that level, I take the Lovaza and of course I resistance train and the Lovaza move and actually increasing the vitamin D was on the basis of yes, blood work, but also our prior conversation. I feel much better. Yeah. Much better when I do.

[00:05:12]>> it about 5,000 I use a day as well and I do get sunlight and I do I agree with you sunlight's important for sunlight's not and vitamin D production is not the only thing that sunlight is doing, obviously. You've talked in great, you know, depth depth about that.

[00:05:25]>> to go into the grave. I actually want a little window over my grave. It'll be a little morbid so I can get morning sunlight. I'm just kidding, folks. And when I'm in the ground, I'm in the ground. Um you know, I think the omega-3 literature uh has been greatly assisted by your messaging around it because it got pretty confusing out there for a while.

[00:05:42]There was the the usual pushback that comes after supplement to the year is released.

[00:05:46]>> Mhm. It's a joke, folks. Is the oh no, it's actually bad for us. You know, there's always a few of those and then we eventually arrive at sanity again and you go, no, the bulk of studies point in the direction of this being a healthy >> Right. Randomized control trials showing it improves cardiovascular health, lowers the incidence of, you know, cardiovascular events including heart attacks and strokes, right? These are the gold standard. We've got the observational data. We have now looking at the molecular events with like, you know, epigenetic aging. We know that it's really good at resolving inflammation. Because you want your immune system to be active, but you don't want it to be overactive. You want it to be active and then turn off, right? And so the omega-3 fatty acids like DHA and EPA which are in Lovaza or Lavaza are what the metab- they're when they're metabolized, they're forming these molecules, resolvins, protectins. These things are resolving inflammation. And so I think that um it's just it's one of the easiest ways that you can you can increase your anti-inflammatory response and exercise obviously being another very powerful one. But the omega-3s, it's always easier to take a supplement. So like I have my parents taking it, you know, anyone that I care about it's like, you know, easy, easy, done, you know, take your 2 g a day. I say 2 g a day because, you know, Lovaza is prescribed at 4 g a day. You know, so 2 g is pretty on the conservative side and that's really what's been shown by um Dr. Bill Harris and some of his colleagues that can basically you can take someone from a low omega-3 index of 4% up to a high omega-3 index of 8% by supplementing with about 2 g a day. So um and by the way there's all sorts of data on that front with the omega-3 index and I think we talked about this last last time, but you know, 5-year increased life expectancy if you're on the high end.

[00:07:25][clears throat] Um you're talking about 90% reduction in sudden cardiac death. Brain weight in children if pregnant women are taking Yeah.

[00:07:33]>> I mean it's important throughout the lifespan. It's, you know, from in utero development throughout childhood all the way through adult life and into old age.

[00:07:40]You know, these omega-3 fatty acids are I'm talking about the resolving in inflammation, but they're also very important for they're incorporated into our cell membranes, DHA and to some degree EPA.

[00:07:53]And [snorts] that has a very important role in the fluidity of our our cell membranes. And this is important for if you think about our endothelial cells lining our our vascular system, our arteries, you want them to be fluid and more flexible, right? That's very important for being able to respond to a stress stressful situation. In fact, the stiffening of our heart with age, you know, the the the collagen that surrounds our pericardium or that's running our heart, pericardium and our myocardium, like that's in that's increases the risk of a heart attack, you know, a cardiovascular event. Um you want your cells to be more flexible. So, that's what, you know, these omega-3s are also doing and that's why they're also really important for cardiovascular health in addition. And in the brain as well. I mean, these all of our transporters, all of our our receptors, right? They're embedded in the cell membrane and the the fluidity of that membrane is important for the structure and function of these things and that's why omega-3 affects dopamine, serotonin, right? It's why it's affecting It's not the only reason, inflammation's also, but part of the reason is is is because it's it's changing the way our cell is like, you know, structurally composed.

[00:08:57]And if you think about trans fats, like that's they do the opposite, right? They stiffen the cell membranes and that's why it's like the worst thing you could do for your cardio one of the worst things you can do for your cardiovascular health is eat a bunch of trans fats. Smoking is another one.

[00:09:10]Smoking's terrible for your cardiovascular health.