Captain Joseph Hibbeln is a great supporter of omega-3 fatty acids. He says that consuming enough omega-3 can greatly influence the health of your blood vessels.
Dr. Hibbeln recommends that you consider using of one of the home tests that will reveal your omega-3 fatty acid status. You can also discover your relative risk for disease. Some of the companies that make these tests available will also advise you on how to improve your status.
(Transcribed from video interview)
CAPT. Hibbeln, M.D.:
It is very important to know what your omega-3 fatty acid blood status is. It is not really your diet that predicts your risk of disease; it’s your tissue.
So as my histology professor used to say, the tissue is the issue. And it’s a complex interaction between fish and these different seed oils and how they interact to get your blood levels.
But now there are several companies that provide convenient home tests where you can take a lancet and get one drop of blood on a filter paper and mail it in and they can tell you your omega-3 fatty acid status and your relative risk and some companies even give you advice as to how you can change it.
There’s many companies that do this and we don’t endorse any particular one. Among the companies are the Ideal Omega Test, and Metamatrix and Great Smoky Mountain Laboratories has tests and they are all very useful to helping you know what your omega-3 status is.
One thing we did do is from the U.S. government and NIAAA, is provide a computer tool where you can enter your diet in and it will tell you the omega-3s and omega-6s that are being delivered by that diet, and then what your tissue composition and cardiovascular and I think even mental health risks are from that diet.
So you can model a change. “What if I start eating one tuna fish meal a week and one salmon meal for dinner? What if I start eating sardines regularly for lunch? How far can I get my omega-3s up and how well can I protect myself?”
That program is accessible to the public free of charge at http://efaeducation.nih.gov/ and it’s under the “Lifestyle choices” and that program is called “Keep it managed” or Kim.
See the program Capt. Hibbeln discusses here: http://efaeducation.nih.gov/sig/kim.html
About CAPT. Joseph R. Hibbeln, M.D.:
Joseph R. Hibbeln, M.D., is a Captain in the United States Public Health Service. He is the acting chief on the Section of Nutritional Neurosciences at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. CAPT. Hibbeln is a psychiatrist, a lipid biochemist, and an epidemiologist.
Video:
https://www.empowher.com/healthy-eating/content/omega-3-fatty-acid-blood-level-how-can-i-determine-capt-hibbeln-md