Docosahexaenoic acid

So I do like two in the morning with breakfast and two at night with dinner, take it with food.

And I know that I'm getting more than enough EPA and DHA every day to support brain health, bring down inflammation, heart health.

It's also really good for joint health too.

It's one of the most researched supplements.

The...

The omega-3, though, that I have another kind of interest down that path in nutrition, because the retina photoreceptors, about 60% of the phospholipids in the retina are DHA omega-3.

Interesting.

And there's a lot of epidemiological studies showing that people who consume more oily fish, like with a Mediterranean diet— They are less likely to develop macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy.

However, people who take omega-3 supplements, even DHA supplements, don't have the same exact evidence in the research.

Until this last few years, they've been doing studies on Alzheimer's because they're trying to understand how omega-3 could be beneficial for Alzheimer's.

And they found that not all omega-3s or forms of omega-3 cross the blood-brain barrier.

And the blood-brain barrier is very similar to the blood-retinal barrier because the retina is just an extension of the brain.

a big point of contention in the plant-based world because there are plant-based doctors, even cardiologists recommending olive oil.

And, you know, we keep hearing about, you got to have omega-3s and maybe take DHA.

I'm not looking at it from the health standpoint.

I'm just talking to you as a human.

There's a whole bunch of...

I'll use your word, Chef AJ, controversy.

There's a discussion around whether we need to be taking DHA and EPA, which are the longer chain omega-3 fatty acids, but I'm not sure we really have time to go into that.

Some people recommend that you do take a daily supplement of those.

So there's, it's, there's lots of different ones.

There's ALA, EPA, DHA, omega-3, 6, and 9.

So there's a lot going on with omega, omega.

Omega, omega, right.

Because omega-3s themselves are split into subgroups as well.

So there's plant-based omega-3 fatty acids, which you get from things like flaxseeds, walnuts, chia seeds, and they come in a form called, it's a really long word, but it's just abbreviated to ALA.

Now, y- to, to use it, your body has to convert ALA to something called EPA and then DHA.

That's the bit that it, it likes it in the most, but it's not that efficient at converting plant omega-3s from ALA all the way to this, to this DHA.

Well, here's the thing.

There are physiological pathways of brain development that require omega-3 fatty acids, not ALA, but EPA and DHA, which is, you can't find those implants.

And young children are often unable to change ALA into DHA and EPA.

Also, you need sialic acid, you need carnitine for a developing brain.

There's all these things you need for a developing brain that the vegan diet just does not provide.

And fish oil is a very potent omega-3.

And so when we have horses that are dealing with conditions that have an inflammatory component, I like to have the fish oil in there because it is providing DHA and EPA directly.

And we don't have to concern ourselves with the horse converting the plant-based omega-3 to DHA and EPA, which we would if we were giving something like flax oil.

And so that's where the kind of fish oil comes in as a really good way to help regulate inflammatory response and help that be more normal.

So yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see what your oral sugar test, how that comes back, because that will give you a definitive diagnosis of whether he actually is insulin dysregulated or for some reason just had a random high insulin.

And that's where the word plasmalogens comes in.

And for someone who's hearing this word for the first time, so can you tell us what plasmalogens are and why are they different from what you talked about cholesterol, phosphatidylcholine, even DHA or any other lipids that people may have already known?

So plasma mountains are fossil lipid.

So all the fossil lipids in your body are based upon a glycerol backbone, which is like a three carbon.

So all of a sudden you see a whole bunch of cars on streets that normally don't have cars on them.

And so, well, what's going on with these things? And so you can trace your way back to where this ultimately, where the actual traffic damages to the freeway structure.

So in autism, these very long chain fatty acids, elevated DHA levels.

So these molecules very clearly indicated that mitochondrial function was impaired.