I Took Omega-3s for 2.5 Years — Here's My Bloodwork

I've been taking 2 grams of omega-3s every single day for the last 2 and a half years. And, unlike most people, I actually tested whether it was working or not. I tracked things like my omega-3 index, my ApoB, my hemoglobin A1c, my HDL cholesterol, my triglycerides, and a hundred other biomarkers. The goal was to optimize my omega-3 index, which reflects the amount of omega-3 fats in your red blood cells. Low omega-3 index is considered a risk factor for early onset coronary atherosclerosis and cardiovascular death. A sufficient high omega-3 index, on the other hand, is linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer's, heart disease, and all-cause mortality. Even among smokers who have a higher risk of heart disease to begin with, a high omega-3 index is associated with a reduced risk. The goal is to have an optimal omega-3 index for the lowest risk of heart disease, between 8-12%. Less than 4% is linked to a higher risk. However, in the research papers, an omega-3 index of over 6% already is seen to be better than 4%, but 8% is more optimal. So in this video, I'm going to share with you my blood work results after taking omega-3s, and I'll talk about how you can also optimize your omega-3 index. If you want to discover your own health percentile, to know what level of health you're at, with various different types of biomarkers like your fitness markers, body composition, and blood work, what are your bottlenecks and biggest weaknesses, then take the health assessment in our top 1% health community. Link in the description. Alright, let's talk about my omega-3 index results. In my last blood work in May 2026, I had an omega-3 index of 9.2%, with an omega-6 to 3 ratio of 2.5 to 1, which is great. As I said, optimally, you want to be over 8%, but based on research, 6% is already enough, although not the most optimal. My first ever omega-3 index test in November 2023 gave me 8%, and a ratio of 3.2 to 1, so I have seen some good progress over the course of 2.5 years. The biggest thing I've noticed from taking these omega-3 index tests is that I do need a consistently high intake of omega-3s, to keep my omega-3 index over 8%. Maybe it's something to do with genetics, or maybe it's because my body consumes more omega-3s for some reason, but whenever I stopped taking omega-3s for a short period of time, I saw my omega-3 index also decrease. It's never dropped to below 6.5%, which would be the territory associated with worse heart disease, but sometimes it would drop to somewhere like 7.2%, and it rose back to 8% when I increased my omega-3 intake. And at other times, it goes back to 9% when I'm more consistent with my dietary fish or omega-3 intake. This just highlights that most people are walking around with a suboptimal omega-3 index. It means that their arteries are becoming more sticky, their blood vessels become more stiff, their brain doesn't have enough of the omega-3s, and their heart disease risk is also much higher. It also takes quite a lot of time to improve your omega-3 index because of the long half-life of red blood cells. Realistically, you need several months of consistent supplementation with omega-3s or a consistently high intake of fish to influence your omega-3 index in a positive way. Globally, 75% of people aren't even meeting the daily recommendation for omega-3s, less than 500mg a day. Japanese people eat 2-3 times more omega-3s per day than the Americans or Europeans, and it reflects in their omega-3 index, 6-11% versus 4-6%. The omega-3 index isn't the only thing that matters for longevity. You could have a high omega-3 index and be obese, but it is quite important and low-hanging fruit in my opinion. A higher omega-3 index can also mean that you're consuming fewer omega-6 fats to a certain extent. Whole-food omega-6s are also essential, but in today's world, people are eating too many omega-6s, especially from processed food and processed oils. So if your omega-3 index is sufficiently high, then it also reflects higher diet quality and lower inflammation. If you look at my other biomarkers between the time, then I've also seen an improvement. From my first omega-3 index test in November 2023 to May 2026, I've seen that my hemoglobin A1c dropped from 5.2% to 4.5%, homocysteine from 12 micromoles per liter to 6, ApoB from 72 to 62 milligrams per deciliter, insulin from 4.17 to 3 microunits per milliliter, ALT, a liver enzyme from 29 to 16.6, CRP 0.1 to 0.1, triglycerides down to 40 milligrams per deciliter, LDL from 93 to 60 milligrams per deciliter, and HDL from 54 to 62 milligrams per deciliter. These are all improvements in the positive direction. Now, of course, omega-3s aren't the only reason why I saw these improvements. I also changed other aspects of my diet I changed my exercise routine, etc. But the reason I'm bringing this up is because some people claim that omega-3s are bad for your health. They say it's gonna cause inflammation, they say it's gonna oxidize LDL or whatever the case is. Well, if you look at my blood work, after supplementing omega-3s, especially quite a high dose omega-3s for the last two and a half years, my blood markers have gotten better, they haven't gotten worse. And the research also supports this. Omega-3s don't cause inflammation, they lower inflammation. And they also improve metabolic health, insulin resistance, and lipids. A 2022 umbrella meta-analysis that looked at 32 meta-analyses, which included well over 100 studies, found that supplementation with omega-3s improves inflammatory biomarkers, such as CRP, TNF-alpha, and IL-6. If over a hundred randomized controlled trials, not observational studies, say that omega-3s don't cause inflammation, they actually lower inflammation, then it's virtually impossible to claim that omega-3s cause inflammation. The proof is in the pudding. Or in the fish oil. So what dosage did I use to get my omega-3 index over 8%? The average dose was around 2 grams per day. On some days it was around 1 gram, on other days it was 3 grams, but the most consistent dose was 2 grams a day. I also want to add another thing that is very important. If I was eating fish on that day, let's say I had 100 or 200 grams of salmon or something like that, then my omega-3 supplement dose was much lower. I might have taken 500 milligrams or 1 milligram. If I wasn't eating fish on that day and I wasn't consuming any other omega-3 sources either, then my omega-3 dose was more like 2 to 3 grams a day. Secondly, I found that adding nuts consistently increases my omega-3 status as well. I usually eat a handful of walnuts or chia seeds, which are high in ALA that gets converted into DHA, and I mixed it with my yogurt. And whenever I was doing that, my omega-3 status was higher. Some people can't make the conversion of ALA into DHA, so it's not going to work for these people, but it worked for me. And in fact, what I noticed was that at times when I wasn't eating walnuts or wasn't eating chia seeds, for example, my omega-3 status was lower. So that's kind of interesting. I was taking the same amount of omega-3s, but my omega-3 index was lower. So my theory is that maybe there's like multiple competing pathways into increasing the omega-3 status. So just relying on the marine omega-3 side of things might not be enough because you saturate one pathway. So to really get the more benefits, then I would need to use the second pathway, which was the plant-based ALA. Or maybe the other solution is to spread out your omega-3 intake across the day. I usually have like two meals a day. So first meal, the second meal, that's the only opportunity that I have for consuming omega-3s. So maybe you need to spread it out more often, or maybe, yeah, you need to mix it with plant-based and marine sources. I took marine omega-3s. However, research suggests that algae oil can be equally as effective at raising omega-3 index. So it doesn't really matter which one you use. You can also take krill oil and corn liver oil, but they're a little bit lower in actual omega-3s. If you don't want to take a supplement, then you can get omega-3s from food as well. A 300 gram salmon filet is 8.3 grams of omega-3s. One can of sardines is about 4.8 grams of omega-3s. And grass-fed ground beef is about 100 milligrams per 100 grams. So you're not realistically going to get the optimal amount of omega-3s from just beef. And as I said, when I was eating more fish, like 200, 300 grams of salmon, then I wasn't taking the omega-3s, at least not that high dose. But most people aren't even eating fish that regularly. So the better option is to consistently take the supplement, whatever the case is. The biggest takeaway from this video is that everyone's body is different. Your body doesn't care if you need to consume one, two, or even eight grams of omega-3s every day to increase your omega-3 index. As I've already said before, to maintain the optimal blood vessel flexibility, elasticity, better blood flow, less clotting, lower inflammation in the blood vessels, et cetera, then you need to have an omega-3 index that is at least 6.5% and optimal over 8%. I don't think you need to test your omega-3 index that regularly because as I said, it takes quite a long time to improve the marker. It takes at least six months to see a significant change in your omega-3 index. So what I recommend to do is first get a baseline test to see where you're at, then make the necessary adjustments to your supplementation and diet, and then retest one year later. All right, thanks for watching. If you want to discover your health percentage and get your roadmap to top 1% of health, then join the community using the link in the description. I'll see you there.