Dear Subscriber,
A few days ago, I posted on means to deal with clotting (in long haul COVID) issues in the Premium Report. One supplement I left out for reducing coagulation risk (deep venous thrombosis, TIAs, mini strokes, etc.) is essential fatty acids.
Years ago, I used marine oils due to their clear ability to inhibit known pathways leading to inflammation and coagulation of blood. Long chain unsaturated fatty acids can directly suppress inflammation.
As most of you know, I have shied away from marine oils after meeting my essential fatty acid mentor Brian Peskin, my co-author of the book “PEO Solution” (for “parent essential oils”) (see https://www.amazon.com/PEO-Solution-Conquering-Diabetes-Essential/dp/0988278030/ref=sr_1_1?hvadid=580990463414&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1014257&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=14672511371123350452&hvtargid=kwd-310298466170&hydadcr=22536_11318353&keywords=peo+solution+book&qid=1683565643&s=books&sr=1-1).
His study of the subject led me to suspect fish oil as a questionable idea. These are ultralong and ultra-unsaturated fatty acids. Now on one hand, there could be a clear use for these to reduce inflammation and coagulation tendencies. However, your mitochondria might not know the difference between these ultra-unsaturated fatty acids, and less unsaturated fatty acids from plants.
The real essential unsaturated fatty acids are not from fish, but from plants. Namely: linoleic acid and alpha linolenic acid. The former is omega 6, the latter is omega 3. Both are 18 carbon chain length with omega 3 being more unsaturated.
Your body has the wisdom and ability to extend these fatty acids to longer chains, identical to what is found in marine oil. However, that process is somewhat limited in humans. The pundits claim God made a mistake in limiting conversion, so that we should stuff ourselves with marine oils to make up for the slow conversion. I don’t think God made such a mistake, but prevented carnage to our mitochondria by limiting conversion. You see, any membrane will pick up a fatty acid; this includes mitochondria membranes. But mitochondria are literally blast furnaces, and the extremely long and unsaturated marine oils are exceptionally vulnerable to oxidative (rancidity) damage. Just smell a fish left out for a day. This will happen quickly to the more vulnerable fatty acids in the fires of your mitochondria. Force feed yourself with marine oils and you might set yourself up for mitochondrial aging, which is the same thing as body aging.
For this reason, I have veered from many of my alternative medicine colleagues. I prefer plant based real essential fatty acids. Fish oil is NOT essential fatty acids. The oils therein are derivatives of real essential fatty acids (EFAs or Parent Essential Oils (PEO).
So, in addition to the list of supplements I posted regarding reduction of coagulation, I routinely use real essential fatty acids, not derivatives from marine oils, and my product of choice has been “YES EFA” from “Your Essential Supplements” company. You can get a significant discount on this product by using the coupon: SUSAVE10at https://www.yes-supplements.com/products/yes-ultimate-efas.html. I, myself, take this product from time to time, but not all the time, as my diet is extremely rich in plant based essential fatty acids from organic food sources.
Our body will, in its wisdom, make the longer chain derivatives, as needed, and without risk of pharmaceutical huge amounts of the derivatives you will impose on your body from taking marine oils. These derivatives can be anti-inflammatory and help protect from unwanted coagulation.
There are some people who definitely benefit from fish oil. I think it best to measure your conversion to the fatty acids EPA and DHA before embarking on long term marine oils. I did such a test years ago as a vegetarian, and had ample amounts of EPA and DHA in my system simply from the shorter chain real parent essential fatty acids in my diet. I chose not to overdo it with marine oils. Each person is different, however, as we are not monoclonal lab rats, as the government and medical pundits would have us believe like in matters of vaccination. Admittedly, I know many who benefited from marine oils. But I remain concerned that these oils are not the best for everyone for long term use.
To Your Excellent Health,
Robert Jay Rowen, MD
I agree with you about marine oils. Maybe in the mid 1990s when I was riding a bike instead of driving a car, I decided to take Jarrow Max DHA, as DHA was particularly being promoted at that time, and still is. I think that supplement had 50% more DHA than regular EPA/DHA. After a month or two I noticed the streetlamps across the street at night or a clock light in the bedroom was brighter than usual. After three or four months using the supplement I noticed that my legs became fatigued after about a quarter of a mile of cycling, whereas normally I could go tens of miles without fatigue. After about five months I stopped the supplement and those issues went away. Just before I stopped I reread a newsletter by Ray Peat where he talked about polyunsaturated fats, and especially fish oil and DHA sensitizing your eyes to light like melatonin, increasing lactic acid in the muscles, and inhibiting mitochondrial respiration, and compared fish oil supplementation to slow irrradiation of the body. He says the country and the world was going through a great fish oil experiment and we will know in 20 or 30 years if it increases cancers and other problems. I think that time is almost upon us, and are there any studies to that effect of longtime users of fish oil? There was another newsletter writer some may be aware of, and older doctor, so I don't know if he is still alive, but he had some interesting comments about fish oil and other things, some of which may be true, although he also implied that dinosaurs go back only 10,000 years, and didn't believe in evolution, so...
He believed saturated fats and monosaturated fats were better for you, and he didn't worry about eating vegetables because he ate the animals that eat the vegetables for him. It reminds me of the line in the movie to The Mosquito Coast about Harrison Ford's curmudgeony inventor character: "There's nothing more obnoxious than a know-it-all who's sometimes right."
Dr. Rowen, so good to hear the truth. I worked on this book with you and Brian Peskin, and what you say makes perfect sense.