Dhru Purohit Show - The Key Nutrient that Reduces Inflammation and the Risk of Heart Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease that 95% of Americans Don't Get Enough Of

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

This episode is brought to you by Maui Nui and Birch Living. What if a single nutrient could protect your brain, fight inflammation, and add healthy years to your life? Omega-3 can do all that and yet, over 95% of people are running on empty. Today on The Dhru Purohit Show, we’re revisiting one of our most talked-about moments with Dr. Bill Harris. He shares groundbreaking research linking high omega-3 levels to Alzheimer’s and dementia prevention, and how omega-3s can help reduce overall chronic inflammation. Dr. Harris also reveals what’s considered optimal for omega-3 levels, the shocking range most Americans fall into, and how this widespread deficiency is closely tied to the overconsumption of ultra-processed foods. William S. Harris, PhD, FASN, has been a leading researcher in the omega-3 fatty acid field for 40 years. He has authored over 300 scientific papers on fatty acids and health, has been on the faculty of three medical schools, and has received five NIH grants to study omega-3. He co-authored three AHA statements on fatty acids and heart health. As the co-inventor of the Omega-3 Index (and other omega-3 blood tests) and founder of OmegaQuant Analytics, Dr. Harris has been ranked among the top 2% of scientists worldwide based on the impact of his research. In this episode, Dhru and Dr. Harris dive into: High omega-3 levels and their correlation with reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s (1:50) Research on omega-3s and their role in reducing chronic inflammation (6:22) Average omega-3 levels vs. optimal levels (12:19) Causes of omega-3 deficiencies and the rise of ultra-processed food consumption (14:41) How fish oil can lower triglyceride levels and impact cellular health (12:25) Final thoughts (20:15) Also mentioned: Full episode with Dr. Bill Harris This episode is brought to you by Maui Nui and Birch Living. Right now, Maui Nui Venison is offering my listeners a limited collection of my favorite cuts and products. Just go to mauinuivenison.com/dhru to secure your access now but hurry, supply is limited! Get 27% off your Birch Living mattress during their Labor Day Sale—just head to birchliving.com/dhru today! Sign up for Dhru’s Try This Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi everyone, Drew Brode here. When we talk about the most pressing health concerns that people face today, whether that's Alzheimer's disease, high blood pressure, or chronic inflammation, it's so easy to feel that these are just inevitable parts of aging. But what if there was a simple, well-researched nutrient that could help us reduce our risk and delay the onset of these conditions? Well, in today's episode, we're going to talk about that nutrient, and I'm sharing a portion of my conversation with Dr. William Harris,

A leading researcher in the omega-3 fatty acids field for over 40 years. He has over 300 scientific papers on fatty acids and health, has been on the faculty of three different medical schools, and he received five different NIH grants to study omega-3s. And in our conversation today, Dr. Harris breaks down the research and the benefits of omega-3s. And he shares what the science says about this key nutrient that 95% of Americans are not getting enough of.

The other reason that I'm super excited to share this episode, with you is that there are so many different supplements that are out there new and cool and interesting things and great, I'm all about that stuff and I love to explore. But in that pursuit of our health and wellness, whether it's supplementation or the basics of lifestyle, we want to make sure we don't ignore the fundamental things that have years of research around them. And Omega-3s is one of those things. It's through Bill Harris's work and his testing company, Omega Quant, no affiliation, that it really inspired me to start eating more fish many, many years ago and start consuming fish oil on a regular basis, especially when I don't consume a lot of fish.

So I hope this episode does that for you as well by digging into and presenting some of the incredible research that's out there. Okay, let's listen into this key moment with Dr. Bill Harris. What about Alzheimer's and dementia? Do we have any more data that shows a more protective impact? on these two very scary diagnoses when it comes to omega-3s. Yeah, we do. And we just published a couple weeks ago, maybe a large study, looking at, again,

that what we typically do, omega-3 levels in the blood, DHA, I believe, was our primary focus on that one, and looked at risk for developing dementia or Alzheimer's disease. This was in a large group of people in England. And we found the same story we found in others have found, too, the highest people with the highest levels of omega-3 at the beginning of the study, which is typically put people in their 50s, 40s or 50s when these studies start. The risk for developing dementia is reduced. And, you know, nobody's going to prevent Alzheimer's disease. They're not going to prevent dementia. They're going to put it off until you die of something else.

That's the best you can ever hope for. People talk about preventing the disease. It's not what they mean is delaying the disease. And that's what we all want to do. That's increasing your health span, right? And so the omega-3s are certainly strongly linked with a reduced risk for developing. And so since we have no treatment, whatever, for these debilitating conditions that we all know about

and we all fear more than we fear heart attacks by and large, definitely take more omega-3 to help reduce your risk for that. That's a no-brainer. Pardon the pun. It's the best-brainer that you could do. It's the best-brainer. If you care about your brain health, there you go. Let's go to a few other areas instead of the body and things that people struggle with.

High blood pressure is one of those things that so many people struggle with today. Yeah. And there's often advice that's given, okay, you care about your blood pressure, the primary one that's shared with individuals, you know, drinking a lot of water and making sure you're hydrated and also not having too much salt in the diet and sodium in particular. Right. The challenge that I have, the little beef that I have is that with sodium in particular, most of the sodium and salt that people are getting in their diet is coming from ultra processed food. It's not from the sea salt that we decide to add to a little, you know, great piece of salmon that we're cooking. It's hidden.

It's bread rolls and these other things that are ultra processed in the diet. But nonetheless, to bring it back to it, lowering blood pressure and the impact of omega-3s. What can you tell us about that? Yeah, in that category, the studies have looked, the ones that have been most effective have used pretty high intake. of EPA DHA, maybe three to four grams a day, which is, you know, the typical American, just for perspective, typical Americans eating that's not taking a fish oil supplement, is getting maybe 0.1 to 0.2 grams a day of EPA, DHA, you know, 100 to 200 milligrams a day in their diet. And we're talking about doses here that I just mentioned for blood pressure in the 1,000 to 2,000 milligram a day, which is a very easy to get dose.

But it's a higher dose than maybe just triglyceride lowering might give you, which we might talk about later. It's doable. It's a minor. It's not a major effect on blood pressure. It's a sign that your blood vessels are healthier. Your blood vessels are more compliant, more flexible. more able to respond to the heart pushing all that blood out. You don't end up with the high blood pressure.

So it's good for blood pressure as well as a variety of other things we'll talk about here. Any study that I didn't mention that strongly drives home the evidence around omega-3s and its association with positive outcomes in the body. I know there's so many to choose from, but if there was one or maybe two, I didn't highlight that really drove it home for the audience. Anything that you want to mention? Quick break to shout out to one of my all-time favorite sponsors, Maui, Newe, and their venison jerky sticks.

These are a staple for me. Whether I'm heading into a workout in between podcast interviews or just need a quick snack, I reach for one of these jerky sticks, and I feel great knowing I'm getting 10 grams of clean, high-quality protein in just 55 calories. That's more protein per calorie than wild salmon or even green. grass-fed beef. And let's talk flavor because these are seriously satisfying. The original has a subtle touch of sweetness and the sugar-free peppered has this bold, savory kick that's hard to beat. Let's just say on multiple occasions, I've definitely crushed a few of these back-to-back,

or maybe back-to-back-to-back. Now, what makes Maui Nui really stand out is their sourcing. Their venison comes from wild access deer in Hawaii that are ethically harvested through a USDA-approved stress-free process. It's clean, nutrient-dense red meat with more antioxidants, more healthy fats, and none of the junk you find in most snacks, especially protein snacks that are out there. Even better, every bite supports a greater mission. So you're not just eating well, you're making an impact. Whether you're trying to stay on track with your nutrition, like me, fuel up between meals, or just want a better option in your bag or glove compartment, Maui-Newy, jerky venison sticks, truly deliver. So if you want to get on the clean protein train, right now Maui Nui is offering a free

12 pack of their jerky sticks with your first order of $79 or more. Just go to Maui Nui-V-N-I-V-N-I-V-N-I-N-E-N-E-N-E-N-E-N-E-N-E-N-E-N-H-R-U. Check these out today. I have a feeling that you're going to be just as big of a fan of them as I am. This episode is brought to you by Birch where better sleep meets better living. We talk a lot about performance, nutrition, training, mindset, and the real foundation of it all is sleep. That's why I sleep on a birch mattress. It's designed for deep restorative rest with materials that regulate temperature, reduce toxins, super important to me, and support the way your body naturally recovers at night. No overheating, no synthetic junk, just clean, cool sleep that helps you wake up feeling sharper and stronger.

You know, most mattresses are loaded with flame retardants, polyurethane foam, and synthetic glues, materials that can off-gas harmful chemicals into your home. It's one of the most overlooked sources of daily toxin exposure and also one that's easy to fix. That's why I made the switch to perch. I've been sleeping on their mattress for years now, and it's a total game changer. It helps with overheating, tossing, and turning, and just feeling comfortable through the night. Best of all, birch mattresses are made with natural organic materials like cotton, wool, latex. No VOCs, no flame retardants, just peace of mind.

Sleep isn't just about rest. It's about your body's ability to tap into its built-in system for repair and recovery. And during the summer months, when hot nights and disrupted routines can throw off your rhythm, creating a non-toxic, breathable sleep environment is more important. important than ever. Right now, Birch is running their summer sale. Get 20% off sitewide plus free shipping and 100 night risk free trial plus a 25 year warranty. If you want all this and you're ready to upgrade your sleep, head over to birchliving.com slash Drew. That's Birch, B-I-R-C-H-L-I-V-N-G dot com slash Drew, D-H-R-U, that's me, for 20% off site-wide, plus free shipping, plus 100-night risk-free

trial and best of all, a 25-year warranty. Yeah, I mean, I think what we hear so much about is inflammation, chronic low-grade inflammation from our diet and our lifestyle and pollution in the air. All these things are pushing our bodies toward a kind of a chronic inflammatory state. And I think the thing that we've seen with Omega-3 is that how do they work, people say. And it's kind of complicated to explain how they work. It's not like a drug that has just one target and bang, you can say this drug fixes that thing. Well, megathrase are in every cell, every miscell membrane.

They do good things everywhere. And by about 15 different mechanisms, they do it. But the thing that really counts, it maybe largely comes down to anti-inflammatory. They put the brakes on, they soften the inflammatory response. And I think that plays out in many plays out from in dementia, plays out in cardiovascular disease, probably plays out in the way the, even the blood is a little bit thinner when you take more omega-3. So you're less likely to clot in a bad place. That's also part of the good benefits. So inflammation is the one word I would, what would use to describe all the benefits of omega-free.

And we saw that in Framingham, in our cohort that we looked at, we looked at 10 different. blood markers of inflammation. And we correlated those blood markers with the omega-3 level. And for every one of them, higher omega-3, lower inflammatory marker. It's just been shown so many times it's, there's no question about it anymore. Give us a sense of how, and I know you don't like the word deficient, because deficiency implies something incorrect, but give us a sense of how much this key nutrient is missing from our diets, especially here in North America. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, and because I'm trained in nutrition, in nutrition you learn that to be deficient, there's like being deficient in vitamin C, you have scurvy, okay, your teeth fall out, all right, and really bad stuff happens. vitamin D and rickets, your bones bend and break real easily. Well, deficiency in the omega-3 is not that stark. It's a long-term subtle thing. So I'd say insufficiency is a maybe a little bit better term. But in the United States, if we ask how many people or what percent are what I would call suboptimal.

And optimal, I will say, is an omega-3 index, which we'll talk about, of over 8 percent. We're talking about 90 to 95% of people. Are not optimal. Are not optimal. But to be not optimal is not necessarily to be deficient. It's to be suboptimal. It could be better. And you could be up in a zone that's protective.

The average omega-3 level in America is roughly five and a half, maybe. If you throw it across, we're working on a project right now to kind of define the omega-3. index of every country in the world we can figure out. And Canada, United States, we're sort of in that intermediate zone where you're not awful, you're not all vegans, but you're not optimal like the Japanese are where they're on average, they're 9 or 10 percent omega-3 index, which is great. So the vast majority of Americans, people on Western diet, it's not just Americans, people on who do not eat fish every day, like some cultures do, Japan, South Korea.

They have really high omega-3 index because they eat fish a lot. Was there ever a time here specifically in North America that you think we were in our more optimal range? If you look at dietary patterns, you know, excluding out native populations, were we ever at a time where we would be at a much higher omega index? And part of that is asking, what have been the factors that have led to us having lower omega-3s on average in our diet? Is it just simply the absence of fish? Or have we prioritized all the things like ultra-processed foods that have crowded out a lot of the good things? Yeah, I think it's both and. I think definitely

the lack of fish in the diet. And, you know, historically, there were certainly people on the coasts were much more dependent upon the food that comes right out of the sea because we didn't have refrigeration. We couldn't, we couldn't transport things around the country. You had to eat what was there. And there was a lot of fish on the coast. So I suppose, that omega-free levels, that we've been able to measure them 100, 200 years ago,

and coastal populations would have been higher. but not necessarily in South Dakota, where I am. I don't really know that we ever were, certainly as a country, high in omega-3. People have been tried to raise concerns that omega-6 fatty acid intake has come up over the time. I don't think that's been a reason why we have low omega-3. And we can talk about omega-6 later if you'd like to. But at this point, again, if you're... If you don't eat fish very regularly, you're not going to have a high omega-3 level.

It just doesn't happen. What's the relationship between omega-3s, triglycerides, and generally, you know, these markers like triglycerize, LDL, how do you think about omega-3 and their influence on those? Yeah, I think one of the first effects of omega-3 that was discovered, and we were part of the discovery of that in the late 1970s, early 80s, was that omega-3s are particularly effective in lowering one of the blood fats called blood triglycerides. So the other one is cholesterol. This is the blood. Omega-3s don't lower cholesterol. Never really have. At least in the good, well-controlled studies, you don't see a lowering of cholesterol. But you will definitely see a lowering of triglycerides. And that's because

the omega-3s will block the production of those molecules in the liver so they don't get sent out in the blood. So you reduce the levels. That's a good thing. Then the other things are LDL cholesterol, what some people call bad cholesterol. I hate to use that term because it's the bad particles. It's not bad cholesterol. cholesterol is cholesterol. It's neutral.

LDL particles which carry a lot of cholesterol are not affected by fish oils. intake, HDL particles, the good particles, their levels are, can be raised a little bit by fish oil. So that's a, actually, lowering triglycerides helps raise the HDL. They're kind of on a seesaw in a way. So you'll definitely see an improvement in the lipid profile, but don't expect to see your cholesterol level go down to start taking fish oil. If, I know you said it was complicated and it is complicated. complicated. And on a, but on a cellular level, if you were explaining this to, let's say,

a sixth grader, an eighth grader, if we were able to see inside of the body and, which we are, obviously we have, you know, we have different medical tools that enable that to happen. Yeah. When fish oil, omega-3s enters into the body on a regular basis, what's its impact on the cell? Like, what is it actually doing on the cells in our body? If we would try to make it easy to understand, even though I know it's incredibly complicated. It's complicated, yeah. I think a reason, there's metaphors, there's analogies for it.

I think people have often used the fact that fish oil is an oil. Then you think about oil in your car and having enough oil in the engine to lubricate all the cylinders as they go up and down. If you're low on oil, you're going to have a lot of friction. and that's going to create heat, that's going to create, that's like inflammation. So I think that's one way of looking at it that if you're low on omega-3, you're essentially kind of low on oil. And your cells are going to, there's just going to be friction, there's going to be inability

to respond, like every cell has to respond to the outside environment and it's a very finely tuned, finely designed system. And if the cell membrane, which is really the most, almost one of the most important parts of the cell, the membrane which decides what goes in, what goes out, that is very much dependent upon the fluidity of that membrane is important and the flexibility of that membrane. And if you have too little omega-3, the membrane just doesn't operate well. And so you get garbled communication between the outside and the inside. and so things just don't go well. Indeed, they definitely don't go well when we especially so many Americans being in that bottom

cohort of people that are incredibly insufficient and don't have enough omega-3s. So as you've just heard, omega-3s are doing far more than just supporting heart health. They're influencing our brain health, blood pressure, cellular communication, and even our body's inflammatory response. you're not eating enough fatty fish regularly or checking your omega index, this might be a powerful area to focus in on. So in my full-length conversation with Dr. Bill Harris, today was just a presentation of a part of the conversation, but in the full length, we talk further about testing your omega-3 levels, how to go about that process, the optimal ranges you want to aim

for within that index, and how long it typically takes to reach those optimal levels. We also get into how to increase your levels through fish consumption and fish oil supplementation. Both of them work perfect. And algae oil as well too, if you're vegan or vegetarian. You can find the link to that episode in the show notes below. And if you like this conversation or you know somebody in your life that's thinking about these things, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's, and the general inflammatory cascade that we find ourselves in, do me a favor, share this episode with them. They might actually like it. They might learn something. And it might get them to double down on some of the basics that we keep on talking about

in this podcast overall. Don't forget the basics. Give love and attention to them. Sure, you can dabble in all the fun new things that are out there, but don't forget the basics. When I think of supplementation, fish oil is definitely one of the main supplements in my basics list. All right, that's it. Until next time, thank you for tuning in.