Omega-3’s In Depth: Brain, Heart, Mood & Inflammation Support with Nicole Gitlin

Omega-3 Basics and Safe Dosage 0:00

As an overview, what's considered the health minimum maintenance dose is 500 milligrams of omega-3s. But when we looked at the European Food and Safety Association, they actually stated that up to 5,000 milligrams, of Omega- 3 fatty acids were deemed a safe and responsible nutrient. And actually on par, FDA now also states that, up 2000 milligrams can be a save and a responsible amount. Welcome to Vitality Radio, the podcast that helps you make sense of natural supplements and thrive without pharma drugs.

I'm Jared St. Clair. Hello and welcome to Vitality Radio, the podcast that helps you master natural supplements, enhance your emotional vitality and thrive without the use of pharma drugs. My name is Jared St. Clair and today I'm going to talk to you about Omega-3, but I am not going do it alone like I typically do because if you're a regular listener of the show, you already know that Omega 3 is part of my vital You've probably heard me talk about Omega-3 a lot, because it is one of my favorite supplements and something that I recommend pretty much everybody use on a regular basis.

But I had an opportunity to bring someone who's very, very well versed in Omega 3 onto the show today. And I want to go ahead and introduce her to you. Her name is Nicole Gitlin and she's got a passion for health and wellness that was shaped by her own personal journey, which is really typical in this industry. We have lots of people who got into the industry because They needed support with their own health or found answers in natural products and things like that. But Nicole's been busy. She's a certified holistic health practitioner, a Certified Clinical Herbalist, and a certificate clinical nutritionist.

And she's driven to empower others through impactful science-based education. So I'm super excited to have Nicole on the show. Nicole, welcome to Vitality Radio. Thank you so much, Jared. I truly appreciate the opportunity to be on this show Well, happy to have you. And of course, it's always good to somebody from Nordic Naturals on. I would say if there is a name in the industry that's synonymous with fish oil or Omega-3, that would be the name, Nordik Naturall. Your company's been doing this for a long, long time.

Really, as I see it, I remember the first time we ever had fish in a capsule. And I was, I think it was about 15 years old and we had one of these letter signs out in front of our store and I, was putting up, you know, letters showing that we have omega-3 capsules. Cause prior to that, it's just cod liver oil in liquid form. And of course there's nothing wrong with cod, liver, oil and liquid for, but back then it tasted a whole lot worse than it does now. And when it came in capsules, people were like, hallelujah, we have an option that isn't the liquid, right?

But that was way before Nordic Naturals even. But when Nordik Naturales jumped in, it was the brand in my book that kind of, I don't know, tightened everything up around Omega-3, cleaned it up, got a lot of education out there, helped people to really understand what was going on and making sure that there were certain standards that other companies then started to adhere to more in the industry and those standards are really important because unfortunately we all know the oceans aren't as clean as we'd like them to be.

And so what we have in our omega-3 capsules or omega 3 liquid, we want to make sure meets all the purification that we need and also is fresh and clean and not rancid and all of the other things that have to concerned about with fish oil. I've always had a ton of respect for Nordic Naturals and what you guys do as a brand. And so probably, I'm not, trying to think if I'd ever had anybody on the show talking about Omega-3 that wasn't from Nordics Naturall. I am not sure that I have, but anyway, super happy to have you on.

We're going to hit on Omega 3s, the difference between EPA and DHA. That's a question a lot of people ask. we're gonna talk about omega-three for your pets and why that might matter for, your loved one, uh, you're loved furry friend. And we're also going to talk about the difference between fish oil and Omega-3 when we were looking at the labels and how to determine what we are getting as far as dosage. We're going talk the different between levels of quality of Omega 3 supplements on the market.

And then we'll talk a project that you guys are doing that I think is pretty cool and that we taking part in called the Coastal Cleanup. So first let's just jump into this.

Introducing Nicole Gitlin and Nordic Naturals 4:20

Before we recorded, Nicole, I told you that i have my Vital-5. The Vital 5 is a great multivitamin, digestive enzymes, probiotics, magnesium, and omega-3. Now, there's a hundred other supplements that could potentially be considered really important and useful for a wide range of people, but this is what I came up with as the most universal list I could come up because we don't know everybody's health status and age and diet and all that other stuff. For me, Omega-3 is about as big a no-brainer as there is probably along with magnesium, where it's one of those things where everybody probably needs to be taking this.

We're just not getting enough in our diets, at least in very rare cases, especially in the center of the country where we are here in Utah, maybe a little more on the coast where fish is a bit easier to get at a restaurant and that kind of thing. But then we also have to concern ourselves with the quality of the fish in restaurants because tons of stuff is farmed. And in our own home, of course, when we're buying it, it's a little bit tougher to get wild caught. It's more expensive. Even if it is wild-caught, its coming from a dirty ocean in many cases.

I tell people from dietary standpoint, probably the one sort of last big resource that we can count on when it comes to Omega-3 is Wild-Caught Alaskan Salmon. And that's awesome, but you have to pay for it, right? So oftentimes supplements can actually be more economical when it comes to this as well. But tell me why you think, or if you, think we're on the same page in terms of omega-3 being one of those core nutrients that just makes sense as a supplement for just about everyone. You are totally correct about that.

I mean, omega-3 fatty acids are one of the nutrients that have stood the test of time and can virtually support every aspect of human health. Their end destination is our cell membranes, where they support the structure and the function of every cell membrane in the human body. Now, whether we may be talking about our brain, our heart cells or liver cells, EPA and DHA is supporting that across every stage of life. So absolutely necessary for us to get an adequate amount on a daily basis. But as you mentioned, cold water, fatty fish, algae doesn't really land in the common American household plate as often as it should, which is why supplementation is a great alternative to really help fill in those nutritional gaps that we may not be getting via the diet.

Definitely on the same page there. And the thing is, I think is really critical here too, is that you said that it's supportive of basically every process in the body, cellular health generally. Of course, we always talk about with omega-3 brain health and cardiovascular wellness and things like that. But also 85%, I thinks is the number of disease in this country is inflammatory in nature. And omega-3 plays a major role in the proper inflammatory response inside the body. So for me, that's one of the single biggest reasons why it makes so much sense because in world, but especially in this country, in America, we're dealing with so many inflammatory illness that something that is foundational in supporting your body in doing what it's supposed to do because inflammation is like hormones and like everything else in body, We need it.

We just don't need too much of it, right? And we also don' t need to little of i. So supporting the inflammatory response in an appropriate way always makes sense. Absolutely. And as you mentioned, that's really one of the main reasons that consumers turn to omega-3 supplements to support healthy inflammation modulation. So many of us are dealing with a wide array of issues and omega 3 fatty acids should really be the first area of support that we look for to provide ourselves the nutrients necessary to, provide that homeostasis, balance at a cellular level.

Yeah, it's such a core thing for sure. Now you told me something I had not heard before we started recording that I think is pretty exciting because every once in a while, and if anybody listens to Vitality Radio on a regular basis, you're going to know that as a general rule, I'm not overly excited about government recommendations when it comes to supplementation and things like that. You told me that something's changed on the new safe and responsible dosage of omega-3. There's a European number and there's an American number, United States number.

And I guess those numbers now line up. Is that right? That is correct. So as an overview, what's considered the health minimum maintenance dose is 500 milligrams of omega-3s. But when we looked at the European Food and Safety Association, they actually stated that up to 5,000 milligrams omega 3 fatty acids were deemed a safe and responsible nutrient. And actually on par, FDA now also states that to 5000 milligrams can be a save and a responsible amount. And it used to be 3000, is that right? That is correct.

It used be around 3000 milligrams and now they are on par with the European Safety Association at that 5000 milligrams. Yeah, and that's a long time coming for sure, because as we're going to talk about next, there are different doses that make sense for different things based on the research, right? And, you know, again, before we started recording, we had a little conversation about this. And my take has always been, people that listen to this show know this already, that 2,000 milligrams is a good spot for just general health and well-being, not knowing what your diet's like and what you're health status is and all that kind of stuff.

Just based on the actual clinical research on human subjects, 2,000 milligrams of omega-3 seems like a good level for most people. However, there's some really interesting research on higher doses for that, for brain health and mood balance we'll say, mental health things, that kind of thing, also cardiovascular wellness and things like that.

Why Omega-3 Is a Core Nutrient 10:20

Pick a couple of things studies that you've seen that would indicate a higher dose being beneficial. Yeah, that's a great question. So there's, of course, a lot of evidence-based research on omega-3 fatty acids, over 50,000 published studies, solely on EP and DHA. One of my favorite one is on the healthy reduction of triglyceride levels. where they actually wanted to see how dose had an effect on research result. So they broke apart the participants with a different dose in each group in order to what the effect of that result was without having to modify their diet or lifestyle changes.

And so the first group in the study was given 1000 milligrams, second group 2000 milligrams and so on up until the last group got 5000 milligrams of omega-3s. And very interestingly what they found was the overview was that healthy reduction of triglyceride levels was between 9% to 51% reduction. basically highlighting that the individuals in the thousand milligram group saw an average of a healthy reduction of about six to nine percent, while the individual's in a group with five thousand milligrams of omega-3s actually saw a health reduction in triglyceride levels up to fifty one percent which really goes to show how dose has an effect on research results And as you mentioned earlier, many of us are not consuming enough to create those health outcome changes, which is why it's so important to look at these particular types of research where we see how these increases are able to these health outcomes without modifying much like our diet or lifestyle.

That's awesome. I mean, 51% reduction in triglycerides is crazy. Question I have on that. Do you know how long that study was? Yes, I believe that study went on for about two and a half years. Okay. So that was a long-term study over a significant group of people in different categories. And I have to assume you went from 1000 to 5000, but the numbers just kind of got progressively better with the higher doses. Absolutely. And that's why I mentioned that as an overview, what the conclusion of the study mentioned was that consuming between a thousand to five thousand milligrams of omega three had a healthy reduction anywhere between that nine to fifty one percent.

But it really varied depending on the dose, creating that effect on research result. Well, and it's interesting because there's a lot of things that you can do to have an impact on things, that can be tested in the blood like triglycerides. And, you know, omega-3 definitely isn't alone in that. There are herbs and things have shown to benefit with trigliceride levels as well. But what I think is really interesting is when it comes to omega 3 as a foundational nutrient that the body requires anyway, taking 5,000 milligrams, if someone's concerned about their trigliserides, would also have this really cool collateral benefit of all the other things that come along with omega-3, right?

Nourishment of the joints and the cardiovascular system and brain and every cell in the body really. And so you get all these side benefits as opposed to side effects like you might get with a pharmaceutical where you're trying to accomplish the same thing. The higher dose is in most cases going to give you an additional benefit that you wouldn't normally get maybe with 2,000 milligrams as more of a maintenance dose that a lot of people would take. I personally recommend a minimum of 2000 milligrams, but I, and I don't have a specific thing, I guess, that I'm taking omega-3 for.

Just take it because it's good for me and all the reasons that omega 3 is good. But I tend to err on the side of a little bit more. Three to 4,000 a day is kind of my typical, depending on what I am doing, you know, from a supplemental dose myself, But that's a really interesting study that had not seen before. Years ago, I was reading through a really interesting report that came from Harvard Medical School, and I actually reported on this on the show probably close to a decade ago now. And it highlighted that in the five and 6,000 milligram range, there is where some of the very best research was for mental health outcomes.

Do you have any studies that you're aware of that fall into those higher doses when it comes to mental, health and wellbeing? Absolutely. So when we talk about mental health and wellness, there's a wide variety of differentiators, even when you talk omega-3s. Typically with brain health, we're looking at that higher dominance of DHA to support brainhealth, unless we are talking about key aspects like mood, where we do normally see it being a higher dominant of EPA. But specifically when we're looking at cognition, attention, or learning, one of my favorite studies is actually looking cognition in age-related individuals.

And the study was actually looked at the supplementation of 2000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids. with a higher dominance of DHA to understand the difference in cognition within tasks that were asked to be performed prior to supplementation. So, for example, like spelling tests, etc., and then consume the particular dose for, I believe, the study was about a six-month period of time. and then they were asked to perform the same series again. In this particular study, and I don't think I mentioned earlier, we only had the participants and the placebo.

So what the conclusion actually mentioned was that the individuals in the participant group not only showed an increase in omega-3 index at the red blood cell level, but actually had better performance in all of the cognitive tasks that were performed prior to supplementation. So even within age-related cognitive decline, we're seeing a support with even 2000 milligrams of omega-3s with that higher dominance of DHA.

Safe Dose Ranges and Research on Higher Intakes 16:20

Very cool. And then are there any others that you want to share with some of the higher doses that have shown to be beneficial in human health? I would say there's one other that comes to mind and it's really on blood pressure regulation and I think this is one big area that a lot of customers come in to support for omega-3s. This other study was also looking at the upper high doses of omega 3 fatty acids. On average between 3 to 5,000 milligrams were utilized. And what the conclusion of the study was that on average, the higher dose groups, basically those in the 4,000 or 5,00 milligram group, saw an average reduction of about 20 to 40% in healthy blood pressure regulation levels.

And that's a pretty big number when we're talking about not just blood-pressure regulation, but it being one of most touted research when looking for omega-3s and blood pressurization. Yeah, that's awesome. How long was that study? Do you remember? I do not remember that off the top of my head, but I want to say it was close to about a year, a little over a, year if I'm not wrong, But I might have to get back on you. Okay. I was just kind of curious. That's, really impressive for sure. So basically, I guess what I, want people to, get out of this is that there is sort of a standard dose.

And according to the government, minimum is like 500 milligrams. According to me, it's going to be more like four times that much at 2000 milligrams, But if there is a specific thing that you are trying to achieve with omega-3, whether it be balancing lipid levels, triglycerides, things like that, blood pressure, mental health, brain health. Those types of things, higher doses in many cases can be very beneficial. And it's a very, very safe nutrient. And so experimenting and seeing what your body gets with it can be a useful tool as well.

I think some people, well, a lot of people because I thinks human nature will give up on things a little bit too soon. One of the reasons I'm asking Nicole about the length of these studies is because it is a core nutrient It's not a drug, it's something that your body uses over time to yield a long-term benefit. And sometimes you do have to play the long game with this kind of stuff to get the results that you're looking for and experiment with the doses to where you want to be as well. You mentioned EPA and DHA, and that's gotta be one of the very most common questions.

Explain to my listeners, what's the difference between these two things? They're both omega-3. If you look at the back of a bottle from a very various brands, whether it be Nordic Naturals or, you know, any number of other omegas or various sources like cod liver oil versus fish body oil and that kind of thing. You're going to see ratios that are quite a bit different in many cases, a lot more EPA, lot, more DHA. In some cases you'll see formulas that almost exclusively EPA or Dha. So explain to us the difference between the two and what people need to know about, making that choice.

Yeah, I would love to. I think this is one of the first areas where most of us really get to understand it's not just the two most important omega-3 fatty acids that do support every aspect of human health, but there is a way to distinguish and understand how to choose the right dominance based on our health outcome goals. So the way that I like to loosely reference DHA as a neck up fat, When we're thinking neck up, we are thinking structure. So essentially it is the building block to the brain, the eyes and the central nervous system.

The brain alone is made up of 60% fat and of that fat alone, 20 to 25% is actually made of DHA, which makes it the most prominent fatty acid of our neuronal cell membranes. yet that's not the highest concentration that is found in the human body. It's actually found on the retinas of our eyes at 35%. So this is why we do commonly see that higher dominance of DHA for products that are directed for mom and baby to support the most critical stage of growth and development. or for any school-age year children that we're talking about attention, learning, focus, or even adults when we are talking cognition, brain health, and memory.

On the other hand, we do have EPA. That's more of a neck down functional fat. So the functionality to our organ systems. The very first thing that always comes to mind for everybody of course is heart health. Cardiovascular health and function. But it truly goes well beyond that. I mean, we mentioned earlier, one of the reason individuals take omega-3s is they know it's great for inflammation modulation. And it does this because omega 3, specifically EPA, helps to support immune cells, both innate and adaptive cells.

and it also supports digestive health, joint health. And the unique one that we touched on earlier was mood. So mood is typically associated with that higher dominance of DHA because of brain health but the reason that research actually shows that EPA can be better suited for mood or mood disorders is because of that brain connection, specifically when we're talking about the HPA axis that helps to regulate cortisol. EPA also has a very unique role within that HPE axis. So ironically, research shows that at least 60% higher EPA to DHA or a thousand milligrams of solely EPA had the best mood exhibiting benefits.

Now, both EP and DHA are synergistic fats, but this information is just to better understand how we choose the right product based on our health outcome goals, or even really learn why the wide variety of products in our healthy food stores really have a particular higher dominance, for example, mom and baby, really always having that higher dominant of DHEA. Right. Yeah. And that does, I know, trip up a lot of people. My take on it, and I'll be curious your opinion, is that we're meant to have both EPA and DHA.

They both belong in the human body. they belong to different proportions in different areas of the body, you just mentioned 35%, you know DHEA and the eyes for instance. So I generally think it's probably short-sighted to just get one or the other on a long-term basis. In some cases, and I've actually seen this, Nicole, with mental health and some of my customers, that really high EPA can be extremely effective and fairly quick. And so in the short term, I think sometimes that can make sense. Over time, you know, having a good dose of both probably makes the very most sense because you're nourishing the widest range of areas of the human body.

And, you've mentioned a couple of times, and I think it's critical that if there's a time that someone should be uber concerned about omega-3s, it is pregnancy and nursing. Because we have these amazing studies showing how critical it to the brain development and ocular development, everything else of that baby and the child. huge, huge factor. And at that time of life, DHA, you know, probably should be the dominant oil. Now, naturally, in what's called fish body oil, that's the most typical fish oils that are going to be on the market that come from things like anchovies and sardines and things, like this versus cod liver oil which is the other kind of big one that is out there.

You are gonna see a ratio shift, right? Cod liver oils higher in the Dha. Fish body oils higher in EPA, generally, unless they've been manipulated in some way. Why might someone consider cod liver oil specifically versus fish body oil or vice versa, would you say? Absolutely and I'm glad that you mentioned that because cod liver oil essentially in nature is naturally rich in DHA, but also contains EPA and also naturally

EPA vs DHA and Choosing the Right Formula 24:20

occurring vitamins A and D3, which really provide an effective synergistic benefit from pregnancy and beyond. So this is really where the whole omega-3 supplementation world really started is the classic award-winning cod liver oil. However, individuals that might be looking for that higher dominance of EPA, as you mentioned, anchovies, sardines, mackerel, herring, in nature have a much higher dominance of EPA as a fatty acid profile in comparison to DHA, which is what you would commonly find in the Old Tomato Mega, for example, and that also provides a different ratio.

Old tomato Mega provides about a 2 to 1 ratio of EPA to the Dha, for basically anybody looking to supplement with omega-3 fats because it has that healthful ratio of both fatty acids. But that cod liver oil is unique because is a single source just from the liver of the cod. It is sourced from Lofoten Island in Norway which does again provide that higher DHA than EPA and naturally occurring vitamin A and D3. So great choice for that individual looking for higher dha. Awesome. I like that. And one of the interesting things, and I know there's research on this, but again, I didn't come prepared with studies, But maybe you've got something you can share with us.

Way back when, when I was a teenager and we were just, well, even before that, When I as a little kid working in this store, cod liver oil was the option. And there was one brand that was pretty much dominating the market back then. And the thing that people came in for it for primarily was actually people that were struggling with arthritis and inflammation issues, and they had great results with cod liver oil. So I'm curious what we know about the inflammation, joint health, those types of things when it comes to cod, liver, oil versus fish body oil, is there a preference there?

So when we're looking at the main difference, just any consumption of omega-3s will be beneficial. Just making sure we are getting enough to our cell membranes. Now if we were being very specific to supporting inflammatory states or the modulation of it, I would specifically look for a higher dominance of EPA in comparison to DHA that can really target the support of our immune cells to support the modulation of inflammation and create homeostasis and basically the balance at a cellular level. So both or any omega-3s is a great choice, but I will opt for that higher dominant of the EPA to help support inflammation modulation.

Okay, so then in your brand, that would be one of the ultimate Omega options would make the most sense because of that two to one ratio. And also for people unaware of, the brand ultimate omega is a more concentrated form than just a typical Omega three. So there's less capsules to take. Now you even have stronger versions of ultimate, Omega. There's some that are considered even like a one or two a day, which is nice. What about, I talked about cod liver oil, talked, about fish body oil. Another one that we get a lot of questions about and I'm sure you've got an opinion on is krill oil?

What do we know about this? Cause it gets a of what I would consider to be, it's a little hypey in terms of how people talk about it. What's your take on it as far as the science and what you have seen? Of course. So krill oil and the reason why a lot of individuals compare it to fish oil is because they consume it essentially for omega-3 fatty acids. The main issue that I see with kril is that it's very low typically in EPA and DHA, which is essentially what we are lacking in the Western diet. But krille oil was very rich in phospholipids and astaxanthin.

And while they are great nutrients, we don't typically tend to be deficient in phospholipids or astaxanthin. And, while it can be a great choice, We typically are not getting enough of the necessary nutrients EPA and DHA. That is why we do take an alternative to fish oil that is in the natural triglyceride form to ensure that we are getting adequate amounts. Now phospholipids of course can increase absorption which is why we do also at Nordic Naturals have formulas that have an increased absorption with herring roe to increase the amount of phospho lipids but alongside our award-winning fish oil.

Okay. So I hadn't asked you about that before, but we come out on the same page there. Krill oil has some real health benefits for sure. The phospholipids are great. Astaxanthin is a fantastic antioxidant for Sure. And it does have some omega-3s, But when you look at the dosage, the potency, and you Look at research and then you mentioned something at The very beginning, I think is really important, Nicole. The body of research with fish body oil and cod liver oil is, it's massive. It's almost unparalleled in nutrition, right?

And yet we have kind of the newcomer to the market, so to speak, in the krill oil that has a little bit of a research and the research is pretty compelling. There's some good stuff there. But for me, until we, have something that is. a little more rock solid that would indicate that krill oil is somehow superior. When you look at the price versus the potency and the body of research, I err on the side of fish oil all day long over krille personally. So that's where I come out on it. What about Quality.

Now, of course, you know, anybody I talk to that has a fish oil company that they represent is going to tell you that. They've got great quality stuff. I will say that if you were here or you weren't, I would tell people what I tell. People in my store every day, when people ask Nordic Naturals is a great, quality fish, oil that runs through all of the key, testing and verification and all that kind of stuff, if guys are doing it right. There are other great brands in the industry. We don't just carry Nordic Naturals here at Vitality, we carry other brands as well.

But the big question I always get is, well, what about the stuff at Walmart or Costco or Target or whatever versus the staff that's in your health food store? And then the, the challenge with that is always, you know, when people ask the person selling the thing, if their stuff is the best. People are saying their stuff is the best. So help us understand, is there an actual difference in quality, potency or purity, any of those things from the kind of premium brands of fish oil versus the less expensive brands?

Absolutely. I mean, not all fish oil is created equal and the way that it is manufactured is absolutely critical. So one of the main areas that I always love to mention with Omega 3 is ensuring that is a wild-caught fatty fish source. that it is manufactured in-house under conditions that essentially are protecting the volatile omega-3 fatty acids, which is why we here at Nordic Naturals are so committed to delivering the world's most safe and effective nutrients that are essential to health. One of our biggest competitive advantages is that we utilize nitrogen throughout our entire process, from fishing vessel to finished product, to ensure the freshness and the palatability of our oil.

Now, the second biggest competitive advantage of us here at Nordic Naturals is that every single one of your formulas is delivered in its natural form of fat. Most customers that are looking for Omega-3 fatty acids are even unaware that the difference in fat even exists, so they're not necessarily looking this information on their product label. But 98% of dietary fat is found in the natural triglyceride form. The only other 2% is cholesterol and phospholipids. So it's giving your body the fats in a way that it is used to recognizing it.

Even algae, that is nature's original source of marine omega-3s, EPA and DHA, it provides it in the natural triglyceride form. Now, when we're talking about high concentrated products, as we've been talking throughout the afternoon, we see two different forms of concentrated fish oil, either the intermediary ethyl ester or the reesterified triglyceride, and that's one of our biggest competitive advantage. Even our high concentrates have gone through the reassertification process to ensure that even our high concentrates are delivered in their natural form of fat.

So that individuals that are seeking these higher doses well over that 2000 milligrams can still ensure, that they're getting those fats in the natural superior form. Excellent. And then do you have a recommendation? Cause this is another question that I get quite a bit as to when people should take their Omega-3 with meals without morning, evening. So definitely always alongside a healthy meal, definitely, always helps for digestion and absorption. Now, there is no standstill science on the perfect time to consume omega-3 fats, but there are many practitioners in the industry at a global level that do suggest that around the afternoon, usually around lunchtime, can be the most beneficial to support the best digestion an absorption, All right.

Fair enough. Okay. I think those are most of the questions I wanted to ask. Let's jump into our furry friends here. Nordic Naturals has a really cool and unique line of omega-3 based supplements for pets. And, you know, cats and dogs primarily is, what we're going to talk about here, although I, think omega threes can be beneficial for horses and a variety of other animals as well. What do we know about omega three's and our pet's health? Yeah, so you briefly mentioned it. I mean, just like humans, both dogs and cats need omega-3 fatty acids to basically support their health span.

So basically, as we were mentioning, Just like human health, we have both DHA or EPA dominant rich formulas. And depending on what we're trying to support, We can choose either omega 3 pet, higher in EPA, or the cod liver oil higher-in-DHA. So for pets, for example, it can support puppy trainability, their fur and coat in comparison to maybe that higher dominance of EPA to support equally inflammation modulation to, support joint health, which is critical as senior dogs age, as well with cats, joint, health digestive health.

Both EP and DHA support every cell of both dogs and cats, just like humans, which is why we do have a variety of Omega-3 products that are made with the same award-winning fish oil made for humans just simply without any of the additives, for example, the flavors and ensuring that they contain nothing like

Quality, Absorption, and Taking Omega-3s 35:40

xylitol or any et cetera that might be harmful for pets. All right. Excellent. Yeah. And we've already had, I've got, you've, got a chew that I got. A customer that's been shopping with us for my goodness, probably 25 or 30 years has an old dog. and this, and now I'm trying to remember the name of the chew, but they started buying it. probably six months ago, eight months or something like that when we first started carrying it. And they said it's made a huge difference in their dog's ability to just get up and run around and not looking as old, looking a lot more spry since he's been eating those.

So certainly something that can be very, very useful for your pets as well. So you are doing something that I just found out about five minutes before we hit record. And as soon as I found about it, read up on it and talked to you about for a couple of minutes, I decided, Hey, we're going to participate in this at Vitality Nutrition. It's called your coastal cleanup program. Let's wrap up by talking a little bit about that. What are you doing over at Nordic Naturals as far as that goes? We are absolutely thrilled to be participating in the California Coastal Cleanup Commission.

It is a way to clean up our oceans and waterways and ensuring that at least once a year we meet with local organizer to help clean out the beaches. We've decided to make it bigger and better than ever before by helping our stores participate into our California coastal cleanup contest where they're able to set different ad displays in their stores in order to win a trip to California to actually come clean up a local beach here in Southern California. And our winners will also be able get the opportunity to get an exclusive behind the scenes peek of our San Diego manufacturing facility where we do our liquid soft gel bottling encapsulation as well as our very own gummy manufacturing.

So it's a really great way to show that we are committed to the health of our oceans and for future generations to come. Very nice. Yeah, we're excited to participate. I mean, you know, there's probably a thousand plus stores that are going to participating in this thing. So we'll see if we win. But overall, the idea is let's do our part, to keep things clean, especially the ocean needs all the help that we can give it when it comes to cleaning things up. We're definitely excited take part in that.

And then you mentioned gummies. we are not going dwell on it too much, but I will say this, Nicole, You probably never heard me talk about this before. But I tend to bag on gummies a lot because a lotta the gummys in the supplement industry have some real issues. One is, in many cases, they're putting things in a gummy that need more milligrams than they can fit in gummy. And then, aotta times, the gummies are made with things that... aren't particularly healthy for you in the first place. There's a lot of issues with gummies and yet there are good gummys on the market.

A lot a good gummy's on market it's just a mixed bag like everything else and so I just want to throw this out there for people listening if you're looking for good quality gummi's in terms of the the nutrient content that's in the gummy, actually getting something in there at a high enough dose that it's going to help you. The flavor profile, because you guys are so good with that. Your gummies all taste delicious and not having a bunch of negative ingredients that you don't want. Then if you are reaching for gummys, Nordic Naturals, definitely one of my favorite brands when it comes to gummiess.

They've nailed all those things. Good quality, good taste, no junk. So that is a good option for you as well. And I don' t know that anybody does kids' omegas. better or more diversely than you guys do them. You've got so many different options from gummies to liquids that actually taste pretty good to a variety of different chewable things, including even little chewables, soft gel capsules and things like that for DHA. And one more thing, because I thought about it 10 minutes ago and forgot to mention it, but I want to throw it in before we wrap this show up.

you mentioned kids and brain health and attention and focus and all these things. I have a real concern with kids in our world today. They're malnourished, not in the way that you think of, you know, starving kids and third world nations, but in so many other ways, they're Malnurse because of everything from the soil to processed foods and all these different things. Nutrition is a really problem for kids these days and brains need nutrition, specifically brains that are still growing, right? That haven't fully developed yet.

And yet the first thing off the list is often a pharmaceutical to try and help with focus. And these are pharmaceuticals that have a myriad of potential issues associated with them. One thing that I would like to close with, and then I'll get your opinion on this too, Nicole, is that if you are trying natural things for your kid's brain health and for focus and attention and things like that, it does oftentimes end up being a little bit of a longer game. We have to nourish the brain for a while for the, brain to kind of catch up and get what it needs, especially with omega-3s.

Omega-3 for Pets and the Coastal Cleanup 40:40

I see a lot of people giving up after a month on an omega 3 saying, I don't think it's really helped much. Please give it more time. The worst case scenario with your child is they're going to be healthier because of it. Best case scenarios, you're going to see some real benefit in terms of how their brain is actually functioning and how they're able to retain information and focus and all that kind of stuff. What have we seen, Nicole, with research and omega-3s in the developing brain in term of the amount of time and the potency that kids need?

Yeah, I mean, that's one of the key areas where we're looking, where you not only mention they're the pickiest eaters, so naturally, they are not getting enough of nutrients needed. And even interestingly, in the research, majority of positive data supporting omega-3s for school-age years are even sometimes as low as 650 milligrams of combined EP and DHA, showing support to attention, learning, and focus. So in reality, as you mentioned, it's maybe majority of us are just not getting enough of these nutrients and turning even to a zero sugar gummy that provides 600 milligrams of total omega-3s can be a great choice for many parents to ensure that kids are getting an adequate amount to support the main key areas.

We look at the CDC, they state that some of the most common reported behavioral symptoms in school-age children is attention, learning, and focus. And the majority of research supporting a higher than 650-milligram dose of omega-3s says it supports school age years with attention learning focus and retention of information. Yeah. And what are we seeing as far as studies? Are these 12 week studies, 16 week study, six month studies. You know, that kind of thing, because that's one of the biggest things, it is really those two things.

Not giving your child enough and not giving it a long enough time to see the results. So what have you seen as the length of studies on average, I guess? Yeah, so on average, the majority of these studies do take place between three months to about nine years. So this is why we really kind of have to hang our hats on the randomized clinical trials, which are the gold standard in scientific research where we can really see that differentiator in time or dose. We can see the effectiveness of that result or conclusion within the study.

Yeah, and that's why I always tell all parents that ask me, give it at least a few months. You're not going to hurt your kid with Omega-3. It's going be good for them regardless of whether or not you see it right away on the report card or any of that kind of stuff. But really play the long game with it. it's really, really important for their brain. And if we can do things naturally without resorting to pharmaceuticals, of course, that going to be in the best interest of the child, at least in my opinion.

So, all right, Nicole, thank you so much for your time. Do you have anything else that you'd like to add before I let you go? The last thing that I would love to ad is that we are actually now the most studied brand in EFA category. We are very proud that as science advances, we're proud of that journey. we now have over a hundred published studies, solely on our Omega 3 products. Oh, awesome. Well, that's amazing. And again, you guys, to a very large degree are pioneers. Things changed for the better in Omega-3s when Nordic Naturals came along and kind of raised the bar for other brands.

I've always respected that and appreciated that. That's one of the reasons that we've carried Nordics Naturall for all the years. They've been on the market pretty close anyway. Thank you so much for your time, for you expertise. Love to have you on again and maybe dial in on a specific thing like cardiovascular or mental health or something like that down the road. But I think this was a really good show and hopefully people learned a lot from it. Thank You. Absolutely. And for everybody listening, thank you for listening and for supporting this show with your time and your ears.

A quick reminder, we are officially finally on YouTube. By the time this Show airs, will probably have been on for a few months, but I'm letting everybody know. Because we did get into the YouTube game a little bit late, I would love, even if you're not going to watch it on Youtube on the regular basis, you are just listening on your app. If you don't mind jumping over there and hitting subscribe, We are doing some fun things with little short videos with snippets of information that we think are very valuable as well as the full show.

If you'll go over there and support that, we'd greatly appreciate it. Share the videos, that kind of thing. It will really help us to grow the audience. And of course that means the world to me. In the meantime, if you have any questions, you can call us 801-292-6662. That's 801292-6662. or jump on our website, vitalitynutrition.com. We'll have links to all of the items that Nicole mentioned there. If you want to check out the pet stuff, the kids stuff the cod liver oil, The Ultimate Omega and so on, they'll all be there for you as well.

Until next time, I'm Jared St. Clair and this has been Vitality Radio. Thanks for listening to the Vitaly Radio Podcast. If this episode helped you, follow the show, share it with someone, and explore trusted education and resources at vitalitynutrition.com. See you next time. Hello, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this week's episode of Vitality Radio. Just a reminder that this podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast has not been evaluated by the FDA. Thank you.