Ninety-nine percent (99% ) of the population is living completely unaware of—and ignoring—what I believe is one of the most important health markers in modern-day life.
Sometimes I don’t even have the words to express how frustrating this is.
I’m not sure what it will take to get people to recognize its importance.
The level of ignorance surrounding this is at an all-time high. And when I use the word ignorance, I’m not trying to insult anyone. I mean it in its literal sense:
Most people simply don’t know.
And perhaps even more troubling, many physicians aren’t talking about it either.
People go to their doctors and have their cholesterol checked. They check blood pressure. Blood sugar. Hemoglobin A1c. Triglycerides. Maybe vitamin D.
All important.
But there’s another story being told inside the body that most people have never seen.
And it is happening at the level of our cells.
That’s where this starts to sound almost like a conspiracy theory.
But I don’t believe it is a conspiracy.
I believe we’re dealing with massive blind spots in modern health.
Blind spots physicians may miss.
Blind spots patients don’t know exist.
Blind spots involving information sitting in scientific journals that may never become part of the everyday health conversation.
And you can’t act on information you’ve never been given.
One of the biggest blind spots, in my opinion, involves fatty acids that literally become part of the membranes surrounding our cells. Omega-3 fatty acids are components of the phospholipids that form cell membranes, and these fatty acids also serve as building blocks for signaling molecules involved in cardiovascular, immune, endocrine, and other biological functions.[1]
More specifically, I’m talking about the balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids—and our levels of the long-chain omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
Yet ask the average person:
What is your omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio?
They don’t know.
What are your EPA and DHA levels?
They don’t know.
What is your arachidonic acid (AA)-to-EPA ratio?
They don’t know.
And here’s the crazy part:
Most people have never been told they should know.
That’s what I can’t get past.
This Isn’t About Taking a Fish Oil Supplement or Eating More Fish
I want to make something clear from the beginning.
This conversation is much bigger than taking a fish oil supplement or simply eating more fish.
When most people hear “omega-3,” that’s where their mind immediately goes.
“I take fish oil.”
“I eat salmon.”
“I eat fish a few times a week.”
That’s not where my mind goes.
I think about the cell.
I think about what is actually showing up in your blood and becoming part of your cell membranes.
Because what you consume and what ultimately shows up in your body are not necessarily the same thing.
The National Institutes of Health notes that omega-3 status can be measured in blood, including through red blood cell fatty acids, which reflect longer-term intake.[1]
So the question shouldn’t simply be:
“Are you getting enough omega-3?”
The better question is:
“What does your blood say?”
You can tell me you take fish oil.
You can tell me you eat salmon three times a week.
You can tell me you eat healthy.
But I still don’t know your fatty-acid status.
That’s why we test.
Test. Don’t Guess.
And now we have research that makes this conversation even more interesting.
A 2026 Study Changed the Conversation
In 2026, researchers published a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial examining what happens when healthy adults consume different amounts of linoleic acid (LA), the major omega-6 fatty acid in the modern Western diet.[2]
One group consumed a diet providing approximately 2.5% of calories from LA.
The other group consumed approximately 10%.
The intervention lasted 12 weeks, and 52 participants completed the study.[2]
And here’s what happened:
The higher-LA diet markedly lowered EPA.
Let that sink in.
Interestingly, arachidonic acid did not significantly increase.
EPA decreased.
The researchers also found reductions in eicosatetraenoic acid (ETA), while docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) was significantly lower at weeks four and eight. DHA did not significantly differ between the groups.[2]
Because EPA fell while AA did not, the AA-to-EPA ratio increased.
The researchers also examined oxylipins—biologically active lipid mediators derived from fatty acids.
Higher LA intake increased the ratio of AA-derived to EPA-derived oxylipins, shifting the lipid-mediator balance toward what the authors described as a more omega-6-dominant inflammatory profile.[2]
For years, much of the seed-oil debate has focused on a question:
Does eating more LA raise AA?
This study raises another question entirely:
What if we’re overlooking what higher LA intake does to EPA?
Because in this randomized controlled trial, higher LA intake markedly suppressed it.[2]
And here’s another detail that should get our attention.
The researchers noted that the modern Western diet typically provides approximately 6% to 9% of total calories from LA.[2]
The high-LA group consumed 10%.
We’re not talking about some bizarre amount completely disconnected from modern eating.
We’re talking about an amount approaching what people can encounter in today’s food environment.
Why Does Lowering EPA Matter?
This is where I believe we need to start connecting some dots.
Not inventing dots.
Connecting what different areas of research are telling us and asking better questions.
EPA isn’t simply a number printed on the back of a fish-oil bottle.
EPA and other fatty acids participate in the production of signaling molecules that influence inflammatory and immune processes.[1]
So if higher LA consumption can significantly suppress EPA, I want to know:
What are the potential consequences of chronically having too little EPA relative to omega-6 fatty acids such as AA?
Because when you start looking through the scientific literature, this relationship keeps showing up.
But before we get into individual conditions, I think we need to look at something even more fundamental.
Maybe This Is the Biggest Blind Spot of All: The Cell Membrane
The more I study this, the more I keep coming back to something even more fundamental.
The cell membrane.
Every cell in your body is surrounded by a membrane.
Your brain cells.
Your heart cells.
Your skeletal muscle cells.
Your liver cells.
Your immune cells.
Every organ.
Every tissue.
Every system.
And fatty acids are structural components of those membranes.
Omega-3 fatty acids such as EPA and especially DHA become incorporated into membrane phospholipids, where they can influence membrane structure, flexibility, signaling, and other cellular functions.[3]
Think about what that means.
We tend to separate health into categories.
Brain health.
Heart health.
Metabolic health.
Inflammation.
Immune health.
Eye health.
Aging.
Recovery.
But underneath all of those systems are cells.
And surrounding those cells are cell membranes.
That’s why I have a difficult time thinking of an area of health where maintaining healthy cell membranes wouldn’t matter.
I’m not saying balancing fatty acids prevents or treats every disease.
I’m saying something much more fundamental:
Healthy cells matter whether you’re trying to stay healthy or you’re already living with a health condition.
And healthy cell membranes are part of healthy cellular function.
That brings us back to what may be the biggest blind spot of this entire conversation.
Our Biology Didn’t Change. Our Diet Did.
For most of human evolution, humans consumed omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in a much different balance than we typically see today.
Published scientific literature has estimated that humans evolved consuming these essential fatty acids at approximately a 1:1 ratio.[4]
Think about that.
Approximately:
1:1.
Then our food environment changed.
Over time, particularly with changes in the modern Western food supply, omega-6 intake increased substantially while intake of long-chain marine omega-3 fatty acids remained comparatively low.[4]
Published estimates have described the modern Western dietary omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio as approximately:
10:1 to 20:1—and sometimes 20–25:1.[4]
One scientific review described the shift as approximately 1:1 during human evolution to 20:1 or higher today.[4]
Stop and think about the magnitude of that change.
Our genetics didn’t suddenly change.
Our cells didn’t suddenly become something different.
Our food environment changed.
And it changed incredibly fast when viewed through the lens of human evolution.
That’s why I keep coming back to the same question:
What are the biological consequences of creating a fatty-acid environment that is dramatically different from the one in which human biology developed?
I don’t think we’ve fully answered that question.
But I believe we should be asking it.
And I’ve Seen Ratios That Are Hard to Believe
Here’s where this becomes even more real for me.
I’ve seen the test results.
I’ve worked with people whose fatty-acid balance wasn’t 3:1.
It wasn’t 5:1.
It wasn’t 10:1.
I’ve seen people at 20:1, 30:1, 40:1, and considerably higher.
And yes, I have personally seen individual test results exceeding 100:1.
That’s not a claim about the average American.
That’s what I have personally seen in individual people I’ve had tested.
When I see numbers like that, I can’t help but ask:
What is happening at the cellular level?
What does that fatty-acid environment mean for the composition of the cell membrane?
What does it mean for the availability of EPA and DHA?
What does it mean for the lipid signaling molecules produced from these fatty acids?
What does it mean over 10 years?
Twenty years?
Forty years?
And what happens when that imbalance exists alongside obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, chronic stress, poor sleep, physical inactivity, smoking, environmental exposures, or genetic susceptibility?
Those are the questions I want researchers, physicians, health professionals, and everyday people asking.
Because this isn’t simply about preventing one disease.
And it isn’t simply about someone who already has a diagnosis.
It’s about the biological environment surrounding our cells every single day.
That’s why I believe this may be the overarching health blind spot.
We spend enormous amounts of time talking about diseases after they appear.
Maybe we should spend more time asking what kind of environment we’re creating for our cells before disease ever develops.
And if someone is already living with a health condition, healthy cellular function doesn’t suddenly stop mattering.
Quite the opposite.
The cell is where health happens.
And the cell membrane may be one of the most overlooked places we should be looking.
Then Came the Alzheimer’s and Dementia Research
A 2026 study examined fatty-acid profiles in two large groups of older adults.[5]
Researchers analyzed 3,327 participants from the German Study on Aging, Cognition, and Dementia and 1,679 participants from the Multidomain Alzheimer Preventive Trial.[5]
They didn’t simply ask whether people consumed omega-3.
They examined the omega-6-to-omega-3 relationship.
A higher omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio predicted greater risk of progression to Alzheimer’s-type dementia beyond omega-3 levels alone.[5]
A higher ratio at baseline also predicted faster cognitive decline.
And perhaps one of the most interesting findings was this:
When the fatty-acid ratio improved over time, cognitive decline was slower.[5]
Now put these two pieces of research next to each other.
One tells us that the omega-6-to-omega-3 relationship provided information about cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer’s-type dementia.[5]
The other is a randomized controlled trial demonstrating that increasing dietary LA can markedly suppress EPA and increase the AA-to-EPA ratio.[2]
How is this not a bigger conversation?
That’s another blind spot.
And It’s Not Just the Brain
Once you start looking, these fatty acids show up in research involving health problems that may seem completely unrelated.
Take dry eye disease.
Why would fatty acids have anything to do with your eyes?
Yet researchers have studied omega-3 fatty acids in people with dry eye disease.
A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis examined 19 randomized controlled trials involving 4,246 people with dry eye disease.[6]
Compared with placebo, omega-3 interventions produced significant improvements in dry-eye symptoms and several clinical measurements.
The researchers also found that a higher percentage of EPA in the intervention was associated with greater reductions in dry-eye symptoms.[6]
Think about that.
We just discussed a randomized controlled trial showing that higher LA consumption suppressed EPA.
Then we find EPA appearing in research involving something seemingly unrelated like dry eye.
How many people struggling with dry eye have ever had their EPA measured?
That’s another question worth asking.
Another potential blind spot.
What About Menstrual Cramping?
Here’s another example.
Researchers have investigated long-chain omega-3 fatty acids in women experiencing painful menstrual cramps, medically known as dysmenorrhea.
A systematic review and meta-analysis examined 12 studies involving 881 women.[7]
The studies provided between 300 and 1,800 milligrams per day of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids for two to three months.
The meta-analysis found a large reduction in menstrual pain.
And among the studies that measured pain-medication use, 86% reported reductions.[7]
Again, my question becomes:
How many women experiencing severe menstrual cramps have ever heard about this research?
How many know their EPA and DHA levels?
How many have ever been told that fatty-acid status could even be something worth investigating?
I’m asking why so few women know the research exists.
That’s another blind spot.
How Do Women Not Know This?
And then we get to menopause.
This is one of those studies that makes me stop and ask:
How do women not know this?
In a randomized controlled trial involving 84 postmenopausal women experiencing at least two moderate-to-severe hot flashes every day, participants were randomly assigned to either a dietary intervention or a control group.[8]
The intervention included a low-fat vegan diet and ½ cup—86 grams—of cooked whole soybeans every day.
After 12 weeks:
Moderate-to-severe hot flashes decreased by 88% in the intervention group, compared with 34% in the control group.[8]
Eighty-eight percent.
That’s not a small improvement.
That’s dramatic.
And 50% of the women who completed the intervention reported no moderate-to-severe hot flashes at all by the end of the study.[8]
I want to be scientifically accurate.
The women didn’t simply add ½ cup of soybeans to whatever they were already eating.
They followed a low-fat vegan dietary intervention that included the soybeans.
So we cannot assign the entire 88% reduction to soybeans alone.
But that’s not my point.
My question is:
How many women going through menopause have ever even heard about this research?
How many women are waking up throughout the night?
How many are struggling with hot flashes at work?
How many are uncomfortable, exhausted, and frustrated?
And how many have absolutely no idea that a dietary intervention this straightforward has been studied in a randomized controlled trial and produced results this significant?
How do women not know this?
That’s the blind spot.
The information exists.
The study was published.
The results are available.
Yet the average woman going through menopause may never hear about it.
You can’t act on information you’ve never been given.
There’s Another Blind Spot We Need to Talk About: Black Health
Before I go any further, I want to make something very clear.
This is not just about Black people.
Everything I’ve discussed throughout this article affects people of every race and ethnicity.
Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids don’t belong to one racial group.
Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t belong to one racial group.
Stroke doesn’t belong to one racial group.
Cancer doesn’t belong to one racial group.
Menopause doesn’t belong to one racial group.
Dry eye doesn’t belong to one racial group.
This conversation is about all of us.
I’m highlighting Black Americans for a specific reason:
The health disparities are too significant to ignore.
Sometimes a disparity acts like a magnifying glass.
It forces us to look more closely at questions we should probably be asking about everyone.
And as an African American, this part of the conversation is personal for me.
Look at Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, older Black Americans are approximately twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia as older White Americans.[9]
The same report states that almost two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s are women.[9]
Those are two different statistics, and I don’t want to combine them into a claim the research doesn’t make.
But together they should make us pay attention.
Black Americans carry a substantially greater burden of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and women carry a greater overall burden of Alzheimer’s disease.
Then remember the study we just discussed showing that the omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio predicted cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer’s-type dementia.[5]
That makes me want to ask another question:
What do fatty-acid profiles look like in populations carrying the greatest burden of this disease?
That question deserves more attention.
Look at Stroke
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the risk of experiencing a first stroke is nearly twice as high for Black adults as it is for White adults.[10]
Black adults are also more likely than White adults to die from stroke.[10]
Again:
Nearly twice the risk of a first stroke.
And when we look specifically at middle-aged women, the disparity becomes even harder to ignore.
CDC data found that among adults ages 45 to 64, stroke death rates for Black women ranged from two to five times higher than rates among other racial and ethnic groups across different regions of the United States.[11]
Two to five times higher.
That’s not a small difference.
That’s a health disparity that should make all of us ask more questions.
Look at Cancer
The CDC reports that Black Americans have the highest overall cancer death rate compared with other racial and ethnic groups.[12]
Black Americans also have a lower overall five-year cancer survival rate than White Americans and are more likely to be diagnosed at a late stage with female breast, lung, and colorectal cancers.[12]
That doesn’t mean fatty-acid status explains those disparities.
It means the disparities are real.
And when we’re trying to understand why some populations are carrying such a heavy burden of chronic disease, I believe we should be willing to investigate every reasonable and measurable piece of the puzzle.
And Now Look at Black Women and Menopause
This one really gets my attention.
The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) has followed women through the menopausal transition and documented significant racial differences in vasomotor symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats.
Black women experienced vasomotor symptoms for an average of approximately 10 years.
White women?
Approximately 6.5 years.[13]
Frequent and bothersome vasomotor symptoms were each about 60% more likely among Black women than White women.
Black women also had roughly three times the odds of consistently reporting vasomotor symptoms from premenopause through postmenopause compared with White women.[13]
Now stop and put that beside what we just discussed.
We have a randomized controlled dietary intervention in which moderate-to-severe hot flashes decreased by 88%.[8]
And we have Black women experiencing some of the longest and most persistent menopausal vasomotor symptoms.[13]
So I’m going to ask it again:
HOW DO BLACK WOMEN NOT KNOW THIS?
That’s another blind spot.
But again, I don’t want a White woman, Hispanic woman, Asian woman, Native American woman, or any other woman reading this and thinking this section isn’t about her.
It is.
The intervention doesn’t suddenly matter only because the disparity is larger among Black women.
The disparity simply gives us another reason to pay attention.
That’s the bigger point.
This Is About Everyone—But Disparities Should Make Us Look Harder
The real question isn’t:
“What’s happening to Black people?”
The bigger question is:
“What are we overlooking in human health—and could overlooking it be hurting some populations even more than others?”
That is a very different question.
Older Black Americans are approximately twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia.[9]
Black adults have nearly twice the risk of experiencing a first stroke.[10]
Black women ages 45 to 64 have experienced stroke death rates two to five times higher than other racial and ethnic groups in different regions of the country.[11]
Black Americans have the highest overall cancer death rate.[12]
Black women experience a particularly high burden of menopausal vasomotor symptoms.[13]
Those statistics demand attention.
But the health blind spots I’m discussing affect all folks.
Whether you’re Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, or anything else, I want you asking the same questions:
What is my omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio?
What are my EPA and DHA levels?
What is my AA-to-EPA ratio?
What does my blood actually say?
Because this isn’t about separating health by race.
It’s about recognizing that some populations are experiencing a much larger burden—and asking whether there are overlooked pieces of biology that deserve more investigation in everyone.
Now I Have an Even Bigger Question
Throughout this article, we’ve been looking at emerging and established research involving fatty acids, inflammation, cognition, and other areas of health.
So I want to know:
What are the fatty-acid profiles of Black Americans?
But I also want to know the fatty-acid profiles of White Americans.
Hispanic Americans.
Asian Americans.
Native Americans.
Everybody.
What are our omega-6-to-omega-3 ratios?
What are our EPA levels?
What are our DHA levels?
What are our AA-to-EPA ratios?
How many Americans have ever had any of these things tested?
And here’s the bigger question:
Could fatty-acid imbalance be another overlooked piece of a much larger chronic-disease puzzle?
And within that bigger puzzle:
Could it be one of many factors worth examining when we study health disparities?
Those are questions.
Important questions.
There are many known contributors to racial and ethnic health disparities, including differences in healthcare access, socioeconomic conditions, neighborhood and food environments, chronic stress, discrimination, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, smoking, physical activity, and other factors.
Those realities don’t disappear because we begin investigating another piece of biology.
And identifying those factors shouldn’t stop us from asking whether there are additional measurable and potentially modifiable variables we haven’t been paying enough attention to.
Especially when we’re learning that higher dietary LA can markedly suppress EPA.[2]
Especially when we’re learning that the omega-6-to-omega-3 relationship may provide information about cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer’s-type dementia.[5]
Why wouldn’t we want to know?
Why wouldn’t we test?
This Is Where It Gets Personal for Me
After more than three decades working in health and nutrition, there’s something else I’ve experienced.
The Black community can be one of the toughest communities for me to reach with this message.
That frustrates me.
But I’m not interested in blaming people.
I’m interested in understanding why.
Is it trust?
Access?
Cost?
Too many conflicting health messages?
Is it because the healthcare system has historically given Black Americans legitimate reasons to be skeptical?
Is it because health information isn’t always communicated in a way that feels relevant to our lives and our families?
Or is it simply another version of the same problem I’ve been talking about throughout this entire article?
You can’t act on information you’ve never been given.
Whatever the answer, there’s something I don’t want to accept.
I don’t want another generation of Black families learning about important health information only after the diagnosis.
Not after the stroke.
Not after diabetes has progressed.
Not after cardiovascular disease.
Not after cognitive decline.
Not after Alzheimer’s disease.
Not after cancer.
But I don’t want that for anybody’s family.
Black families aren’t the only families who deserve this information.
Every family does.
Every community does.
Every person does.
I want all of us asking better questions before those moments arrive.
What is my blood pressure?
What is my blood glucose?
What is my fasting insulin?
What is my hemoglobin A1c?
What is my omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio?
What are my EPA and DHA levels?
What is my AA-to-EPA ratio?
What does the total picture of my health actually look like?
Because these statistics aren’t simply numbers.
They’re our mothers.
Our fathers.
Our sisters.
Our brothers.
Our grandparents.
Our children.
Our families.
And if another health blind spot is sitting right in front of us, I want everybody to know about it.
I want us to investigate it.
I want us to measure it.
And I want us to understand it.
The More I Look, the More Blind Spots I See
Maybe that’s what this article is really about.
Blind spots.
Health blind spots.
Things researchers have discovered that physicians may not routinely discuss and the average person has never heard about.
Things that could potentially influence someone’s health or dramatically improve someone’s quality of life, yet somehow never become part of the everyday health conversation.
That’s what I find so crazy.
How do people know their cholesterol but not their omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio?
How do people spend hundreds or thousands of dollars every year on supplements without knowing their EPA or DHA levels?
How do people take fish oil for years without testing whether it’s actually changing their fatty-acid status?
How are we debating seed oils while a randomized controlled trial demonstrates that higher dietary LA can markedly suppress EPA?[2]
How are we spending billions trying to understand Alzheimer’s disease while research is telling us that the omega-6-to-omega-3 relationship may provide important information about cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer’s-type dementia?[5]
How are women suffering through severe hot flashes without ever hearing about a randomized controlled dietary intervention that reduced moderate-to-severe hot flashes by 88%?[8]
How are Black Americans carrying some of the largest burdens of Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and cancer while many of these health conversations still aren’t reaching the people who may need them most?[9–13]
And how many other blind spots are sitting right in front of all of us?
These are the questions that bother me.
I’m not blaming physicians.
Doctors have an enormous amount of information to keep up with, limited time with patients, clinical guidelines to follow, and an ever-growing body of medical research that no human being could possibly read in its entirety.
I’m also not blaming the public.
You can’t act on information you’ve never been given.
But somewhere between scientific discovery, medical practice, and public health education, important information isn’t always making it through.
And that’s a problem.
Because sometimes improving health doesn’t begin with discovering something new.
Sometimes it begins with finally seeing what we’ve been overlooking.
Now Think About Modern-Day Living
Humans need both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
This isn’t about eliminating omega-6.
Linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid.[1]
We need it.
But our food environment has changed dramatically.
Soybean oil.
Corn oil.
Sunflower oil.
Safflower oil.
Processed foods.
Restaurant foods.
Salad dressings.
Sauces.
Mayonnaise.
Snack foods.
Packaged foods.
People can consume substantial amounts of LA without ever realizing it.
At the same time, many people consume relatively little EPA and DHA.
And now we have randomized human evidence demonstrating that higher LA intake can markedly lower EPA.[2]
Maybe the modern omega-3 conversation has been incomplete.
We’ve spent decades asking:
“Are you getting enough omega-3?”
Maybe we also need to ask:
“What in your diet may be working against your EPA status?”
Those are not the same question.
And Almost Nobody Knows Their Numbers
Think about everything we measure.
Cholesterol.
Triglycerides.
Blood pressure.
Blood glucose.
Hemoglobin A1c.
Vitamin D.
Thyroid hormones.
Testosterone.
Estrogen.
People wear continuous glucose monitors.
Smartwatches monitor heart rate.
Rings track sleep.
We count steps.
We track calories.
We track protein.
Yet ask someone:
What’s your omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio?
They don’t know.
What’s your EPA level?
They don’t know.
What’s your DHA level?
They don’t know.
What’s your Omega-3 Index?
They don’t know.
What’s your AA-to-EPA ratio?
They don’t know.
And most have never been told these numbers can even be measured.
That’s the blind spot.
There is also an important scientific point here.
Some researchers have argued that the total omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio by itself can be too broad a measurement because very different fatty acids can produce the same numerical ratio.[14]
That’s another reason I don’t want people focused on only one number.
I want to know the actual fatty-acid profile.
EPA.
DHA.
The Omega-3 Index.
AA.
The relationships between these fatty acids.
Don’t assume. Measure.
Maybe We’re Asking the Wrong Question
People constantly ask me:
“What supplement should I take?”
“What should I eat?”
“Should I take fish oil?”
“How much omega-3 do I need?”
Those aren’t bad questions.
But there’s a question that should come first:
Where are you right now?
Because until we know that, we’re guessing.
You wouldn’t evaluate blood glucose without measuring it.
You wouldn’t evaluate high blood pressure without measuring blood pressure.
You wouldn’t know whether your vitamin D was low without testing it.
So why are we comfortable guessing about our fatty-acid status?
Especially when these fatty acids become part of our biology.
This Is the Hardcore Truth I Wish More People Understood
Omega-3 isn’t a miracle.
Omega-6 isn’t poison.
Seed oils don’t explain every chronic disease.
And one blood test doesn’t tell us everything about someone’s health.
But I do believe this:
Fatty-acid status matters.
We have randomized human evidence that higher dietary LA can suppress EPA.[2]
We have research showing that the omega-6-to-omega-3 relationship may provide information about cognitive decline and progression to Alzheimer’s-type dementia.[5]
We have clinical research involving omega-3 fatty acids and dry eye.[6]
Menstrual pain.[7]
Inflammatory signaling.[1,2]
And we have nutrition research producing results such as an 88% reduction in moderate-to-severe menopausal hot flashes—information countless women may never hear about.[8]
Then we have clear health disparities.
Older Black Americans are approximately twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia.[9]
Black adults have nearly twice the risk of a first stroke.[10]
Black women ages 45 to 64 have experienced stroke death rates two to five times higher than other racial and ethnic groups in different regions of the United States.[11]
Black Americans have the highest overall cancer death rate.[12]
Black women experience a particularly high burden and longer duration of menopausal vasomotor symptoms.[13]
Those disparities should make us curious.
But they should not make anyone else feel excluded from this conversation.
All of this is impacting all folks.
I’m highlighting Black Americans because the disparity is impossible to ignore—not because the underlying health questions belong only to Black Americans.
This should make researchers curious.
It should make healthcare professionals curious.
It should make the Black community curious.
And it should make every community curious.
What else are we missing?
Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of people walking around today have absolutely no idea what their fatty-acid profile looks like.
That’s what I find so astonishing.
We’re spending enormous amounts of money trying to optimize health while potentially overlooking some incredibly fundamental information.
And maybe that’s why this sometimes feels like a conspiracy theory to me.
Not because I believe somebody is secretly hiding the information.
But because once you start reading the research, it’s difficult to comprehend how some of this information can remain such a massive blind spot.
The information exists.
The science exists.
The tests exist.
But you can’t act on information you’ve never been given.
I don’t want you to take my word for it.
I don’t even want you to assume that because you eat healthy, take omega-3, or eat fish that your numbers must be good.
Find out.
Measure your fatty acids.
Know your EPA.
Know your DHA.
Know your Omega-3 Index.
Know your omega-6-to-omega-3 ratio.
Know your AA-to-EPA ratio.
Because when something can be measured, we don’t have to guess.
And perhaps years from now, we’ll look back at this period in health and wonder how we measured almost everything—
except what was happening in the fats that were becoming part of our cells.
Sometimes the information that can change our health isn’t hidden.
We simply haven’t been told to look for it.
Test. Don’t Guess.
Ready to Stop Guessing?
If you’ve read this far, I hope one message is clear:
Knowing what you eat or what supplements you take is not the same as knowing what’s happening inside your body.
That’s why I keep coming back to the same three words:
Test. Don’t Guess.
If you’d like to learn more about the BalanceTest and BalanceOil+, contact the person who shared this article with you. They can explain how the test works, what it measures, and how the results can help you better understand your fatty-acid status.
You can also contact me directly at robert@dietfreelife.com.
And if you’ve already decided you’re ready to test and take action, you can learn more and order the BalanceOil+ Premier Kit with BalanceTest using the link below.
I recommend choosing the Lemon Orange Mint flavor.
https://www.zinzino.com/shop/2015067525/us/en-us/products/premier-kits/910465
Don’t assume your numbers are good because you eat healthy.
Don’t assume they’re good because you eat fish.
Don’t assume they’re good because you already take an omega-3 supplement.
Find out.
Because once you know where you are, you can make more informed decisions about where you want to go.
Test. Don’t Guess.
References
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- National Institutes of Health, Office of Dietary Supplements. (2025). Omega-3 fatty acids: Fact sheet for health professionals. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- Sergeant, S., Easter, L. H., Mustin, T., Ivester, P., Legins, J. A., Seeds, M. C., Standage-Beier, C. S., Cox, A., Furdui, C. M., Hallmark, B., & Chilton, F. H. (2026). Effect of dietary linoleic acid intake on eicosapentaenoic acid status and lipoxygenase-mediated oxylipin biosynthesis in healthy adults: A randomized controlled trial. Nutrients, 18(11), 1814. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18111814
- Hishikawa, D., Valentine, W. J., Iizuka-Hishikawa, Y., Shindou, H., & Shimizu, T. (2017). Metabolism and functions of docosahexaenoic acid-containing membrane glycerophospholipids. FEBS Letters, 591(18), 2730–2744.
- Simopoulos, A. P. (2011). Evolutionary aspects of diet: The omega-6/omega-3 ratio and the brain. Molecular Neurobiology, 44(2), 203–215.
- Andrade, V., Kleineidam, L., Wagner-Thelen, H., Ballarini, T., Campos-Martin, R., Martino-Adami, P., Tripathi, K. P., Guyonnet, S., Vellas, B., Scherer, M., Maier, W., Pentzek, M., Schmid, M., Riedel-Heller, S., Weyerer, S., Bickel, H., Wiese, B., Egert, S., Wagner, M., & Ramírez, A. (2026). Prediction of cognitive outcome and progression to dementia using ω6-PUFA/ω3-PUFA ratio. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 22(6), e71590. https://doi.org/10.1002/alz.71590
- Wang, W.-X., & Ko, M.-L. (2023). Efficacy of omega-3 intake in managing dry eye disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 12(22), 7026. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm12227026
- Snipe, R. M. J., Brelis, B., Kappas, C., Young, J. K., Eishold, L., Chui, J. M., Vatvani, M. D., Nigro, G. M. D., Hamilton, D. L., Convit, L., Carr, A., & Condo, D. (2024). Omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids as a potential treatment for reducing dysmenorrhoea pain: Systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Nutrition & Dietetics, 81(1), 94–106. https://doi.org/10.1111/1747-0080.12835
- Barnard, N. D., Kahleova, H., Holtz, D. N., Znayenko-Miller, T., Sutton, M., Holubkov, R., Zhao, X., Galandi, S., & Setchell, K. D. R. (2023). A dietary intervention for vasomotor symptoms of menopause: A randomized, controlled trial. Menopause, 30(1), 80–87. https://doi.org/10.1097/GME.0000000000002080
- Alzheimer’s Association. (2026). 2026 Alzheimer’s disease facts and figures. Alzheimer’s Association.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). Risk factors for stroke. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- National Center for Health Statistics. (2024). Regional differences in stroke death rates among adults ages 45–64: United States, 2002–2022. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025). Cancer and African American people. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
- Harlow, S. D., Burnett-Bowie, S.-A. M., & Greendale, G. A. (2022). Disparities in reproductive aging and midlife health between Black and White women: The Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Women’s Midlife Health, 8.
- Harris, W. S. (2018). The omega-6 ratio: A critical appraisal and possible successor. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids, 132, 34–40.
__________
Robert Ferguson is a California- and Florida-based single father of two daughters, clinical nutritionist, Omega Balancing Coach™, researcher, best-selling author, speaker, podcast and television host, health advisor, NAACP Image Award Nominee, creator of the Diet Free Life methodology, and Chief Nutrition Officer for iCoura Health. He also serves on the Presidential Task Force on Obesity for the National Medical Association and the Health and Product Advisory Board for Zinzino, Inc.
🗓️ Schedule a FREE consultation with Robert Ferguson about becoming a client: SCHEDULE FREE CONSULTATION
👉🏽 To order the BalanceOil+ with the BalanceTEST, > CLICK HERE
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