Reading your fatty-acid results

A fatty-acid report is short, but it’s easy to read too much into a single number. Here is what the main values describe.

Omega-6:3 balance

How much omega-6 you have relative to omega-3. Both are fats your body needs. The ratio reflects the overall balance of the fats you eat: seed oils and processed food on one side, oily fish and some seeds on the other. Researchers debate how much weight to put on the ratio on its own.[source pending]

Omega-3 Index

EPA and DHA as a percentage of all the fatty acids in your red blood cell membranes.[source pending] It is one of the most widely used measures of omega-3 status.

The wider profile

The report also lists other fatty acids and compares them with reference values. These help put the two headline numbers in context.

Illustrative example

Someone with a ratio of 9:1 and an Omega-3 Index of 5.8% would usually start by looking at where omega-3 comes from in their week, and where omega-6 comes from. Not a real person’s result.

What the numbers don’t say

They don’t diagnose anything, and they don’t say whether you are healthy or ill. If a value is outside the lab’s reference range, or you have health concerns, talk to your GP.

Next step

One test is a snapshot. The value comes from understanding it, making a few changes, and retesting to see whether they worked.

Sources

1. [source pending] Source needed: review discussing the usefulness and limits of the omega-6:3 ratio as a marker
2. [source pending] Source needed: original definition of the Omega-3 Index (EPA + DHA as % of red blood cell fatty acids)