The Real Story Behind Omega 3’s - An Interview with Dr. Hans-Thomas Richter
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Introduction to Omega-3's: The Real Story Behind Omega-3's
Many of us have heard of omega-3’s and know they’re good for us. Perhaps you’ve already added an omega-3 supplement to your daily routine.
If you have - good on you!
But, did you realize that not all omegas are the same?
I sat down to have a candid discussion with an expert in omegas who transitioned from biomedical researcher to a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine about this very topic.
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An Interview with Dr. Hans-Thomas Richter
Me: Today you’re in for a special treat because I’ve got a very special guest with me today - Dr. Hans-Thomas Richter. Dr. Richter is a seasoned practitioner and researcher in the field of traditional Chinese medicine and nutritional science. He transitioned from biomedical research to natural medicine and now owns and operates Nature Works Therapeutics and the wellness resource Omega3 Health.
Dr. Richter's Journey: From Biochemistry to Chinese Medicine
Dr. Richter: Yeah, thanks for inviting me. I’m excited about talking omega-3’s and Chinese medicine.
Me: Perfect. Well, there’s so many interesting things that I would like to talk with you about today. So we’ll see how much we can cover. But first, if you don’t mind, I would like to hear a little bit about your origin story. You’ve had a very impressive career spanning both research and natural medicine. So if you could take us back to the beginning, tell us a little bit about your journey and what motivated you to move from traditional biomedical research into Chinese medicine.
Dr. Richter: Yeah, I grew up in a traditional biochemistry study field in Germany. I ended up doing my PhD at University Irvine, California, the actual research in the lab over there. Then I basically found myself in a corporate job in, literally, pharmaceutical industry drug discovery. It was more basic research, and very interesting. I was one of the first researchers to get a high resolution structure of a membrane protein similar to the redoxin in your eye, which was very difficult to do at that time.
And that was exciting work. Then, having a rather stressful job in the corporate America pharmaceutical industry, I basically made a 180 turn into an alternative rotation. Now, I’m happy at what I’m doing and I’ve been practicing Chinese medicine for close to 14 years now.
Recently, I added stem cell therapy and natural form of stem cell therapy. And very recently, for the last three years, omega-3s. I wrote a book last year about omega-3. And actually, in the introduction of the book, I write that the first thing I did in 1985 was isolate arachidonic acid, which is the inflammatory omega-6, in the lab - on one of the first Microsoft computers that crashed all the time. It was very interesting. Obviously at that time, they were after another NSAID, ibuprofen, and weren’t interested in nutrition.
So, I found myself 35 years later, not really understanding - not having a clue about what omega-3 really does in your life. And it made a full loop because, as a membrane researcher, I realized what is the definition of life. It’s always DNA and reproduction, right? But that’s not really true.
What is life is basically the separation of the outside and the inside of the cell. So when you control what goes in and what goes out, then you really have something. And that’s what the early forms of life did. Nevertheless, you can’t control that without omega-3.
The Importance of Omega-3 in Human Health
So I found myself writing this book because we are in the biggest health crisis since we were invented as humans, about 200,000 or 300,000 years ago, arguably, we were hunters and gatherers. And that brings us to an omega-6 to -3 index ratio of 1:1, eating grass-fed, grass-finished cows. That’s what they do to a grass fed cow now a days - put them on a feed lot. And getting back there seems to be impossible because even traditional fishing countries like Norway and Japan are now testing over 10:1 inflammatory.
Recently, a couple weeks ago, I actually tested an Alaskan fisherman. I live in Seattle, or near Seattle. And he tested 24:1 inflammatory. So the situation is very, very bad. In my opinion, this test is on the top of all inflammatory markers and it’s the biggest crisis that it is not part of regular Western blood work testing.
Me: So just to clarify, you were mentioning people testing 24:1. I just want to make that clear to the audience. You’re referring to the fact that their omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in the blood is currently 24 parts omega-6 to one part of omega-3. Is that correct?
The Impact of High Omega-6 Ratios
Dr. Richter: Yeah, that is correct. I could show that on my website if I share this screen, but it’s actually very simple. Most people will test with about 12 to even over 14% arachidonic acid in their (cell) membranes. And you have to test for the membrane. That’s what we do with the red blood cell membrane.
It’s sort of like your A1C test. It’s a measure over time. It’s a mirror of everything that happens in every cell in your body. The interesting part is the red blood cells exchange every four months.
The test, however, we know it takes three years to improve and to get yourself back down to a level of 2:1. So again, the membrane tests with up to 14% of arachidonic acid. That is, by definition, the inflammatory omega-6.
Me: I was just going to ask - what is the challenge with that? Why might someone be concerned about having too much omega-6 compared to omega-3?
Dr. Richter: Yeah, again, it’s about this ratio. So no cell dies in your body anywhere. I mean, when you exercise, muscle cells are dying, just by regular turn over. The message is that now most people in the US are over 25:1 inflammatory.
That means the arachidonic acid does its job for days, for weeks, for months. It never stops. Basically, there’s no counterpart. So arachidonic acid produces icosinoids, which are PGE2. Their message is to turn on inflammatory macrophages over and over and over. So the inflammation never gets turned off.
Previously, 200,000 years ago, within 24 hours, you’d have omega-3 turning on the counterparts - the series 3 icosinoids. There’s a lot more to omega-3 than just inflammation, but that’s basically the name of the game.
So that turning off switch - I also call it the kill switch - is not there. That’s why people have chronic inflammation. It’s very interesting when I practiced Chinese medicine for 10 years, I realized there’s a few things missing with that. Number one was your essence - we call it the gene, which is your stem cell contingency. And now we can replenish that, but there was still something else missing, which was constant. We call it Yin deficient heat. That is chronic inflammation, which is different from acute inflammation.
Yin is the substance, by definition, and that’s what omega-3 is. By being 90% deficient, you create that chronic inflammation, and that’s what the Chinese recognized very early on. They call it Yin deficiency. So Chinese medicine makes perfect sense to me. And I’m hoping to be able to get back into balance myself within two and a half years. Now, over 10% of my membrane is omega-3.
Again, to go back to the numbers, most people, are 14% arachidonic acid versus 2% omega-3. That’s a normal test, and that gets you a ratio of 1:25. That’s a dire, devastating situation.
Now my own membranes are over 10% omega-3. And I can tell for myself that I’m a totally different person. I wouldn’t know where to start. For once, I never get sore again - it’s very crazy. I have no more excuse to not exercise. I can chop a cord of wood, whereas before I would be out for two weeks with back pain.
And by the way, before I did this, I had a year of terrible back pain as an acupuncturist. It’s not something you can justify, right? Once, I was even out for a week. - I couldn’t get out of bed twice. So I’m convinced that 95% of all back pain is inflammatory gout. That’s an internal problem that has literally nothing to do with your spine or your disc condition. Does that make sense to you?
Omega-3s and Cognitive Health
Me: Oh, completely, completely. And, as a neuro-nutritionist, this is an area - omega-3s and omega-6s - that I deal with a lot with my clients. So that’s great that you’re bringing this to the forefront on a much greater scientific level.
But just for the audience, what are some of the challenges or major challenges that you’ve seen in being Yin deficient or in having too much omega-6 compared to omega-3 fatty acids in the cell membranes?
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The Yin-Yang Balance and Health Implications
Dr. Richter: Yeah, it’s sometimes hard to bring Chinese medicine on the level of bio-medicine, but we’re getting there. I write in my book, actually, the Yin and Yang of fat.
Fat has both aspects. It has Yin and Yang. Yang would be the functional metabolic aspect. And it’s only when they’re both in balance, that you can achieve health or a state of health, which Western medicine calls homeostasis.
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Insulin and glucagon are one example. Too much insulin means too low blood pressure. Too much glucagon means too high. There’s always a balance. Everything’s a balance. So when it comes to Yin deficiency, to me, it’s clear now that it’s a hormonal molecular deficiency, so it could be anything. But it basically all starts again with that chronic inflammation, which causes what we know as Metabolic Syndrome.
These are all related diseases - diabetes, hypertension. And it has a lot to do with your liver function. Chinese medicine pays a lot of attention to liver function. And it has a lot to do with kidney function, too. Chinese medicine is closely related to your adrenals. So people burn out their adrenals, then end up having a chronic situation of Yin deficiency. And that also then leads to chronic inflammation.
So actually, when I look at regular blood work of people, I always look at the kidney values now. By the time they’re elevated, when Western medicine rings the bell, it’s too late. So when they start creeping up, you have to be concerned because kidneys are the only organ you cannot fix. The liver regenerates, even the heart does, at 5% per year.
So once you balance your omega-3, and your heart is not as inflammatory anymore, and it can make plenty of ATP in the mitochondria, you’re in pretty good shape.
Again, that’s the reason why people have heart disease. It’s, first of all, your cardiovascular state. What state your arteries are in. Second of all, can your heart make any energy?
But the kidneys, they’re the fine capillaries. Once they’re destroyed, you’re in trouble. So I always look at people’s blood work when the BUN or the creatinine creeps up, you have to be very, very concerned.
Me: And what symptoms might someone be experiencing that is indicative of a potential kidney issue or deficiency of some kind? What symptoms might somebody see if they don’t have that blood work in front of them?
Dr. Richter: Yeah, that’s a tough one because again, there’s a discrepancy between Western medicine and Chinese medicine. The problem is there aren’t a whole lot of symptoms.
Your blood pressure goes slightly up. That’s the first sign. And you could even have kidney infections or general imbalances in the mineral metabolism in your blood. But in Chinese medicine, we can feel the pulse. We can look at signs in the ear. We put things together in a different way and it’s much more exciting. So I can tell the state of the kidney, far prior to any blood work. But it’s not a perfect system. It requires a lot of experience and a lot of hard work to be good at that.
And I’ll tell you, the general problem with medicine is that everything is on a bell curve. What does that mean? So, you know, 90% are within 90% of a bell curve. What about the other 10% on either side? It’s a big problem because that’s when the real problems start and you might be an outlier. So you always look at the full picture and try to prevent being an outlier.
Me: Got it. All right. And the book that you are referring to on omega-3s, that is called Nourish and Flourish, correct?
Dr. Richter: Mm-hmm.
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Nourish and Flourish
Me: It’s been very well received. If you were to bottom line it for us, what is the main hope that you would like readers to take away from that book, Nourish and Flourish?
Dr. Richter: I am so excited you’re asking that question! So, first of all, hardly anybody reads a book anymore - a full book. So, I wrote the book in what I would say is an almost new genre, with Huckleberry Finn as a background story to make it more interesting for the average person. Not so boring or scientific.
I’m almost done with my new book on stem cells, which is very, very scientific. It’s hard to read for the average person. So, this should be easier to be read by anyone. It’s targeting a much, much bigger group. You can look at the table of contents and pick out something you like, whether it’s heart disease or whether it’s dementia. One chapter is called, “Dementia starts early in the life” - an interesting thing to know because every 3 seconds, somebody turns into dementia now.
And in my opinion, it’s the most devastating disease. It’s worse than cancer. I mean, if you lose your mind, it’s a tragic situation. And I have patients where once it’s too late, it’s very, very difficult to fix.
Most people don’t have the resources to fix it. We can get the stem cells into the brain now, break the blood brain barrier. There’s actually a new magnesium supplement that I’m excited about with elemental magnesium. There’s two of them.
I’m also convinced that dementia can be fixed with omega-3. But how long does it take when you’re 70 years old, to really exchange your neurons, which are basically supposed to be made for life? You might be able to improve their function, but once there is a big destructive area in your brain, it’s much, much harder to fix than, for example, a heart attack.
So you pick out those topics you like, and then just ask me - go to my website and have a conversation. And again, for me, it was a shocker to see that we’re 24:1 inflammatory. What does that mean? For most people that’s news. People have heard - okay I have to take fish oil. But why is this a big topic? It comes back to that same thing over and over - why is Western medicine not testing for this?
If they would be testing for it, we wouldn't have this conversation.
Me: Absolutely. Yeah. And that is one particular area of focus and interest of mine - that brain health component, trying to prevent dementia, working at all these different things. So I am personally particularly interested in how omega-3s can support cognitive function and mental well-being. So could you share your insights on how perhaps omega-3s can influence cognition and mental health?
Dr. Richter: Yeah, it’s very interesting. My mental state, I’m noticing now, is kind of like a buzz. I never noticed that before. And I’m way more non-reactive. It just feels like my neurons are firing on all cylinders.
And kids are testing at 50:1 now. We don’t really know why, but it has to do with epigenetics and screen time.
Me: Wow.
ADD and Autism: Diseases of Inflammation
Dr. Richter: And that’s the reason for ADD and - your name it. If you look at an ADD diagnosis, what really is that? It’s a brain that is working on less than 5% function. And we know that diseases like this and autism are all related to inflammation.
It’s just that nobody can actually put their finger on it. I am in contact with a lot of MDs. Most of them basically don’t understand even the slightest thing about this test. They’re not trained to do it, they’re not willing to change anything. They literally cannot think outside the box. So I’m in contact with a lot of stem cell physicians who are MDs.
The American Association of Stem Cell Physicians is a great group of MDs that really does different things like ozone, for example. There are modalities that have been practiced for 100 years.
This morning, I was working on the introduction again of my stem cell book. I can nail it down - the first article on using amniotic membrane to 1909 - published in the Journal of American Medical Association. And basically what has changed in 115 years of treating wounds?
I had a patient here, this actually goes into my book, with a diabetic ulcer that wouldn’t heal for two months. So we injected it with a stem cell sample. It’s not really stem cells anymore, but that’s a whole topic for another session. He was on the omega-3s, but he stopped it because his doctor told him to. I have many older patients, as well, whose doctor tells them not take it. There’s actually a smudge campaign right now going on with omega-3s. So the narrative and studies coming out are false and misleading. And they contain rancid oil and and drug esterified omega-3 with side effects.
Me: Damaged oils.
Dr. Richter: So this person that I treated, his ulcer wouldn’t heal for two months. And you know, within a week, you can see it healing. And within about five or six weeks, it’s almost closed now. So that is the situation.
Why, since 1909, was this wound not treated with a simple freeze-dried, amniotic membrane? We’re not even talking about stem cells - 115 years later.
Me: Wow. And something like that kind of therapy might not be accessible to most people. But taking a quality fish oil or omega-3 supplement certainly is. So that’s nice to know that even though some people don’t have access to practitioners like yourself, they can still support themselves and their health and work at inflammation reduction using a quality omega-3 supplement.
Omega-3: The Easiest Biohack
Dr. Richter: Omega-3 is, I always say, is the cheapest biohack there is. You can’t get any cheaper. So for $42, a little more than a dollar a day, you get all your health back.
But it takes time. If you stop after a year, you achieve nothing. If you keep going, you will see the effects. Guaranteed. Again, medicine is on a bell curve. And I always deal with the outliers. We always say we’re at the bottom of the totem pole here as practitioners. And that’s not easy. So you have to stay with it. Then you will see the effects and the blood work will show it. We can prove it in the test that your membrane will be saturated with omega-3.
And yes, part of the problem is that the manufacturers don’t care. They put out rancid products. Every single pill with omega-3 is rancid. So it’s a devastating situation.
There are only 3 products in the world that know how to stabilize omega-3. It’s a very, very fragile molecule. They test the omega-3 in the fish but they don’t do any tests like putting it on the shelf a year later or even a month later. So unless you test your own blood, how would you know what you’re doing is working?
I have plenty of tests from Costco brands of omegas and a prescription drug that costs people a lot of money, and estrified omega-3, but it still gets you 60% EPA deficient. So the narrative against it is very strong.
We have to go back to the studies. The Journal of American Medical Association just published a 24-week study on osteoarthritis. You expect osteoarthritis that you’ve developed for two decades to go away in 24 weeks? Plus they’re not even using the WOMAC index. All they do is ask people how do you feel?
So what makes a standard in osteoarthritis? You can quantify the cartilage with MRI techniques and you put that into the index. This is hard science - it’s not just asking people do you feel any better? Does your knee feel better? They don’t even consider that - and that’s the Journal of American Medical Association’s 24-week trial concluding omega-3 doesn’t work.
But guess what they used as the placebo control? Vegetable oil.
Me: Oh - okay.
Dr. Richter: And the vegetable oil they used is the one that’s laden with omega-6. So that’s a study we’re up against. And and it goes against the narrative. That’s the study an MD will read.
Me: Yeah. And you mentioned that there were three products in the world that can stabilize those omega-3s. Are you able to share what those are?
Dr. Richter: Oh absolutely. So there’s a southern hemisphere product “Biotics." They actually use southern fish and those tests were fantastic. However it does contain artificial antioxidants which I don’t like - acetal palmitate - so I personally do not recommend that.
Then, on the shelf here, “Nordic” gives you the best results from what I’ve seen, however it’s expensive and it still leaves you EPA deficient.
Then there are some products in Europe - “Ecology” and “Norsan,” but I still don’t like the antioxidant that they’re using.
So my favourite one is “Zenzino,” a Swedish company which basically uses polyphenols in a 30x concentrated form.
Think about why the Mediterranean diet so incredibly successful - it’s the polyphenols in the olives. That’s part of it, but it's also very balanced and happy. The polyphenols are unbelievably powerful because of the multitude of antioxidant groups that they contain.
The company Zenzino figured out how to stabilize the omega-3 which comes from Iceland and is sustainably farmed. That’s another issue about turning vegan. It’s a very interesting discussion, but maybe at a later point.
So, in any case, this is, in my opinion, the most powerful sample there is. It never turns rancid. I can leave that bottle open for months and it will not turn rancid.
Me: Wow. And where can people access that product? I know it’s not one that my health food store shelves.
Dr. Richter: Yeah, and that’s a bit of a turn down for some people. It is a direct sales product because it takes so much effort to educate. But it does come with the testing. It’s third party anonymous testing done in Norway by a separate lab.
There are labs you can independently test as well here. Lab Corp does that. But you have to watch out and test for the membrane, not the liquid blood. In any case, I love this product because it comes with this independent test for very cheap. You want to know your starting value, and you want to know that you’re getting better.
Me: A lot of people require that data to move forward and to provide that motivation. And you need to know what your starting point is. As with everything else, you need to know what your blood pressure is. You need to know what your A1C is, and everything else. This is no different. We need to know what our baseline ratio of omega-6 to -3 is so that we understand why we’re doing what we’re doing and what we can do to make it better.
Dr. Richter: Yea. Most people that I see do know some of their blood work but what does it really tell you in the end? Okay, so my A1C is going up - now what? Sure, I can change my diet. I can cut out sugar and carbs, then maybe prevent diabetes, but once your kidney values go up, as I mentioned earlier, it’s already too late.
And when do they really look at inflammatory markers like CRP or some of the really important antibodies? It’s a situation that has to be fixed but we can only educate one patient at a time. So most people, when they see their tests that we provide with us at Zenzino are pretty convinced and it means something to them. The results are relayed using traffic light colours - red, green, and yellow. It’s all explained on my website, omega3health.us. You can easily understand it. It just screams your inflammatory index.
But again, look at the real values - like how much Eric Dunning has. He has less than two and a half percent omega-3. That’s the situation we’re dealing with. It’s actually very interesting how the human body is built so incredibly resilient that we are still sitting here with that little amount of function. And there’s so much more that omega-3 does. It’s not just about inflammation. Every single channel in your nervous system - potassium channel, receptors…
I don’t know if I mentioned this, but when we solved the structure of the redoxin we actually had to build the lipids into the structure otherwise we couldn’t solve it. It’s a mathematical problem. If you don’t have enough electron density, you can’t solve the structure.
That wasn’t my idea, but once my professor did that, you could solve this structure. It was something that, even though now there was a lipid in there, it didn’t mean anything at that time. Now, it’s all crystal clear to me.
If you look at the mitochondria, for example, they have an inner and outer membrane. It’s a double membrane. All of that ATP energy carrier gets made on the inner membrane, and it makes huge loops on the inside. The outside is pretty flat, and the inside makes giant loops that needs to be extremely flexible and built into the curvature. That’s what we call membrane fluidity, cannot be done.
These membrane proteins on the surface of the cell, they actually exist on what’s called lipid rafts. We know it from Parkinson’s. There are big studies on lipid rafts that don’t function anymore. Since the proteins can’t exist one by one, they go together in these rafts, floating around - in a big floating raft.
And that’s why I actually use Huckleberry Fin as a background story. It’s so beautiful to think about him floating down that river on the raft. There’s other figures in the book about that.
Me: Nice. First I want to thank you for sharing your valuable insights on all of this. And it’s definitely inspiring to hear your holistic approach. I’m sure that listeners have gained a lot from your expertise. But if someone wanted to contact you directly or learn more, what’s the best way that they could reach you?
Dr. Richter: Yeah, it’s NatureWorksAccupuncture.com or Omega3Health.us. - I’m always available. I have way too much time on my hands and not enough people to challenge me! So, I’m very happy to answer questions.
Me: Okay, amazing. And I will include your contact information with this video in the description below. So is there anything else that you would like to add or anything else that that you would like to let the audience know?
Dr. Richter: Yeah, again, for the average person, it’s so important to challenge the narrative and important to look behind the curtains to make sure you understand that if a study doesn’t have the omega-6 to -3 index in the study, it’s worthless because you do not know that the omega-3 is rancid. So that’s, by the way, why most studies that just look at fish eaters are 100% on. And that's how omega-3 got famous with heart disease. The Eskimos have very low rates of heart disease and very low 6:3 index.
And now we are looking at studies that have no mention of that index. One such study that just came out a few years ago, 700 pages long, is the Cochran review. That’s kind of like the gold standard of medical reviews. But in 700 pages, there was not a single mention of the index. So, we need to try to not make it as not as complicated as it is. But really, it’s not that complicated - it’s an index and that’s all there’s to it.
Once you get below 2:1, you’re fine. And then you just watch what happens. Watch your energy. Watch your clarity. Watch how you deal with other humans. It’s just incredible what omega-3 can do.
Me: Amazing. I love that. Excellent. Well, thank you so much for for being here with me today. And like I said, I will put your contact information below. And if anybody would like to purchase some of those omega-3s that you mentioned that come with a home test they can use to send in their sample to find out what their baseline omega 6:3 ratio is, then, then that would be amazing. I’ll include that link in the description below as well.
Dr. Richter: Yes, thank you, Kelly. That was amazing.
Me: All right. Well, again, thank you so much for your very valuable time. I appreciate you and all of the work that you’ve done. I appreciate it could not have been easy moving from a researcher to someone who deals with…
Dr. Richter: No, and they actually almost kicked me out of Chinese medicine school for six months. But I did make that turn. It’s not easy. No.
Me: No. When you’ve got a very scientific, analytical mind and then you need to look at things from a different lens all the time, it can be quite challenging. But I believe that just makes you a much more rounded, whole person able to see things from an entire perspective as opposed to through a narrow lens. So I definitely appreciate that from you. So thank you very much.
Dr. Richter: Thank you.
Conclusion
That wraps up my interview with Dr. Hans-Thomas Richter. If you’d like to learn more, start a conversation with him, or purchase some quality omega-3 fish oil from Zenzino, you can reach him at:
Omega3Health.us or https://natureworksacupuncture.com/
You can also find him on various social media channels at:
[Medical Disclaimer]
Please consult with your doctor(s) before starting any new mental or physical health improvement program. The advice I offer is not intended to replace that of your medical practitioner. I am not a medical professional, nor am I qualified to diagnose, cure treat, or prevent disease. The advice I provide on this website is intended for a broad and diverse audience, and as such, deals with general lifestyle concepts, not specific healthcare advice. This material disclaims any liability or loss in connection with the advice expressed herein.