You may remember from previous talks, but it’s a fact worth repeating that the greatest cause of death, not just in the United States but the whole world, the leading cause of death is heart disease, heart attacks and strokes. Decades ago, researchers observed that fishing communities, like you guys have heard of the Mediterranean diet, all those people who live around the Mediterranean Sea, fish is a big part of their diet. A lower amount of meat, a higher amount of fish, lots of vegetables, lots of fruit, a little wine, that’s the Mediterranean diet. Nuts, seeds and beans, don’t forget the beans.

Cholesterol is part of every cell in your body

It was understood and linked that Omega-3 consumption has a lot to do with the lowering of cardiovascular disease. How does it work? What is the impetus for that? First of all, there’s a balancing act that goes on with your cholesterol. This is a topic too big for this one video, but cholesterol is your friend. Cholesterol is part of every cell in your body. Without cholesterol, you would not be alive. Cholesterol does many, many functions, has many different actions on the cellular level chemically, and it’s very important that cholesterol is in balance with your body. Where people get into trouble with cholesterol is by eating, guess what, processed food? Yes, the trans fats, too much-saturated fat, and too many carbohydrates, which is another word for sugar that, guess what, it turns into fat inside your body. That’s the fat that you don’t want. You don’t want the fat that comes from carbohydrates. The good fats are anti-inflammatory in nature and help us with our immune system to have that balancing act.

What is the immune system?

The immune system is a guard against invading pathogens that are attacking the body, coming in on a daily basis. This happens every day, all the time, pandemic or no pandemic. There are pathogens, there’s a virus, there are bacterias. Your immune system has this incredible ability to ward off those pathogens and stop them in their tracks. It’s called natural killer cells.

Omega-3’s are critical and they’re essential

Omega-3 provide that inflammatory response in the immune system while tampering and tapering it down with the anti-inflammatory response of not overdoing it. What happens when your immune system overdoes it and goes wild? That’s called an auto-immune disease, where the immune system is actually attacking you, attacking your body. You want to attack the bad things that are coming in, keep them at bay, keep them subdued. At the same time, you want that healthy benefit of the cholesterol. That’s the first item to take note of about cardiovascular disease. Congratulations on your journey to optimal health. Over here, we have the knowledge library where you are welcome to dive in and keep learning.