08 Nutrition and Vision - a podcast by The InBound Podcasting Network

Did you know that both good and bad fats play a huge role in the development of your visual system and brain? Douglas W. Stephey, O.D., M.S discusses the power fish oil supplements have in changing the course of inflammation in our body and brain. The arachidonic (pro-inflammatory) and eicosapentaenoic (anti-inflammatory) acid levels will be discussed: how to measure them and how to reverse this ratio when elevated.

Douglas W. Stephey, O.D., M.S.

208 West Badillo St Covina, CA 91723

Phone: 626-332-4510

Website: http://bit.ly/DouglasWStephey

Website Videos: http://bit.ly/DrStepheyOptometryVideos

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If interested in producing a podcast of your own, like the Move Look & Listen Podcast, contact Tim Edwards at tim@InBoundPodcasting.com or visit www.InBoundPodcasting.com

Transcription Below

Tim Edwards: The Move Look and Listen Podcast with Dr. Doug Stephey is brought to you by audible. Get a free audio book download and a 30 day free trial audible membership www.audibletrial.com/inbound. You'll find over 180,000 titles to choose from, including several books mentioned here in the podcast. Support the Move Look & Listen Podcast by visiting www.audibletrial.com/inbound. 

Dr. Stephey: If our two eyes are not working together well as a fast synchronized team, our internal mapquest continues to be off. It's consistently inconsistent with our ability to judge time and space. Those that don't feel well-grounded, those that have some measure of anxiety, oftentimes it starts in the visual system. If you can't move, look and listen in a fast, accurate, effortless, sustainable, age appropriate, meaningful way, you're in a world of hurt. There's a whole world in vision and how it affects brain function that no one's ever shared with you. 20/20 is perceived as a holy grail of going to the eye doctor. Well, I'm here to change that paradigm. 

Tim Edwards: This is episode eight of the Move Look and Listen, Podcast with Dr Doug. Stephey. You know, we've talked about a lot of things in this podcast, Dr. Stephey and today we're going to tie in vision and nutrition. So for those that maybe have just stumbled across Apple Podcasts or whatever platform they're listening to their podcast, they're probably wondering, what in the heck do these two have in common? And you've alluded to them several times. You've more than alluded, you've discussed them in detail in several previous episodes. But today we're going into fish oil, right? How fish oil, in particular, or omega-3's can help  your vision and other aspects of your being. 

Dr. Stephey: Yeah, that's right Tim. So let's launch off into this. omega-3's, they are a big deal. There's one theory about human development that goes back, what, 20, 30, 40,000 or so years.   There's one theory that says that when humans started eating the seafood diet, the size of our brain exploded in size. Arguably that's the theory of human development. There's two theories that I've heard about why we have the brains that we do today. One is the amount of mega three fatty acids that we used to eat and the other was man's ability to use tools. Because using tools requires a concept called motor planning and motor sequencing, which ties to that millisecond timing clock that we were talking about last episode. But motor planning and sequencing, it is a platform for speech and language and eye movement control and auditory processing and cognitive abilities. All starting through motor planning and motor sequencing. So omega-3's, as people may or may not know, is the long chain fatty acid associated with fish oil and there's a ratio called the AA to EPA ratio, arachidonic acid to eicosapentaenoic acid levels. And the phenomenal thing about this ratio is that very few physicians actually seem to know or talk about it. And I tell you that because I was in to see my family physician a few weeks ago who didn't seem to know a lot about the AA/EPA ratio . 

Dr. Stephey: I have a couple of brain injury recovery patients in my practice who have gone back and asked their neuro rehab doctors about this ratio. They didn't seem to know anything about it. Another patient of mine had a stroke last summer. She's in her late forties. She went back and talked to her cardiologist about this ratio. He didn't know anything about it but at least was interested to read and I talked to a friend of mine who's an ER physician back in Michigan who didn't seem to know a lot about it. And I'm stunned. 

Tim Edwards: Flabbergasted. I think maybe because like you said, it's a big deal. You talk about brain development and overall health and yet these physicians know nothing about it. 

Dr. Stephey: I remember about probably going back 15, 20 years when I first started to read about omega-3 fatty acid. There was a handful of pregnant women at the time in my practice and I said, hey, has your baby doctor talked to you about omega-3 fatty acids in your diet? 

Dr. Stephey: Like, no, what are you talking about? I'm like, you should be taking  omega-3 fatty acids. You should've been taken them six months before you consider getting pregnant. 

Tim Edwards: The baby doctor was probably talking about folic acid. 

Dr. Stephey: Not omega-3s, and unlike if you don't believe me, just go do a google search for prenatal development and omega-3s. Or infant development and omega-3s. But at the time, this was not being discussed. I'm pretty sure today, most infant formulas have some measurable form of EPA or DHA in them. 

Tim Edwards: Because we're talking about the development of the brain and their unborn child from the get go. 

Dr. Stephey: Yes, I'm telling you if and when my daughters ever decide they're going to have kids. We're having a long talk about lungs. Six months before you need to be up in your omega-3 game in preparation for being a feeding tube for a newborn.  

Tim Edwards: Right.

Dr. Stephey: So omega-6 fatty acids versus omega-3 fatty acids. That's the ratio that we're really talking about today relative to what's happening in our blood and in our body dictated by the food we put in it. And the reality is that between vegetable oils and trans fats and processed foods, we're getting way more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3s. And omega-6 fatty acids are pro-inflammatory and omega-3 fatty acids are anti-inflammatory. And there's a long biochemical pathway that goes from omega-6 fatty acids in our diet to arachidonic acid, that's the pathway. Or omega-3s to eicosapentaenoic acid, which is the anti inflammatory pathway. But now we're talking about what is that ratio in our diet? Well, I suppose the idealistic ratio would be one to one. But three to one or two to one is acceptable and considered still really good. 

Dr. Stephey: So you might have three times as many omega-6s in your diet as omega-3s, but that's still considered good. No, that's better than good. So the Standard American Diet..

Tim Edwards: The SAD diet.

Dr. Stephey: The SAD diet because in so many ways. The sad and pitiful, I'm going to be sick way before my time diet. 

Tim Edwards: And if you don't mind me throwing a plug in for another podcast on the Inbound Podcasting Network, it's the Vibrant Living Wellness Center podcast and we go into the s-a-d or sad diet in great detail. 

Dr. Stephey: I can't tell people to learn enough about it because there is a dearth of information people just don't know. And the more that they learn, the more that they're likely to change their behavior. And if you don't know, some years ago, the church I was going to, the pastor said one day said, "you know what," he said, "I've learned over the years that people aren't likely to change their behavior unless they have enough knowledge that stares them to do so, or they hurt enough that they need to change their behavior. 

Tim Edwards: Great nugget of wisdom for sure. Unfortunately we all wait till we hurt enough. At least I do. 

Dr. Stephey: Well and sadly further is that there are a lot of people today, both in emotional and physical pain that don't have to be, because they don't know this information and they have just come to accept that hurting this much is the way their balance of their life is going to be. And it does not have to be that way. 

Tim Edwards: And so circling back Dr. Stephey, I think I derailed you a little bit and I apologize with my comment about the SAD diet, but you were going into omega-3s and omega-6 and the ratios. 

Dr. Stephey: Yes. So, the Standard American Diet, I read this a couple of different ways now. The typical American has an omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of somewhere between 15 and 20:1. 

Tim Edwards: Wow. 

Dr. Stephey: And it's supposed to be 3:1 or better. 

Tim Edwards: Have you ever had yours checked? 

Dr. Stephey: I did. 

Tim Edwards: Your markers? 

Dr. Stephey: So my story is that I had my, AA to EPA ratio checked in September of 2016 and it was 9.8. Higher than four and less than 10 was considered goods. 

Tim Edwards: So you were borderline good, barely. 

Dr. Stephey: I had convinced myself that, oh look at me, I'm under 10. 

Tim Edwards: A 9.8. 

Dr. Stephey: So I don't really have to do that much about this. 

Tim Edwards: You know what, that's a common tale for most of us. I'm sure. I'm in the range! I'm good! But that was in 2016, right? 

Dr. Stephey: That was in 2016 and I don't know who's the worst patient. The patient who doesn't know what they should be doing and doesn't do it because they don't know. Or me because I know what I'm supposed to be doing and I don't always do it. 

Tim Edwards: That's the worst patient. 

Dr. Stephey: I was hoping you'd get me some slack on it. 

Tim Edwards: I know, but you know what? Because I'm like you. I mean we're all that way. I mean, you know, we like our comforts unfortunately. But they can become deadly. 

Dr. Stephey: Well, you know, here's what I talk about with patients all the time in my practice and then we'll get back really to the topic at hand but this is related to that. Indeed we will definitely get to how this ties into vision, but this is good foundational information. So when you say we like the foods, we like. Well let's be clearer about that. It's not even us that like the foods we eat, it's the bad bacteria in our GI tract. There is a continuous battle in our gut, in the microbiome or the bacterial population that lives there. So that is a good versus evil discussion. 

Dr. Stephey: Bad bacteria loves sugar and simple carbohydrates. There's some research that has made the argument that sugar is more addictive than cocaine. 

Tim Edwards: Yes, I've heard that, read that, discussed that many times before. 

Dr. Stephey: And that proteins in wheat and proteins in dairy act in the brain on the same receptors that opiates do. So when this bad bacteria drives these cravings, it's not even us that really wants that. It's the bad bacteria. And the bad bacteria says to you as it's living host, you know what, I don't care if you get diabetes and lose a limb. I don't care if you get MS or Lupus. I don't care if you have asthma or respiratory disease and need an oxygen tank to carry around. I don't care if you get arthritis as long as you're feeding me sugar and carbohydrates, I'm okay with you being really sick for 40 years. 

Dr. Stephey: That is not right. 

Tim Edwards: No, but we listen to it so we need to stop. Right? But how do we do that? Is it, is the answer in the omega-3s? 

Dr. Stephey: omega-3s I think do play a role in that. And I'll give you an example. So if we talk about that 15:21 ratio, 15 to 20:1 ratio, that means that we're producing way more arachidonic acid in our body than eicosapentaenoic acid, which means that our immune system is highly inflamed. Virtually every cell in our body now is on fire. That is not the way to go about your business. It physically hurt. Your brain hurts. You are more at risk for developing a mood regulating disorder. You're more likely going to have a learning disability. You're more likely going to get diagnosed with ADHD or ADD. This unchecked, runaway, unchecked inflammation is wreaking havoc on us every day and we don't have to have it be that way. 

Dr. Stephey: So to go back to my own story, 9.8, I convinced myself it was pretty good. I wasn't taking enough omega-3s as I should have been. And then I had a physical earlier in the year and I've had some issues with my blood sugar being too high. And I'm like, oh, homies not doing that, no.

Tim Edwards: Yeah, we're not going there. 

Dr. Stephey: So, I decided. 

Tim Edwards: You're talking about potential prediabetic? 

Dr. Stephey: I was beyond prediabetes. My physician said, Doug, you're now type 2 diabetic, and I'm like, no I don't. I'm not doing that. So the first thing I decided was if my omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acid ratio should be less than four to one then I'm on it. And Tim, I started taking six to 9,000 milligrams a day of EPA and DHA. 

Tim Edwards: Now tell me, what is the daily recommended dose? 

Dr. Stephey: Well, that's an interesting question and it's why we're doing this podcast because pretty much you got to have a Ph.D. in fish oil to make any sense out of what the heck is going on and what should I be doing? 

Dr. Stephey: So when you typically go to the store and pick up a bottle of fish oil and and especially if it's a capsule, it's likely going to say serving size is one capsule and one capsule is usually a thousand milligram capsule. So the first discussion that I have with patients is, are you taking an omega-3? Invariably, the answer is no, but on the rare case that somebody is taking an omega-3, I say, how many milligrams of EPA and DHA are you taking? And they say, I don't know. Okay, how many capsules do you take a day? Well, I take one because that's what the bottle says. All right, well I need you to go home and look at your bottle and report back to me in the thousand milligram capsule. How many actual milligrams of EPA and DHA are in that thousand milligrams because you're not taking a thousand milligrams of EPA and DHA. 

Dr. Stephey: I'll tell you that right now because every brand is different. And then I play a numbers game and I say, well, we don't know what you'r AA/EPA ratio is at this point. We could talk about you ordering a test to get it done, but we don't know. But let's say conservatively that you should be taking 3000 milligrams a day. Well, if you were getting a full thousand milligrams of EPA and DHA in that capsule, then you should be taking three capsules a day. But if you go home and your capsule says, oh, this only has 500 milligrams of EPA and Dha, well to get to 3000, you should be taking six of those a day. And if you're a capsule says it's got a 100 milligrams of EPA and DHA in it, then you ought to be taking the 30 of those a day. 

Tim Edwards: So not all fish oil is created equal by any means. 

Dr. Stephey: Oh, good gracious. No, Tim, there are some commercial official products that when you look at the EPA and DHA content, there are no numbers. They just have little tiny asterisk.

Tim Edwards: Oh, boy. So then you're just wasting your money. 

Dr. Stephey: So, my AA/EPA ratio, September 2016 was 9.8 and I mentioned that I got diagnosed recently with type 2 diabetes. That I'm going to reverse and mostly have at this juncture. And it's, we're barely three and a half, four months into the diagnosis. 

Tim Edwards: Right, you were a 9.8 and 10 was the back end of normal. 

Dr. Stephey: 10 was the back end of good. 

Tim Edwards: Back end of good. 

Dr. Stephey: But 3 to 1 or less was ideal. This is where we all should be. So, I up my fish oil intake and within 60 days and I had my retesting done, it came down to 3 to 1. 

Tim Edwards: Oh wow. Amazing!

Tim Edwards: Based upon the appropriate amount of omega-3s that you should be taking.

Dr. Stephey: Yes. Tim, and I'm glad you said it in that manner because it prompted a memory for me and that is what is an appropriate amount? Because people will often, we talk about this in the office and people say, well what should I be taking? I say, what's your AA/EPA ratio? They're like, what the heck is that? And I'm like, well it's this and this is how you measure it. 

Tim Edwards: Yeah. Because the doses cannot be consistent for everybody in any type of medication or any type of supplement. 

Dr. Stephey: Right. 

Tim Edwards: The doses are different. So, the, the first step for someone to find out their levels, their markers is what? 

Dr. Stephey: The first thing to do is get the AA/EPA ratio measured and we'll include a link on a test about how to do that so that you can go read about this test availability and that it's not that hard to get measured. 

Doug Stephey: And the kit that I'm talking about is something that can be sent home to you. You take a fingerstick, collect a few drops of blood and you send it off to this lab and then usually within about 10 days, maybe two weeks, we've got these results back. We've got something tangible to discuss. 

Tim Edwards: Yeah you've got a benchmark to work with and it's, can I say the name of it? 

Dr. Stephey: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 

Tim Edwards: The reason being, because I did it the other day and I'm awaiting my results and I can't wait and this is a service provided through Dr. Stephey. So we'll include a link and then they could just go through you. It's called BrainSpan Laboratories. BrainSpan, cell health assessment. The health of your cells dictate the health of your entire body and we're talking about attention, memory, anxiety and stress, chronic nerve pain and inflammation, weight management and metabolism, soft tissue and musculoskeletal injuries. 

Tim Edwards: I mean this test covers a wide range of markers for us to start from and then once we get the test back, then we can make some adjustments. 

Dr. Stephey: And that's because cellular inflammation affects every cell in our body. And let's go back to the appropriate dosage because as an example, one of the books that I read some years ago called The Omega-3 Connection written by a physician named Andrew Stole. He's a neuropsychiatrist who specialize bipolar disorder. And in his book he said, look, I've done this research. We have patients with bipolar disorder who are on maximum medical therapy who still have wild mood swings until we put them on high dose pharmaceutical grade fish oil at the range of 10, 12, 14,000 milligrams a day. So if you've got a mood behavior disorder, odds are that you need high dose fish oil because of the cellular inflammation. 

Dr. Stephey: Most likely driven by the way that you're eating and that you're getting way too many omega-6s in your diet and your body and brain is on fire. I've got other research that I've read where they took a group of kids, broke them into two. The experimental group and a control group, so they kept them in the same curriculum. The only thing they did, Tim, was to give the kids in the experimental group, 16,000 milligrams of fish oil a day for I think it was 20 weeks and over the 20 weeks I'm not and I'm not telling people to go out and do that much. I'm just telling you this research, but over the 20 weeks periodically, I don't know, at the six and eight week mark, maybe the 14th week mark, 16th and 20th, something like that. They will go back and measure these kids reading skills and the kids on the fish oil their reading outcomes. 

Dr. Stephey: Just start climbing and going through the roof and the only thing they've done is up their fish oil intake. Now the the brain has the second highest concentration of fats in our body. Only behind the retina which has the highest concentration of fats in our body, and that's how this nutrition, omega-3 fatty acid vision piece ties together pretty much every cell membrane in our body is made up of a phospholipid layer, water and fat. And to get nutrients into a cell and waste products out of the cell, it has to go through these cell membranes. And your body's going to make these cell membranes out of whatever fat you consume the most of. So if you're consuming too much of bad fats, the cell membranes in your wall are made of like solid brick instead of the semi-porous membrane that nutrients and waste products can go back and forth between. 

Dr. Stephey: It honestly it isn't any more difficult than what I've just said. 

Tim Edwards: It's very simple for us to understand that the only challenge will be to make the shift, but it doesn't seem like it's that hard of a shift to take the appropriate amount of fish oil. I mean really. It seems like every episode we have this, this crazy astronomical problem and you're like, and we can fix it with this. It's been in front of our face the whole time. Yet we didn't even know it was there. 

Dr. Stephey: And you know, sometimes it's about that simple. Even though the podcast and a lot of what I talk about is Move Look & Listen, what I didn't speak clearly about in that triad is the nutrition piece. But it is a discussion with every patient that I have. 

Tim Edwards: Well it sounds like nutrition is a major component in all three of those triads in that, in that triad. 

Dr. Stephey: Well, it has to be right because if your brain is going to train itself to develop a new skill or a better skill or a skill you didn't have, it can only do that if it's got the nutritional building blocks to be able to benefit from the training or the therapy that you're going to be doing. So yes, there are limits to what my vision therapy protocols can do. If you're eating a really bad diet and you're not willing to change it. Now, I'm not saying you won't make gains, but you won't make the gains that you should have and you won't lead the life that you should have and you won't feel like you should if you continue to eat a crappy diet and don't change those outcomes. And tied to that again, we got to reduce the inflammation in your body and brain. 

Dr. Stephey: We've got to get the good bacteria to out populate the bad bacteria in your GI track and this has wide ranging implications. I don't care if you're 90-years-old and have dementia or Alzheimer's. Or if you're an infant who's just now developing their nervous system, including brain and body and auditory processing and motor controls skills. Yet truly we are what we eat. Dot, dot, dot. We are what we're able to digest. So even if you eat really well, but your GI tract is a train wreck, you're not absorbing what you're eating and your body can't use it and it does not have to be that way. And I am happy to be an agent of change to help you get back on track and know the value of these omega-3 fatty acids and how they affect your brain and vision.

Tim Edwards: Thank you for listening to the Move Look & Listen Podcast with Dr. Doug Stephey brought to you by audible. Get a free audio book download and a 30 day free trial of audible membership at audibletrial.com/inbound. You'll find over 180,000 titles to choose from, including books mentioned here in the Move Look & Listen podcasts. You can listen to these books through your iphone, your android, your kindle, your computer, or even an MP3 player. And if for any reason and at any time you choose to cancel your membership, you keep all of your audio book, downloads. Give it a shot for 30 days. You got nothing to lose. Support the Move Look & Listen podcast by visiting audibletrial.com/inbound. We will include a link for your convenience, in the show notes of this and every episode of the podcast. And of course if you like some more information regarding Dr. Stephey's practice or to make an appointment, we will include links in the show notes to Dr. Stephey's website and his youtube channel. 

Tim Edwards: Dr. Stephey's website is stepheyoptometry.com. That's s t e p h e y optometry.com. You can also call the office at 626-332-4510. Again, all of Dr. Stephey's contact information will be included in the show notes of each and every episode. One last request before we let you go on to the next episode, please subscribe to the podcast from whichever platform you might be listening in. Of course, it is free to subscribe and it ensures that every time we post a new episode, you'll find it right there waiting for you to listen in your podcast app of choice. We really do appreciate your listening and until next time for Dr. Stephey of the Move Look & Listen podcast. I'm Tim Edwards with the Inbound Podcasting Network. 

 

 

 

 

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