Measuring Your Future Wellness
We all desire to have a clinical marker of our future state of wellness. It is my opinion that the AA/EPA ratio in the blood is the best marker of that elusive goal because it measures the level of cellular inflammation in the body.
What is Cellular Inflammation?
Cellular inflammation is the type of inflammation that is below the perception of pain. What it does is disrupt hormonal signaling at the cellular levels that leads to increased fat accumulation, acceleration of the development of chronic disease, and decreased physical performance. You can’t feel cellular inflammation, but you can measure it. The only way to measure cellular inflammation is by testing the ratio of two essential fatty acids (AA and EPA) in your blood.
What is the AA/EPA Ratio?
The AA/EPA ratio is an indication of the levels of cellular inflammation in your body. High levels of cellular inflammation does not mean you have a disease state, but it does indicate that you are not as well as you could be. Your future state of wellness can be determined by the levels of cellular inflammation in the blood as shown below.
| AA/EPA Ranges | Cellular Inflammation | Future state of wellness |
|---|---|---|
| 1.5 to 3 | Low | Excellent |
| 3 to 6 | Moderate | Good |
| 7 to 15 | Elevated | Moderate |
| > than 15 | High | Poor |
The higher your levels of cellular inflammation, the more likely the future development of chronic disease will be accelerated. A recent study from Italy has demonstrated that the AA/EPA ratio is always greater than 15 in patients with chronic diseases (1).
Dietary Methods to Improve the AA/EPA Ratio
There are no drugs that can change the AA/EPA ratio. This is because the AA/EPA ratio is a consequence of the diet. One method of lowering the AA/EPA ratio is to increase the intake of high-purity omega-3 fatty acid concentrates rich in EPA. This will increase the EPA content in the blood (2). This represents the fastest way to reduce the AA/EPA ratio. However, the best long-term method is to reduce the AA levels in the blood. This is best achieved by following a strict anti-inflammatory diet, such as the Zone Diet (3-5). The Zone diet was designed to reduce elevated levels of both insulin and omega-6 fatty acids so that the production of AA is significantly reduced. The combination of an anti-inflammatory diet coupled with high-purity omega-3 concentrations represents the most powerful dietary approach to reach and maintain a low level of cellular inflammation for a lifetime.
How much EPA and DHA do I have to take to reduce the AA/EPA ratio?
A recent dose-response study in healthy women who had a high risk for potential breast cancer has provided supplementation guidelines for reduction of the AA/EPA ratio (5).
| Grams of EPA and DHA supplemented per day | AA/EPA Ratio |
|---|---|
| 0 | 12.1 |
| 0.8 | 4.7 |
| 2.5 | 2.6 |
| 5.0 | 1.3 |
| 7.5 | 1.2 |
This data indicates that a daily dosage of EPA and DHA of 2.5 grams was sufficient to bring the AA/EPA ratio into the desired range for excellent wellness for these healthy individuals. This level of EPA and DHA recommendation correlates well with an Italian study that demonstrated in patients with various chronic diseases having an elevated AA/EPA ratio (>15) lowered their elevated AA/EPA ratio to approximately 5 with daily supplementation of 2.5 grams of EPA and DHA (1). This is also indicative that a person with an existing chronic disease may need greater amounts of EPA and DHA to get them into an excellent wellness range compared to a healthy individual.
However, these are only general guidelines for daily EPA and DHA supplementation. The best indication of the amount of EPA and DHA required to optimize the AA/EPA ratio for an individual is best determined with blood testing every six to twelve months.
The benefits of reduction of the AA/EPA ratio.
The JELIS study was one of the largest cardiovascular studies ever done using more than 18,000 subjects with elevated cholesterol levels. When these subjects were given high doses of EPA (1.8 grams of EPA per day), their average AA/EPA ratio decreased from 1.6 to 0.8. This reduction in the AA/EPA ratio was associated with an additional 19% reduction in cardiovascular events during the next four and half years (7).
Until there is more data, I do not believe it prudent to reduce the AA/EPA ratio to less than 1.5 even through significant cardiovascular benefits do occur at lower AA/EPA ratios in patients with elevated cholesterol levels as demonstrated in the JELIS study.
References:
- Rizzo AM, Montorfano G, Negroni M, Adorni L, Berselli P, Corsetto P, Wahle K, and Berra B. “A rapid method for determining arachidonic:eicosapentaenoic acid ratios in whole blood lipids: correlation with erythrocyte membrane ratios and validation in a large Italian population of various ages and pathologies.” Lipids in Health and Disease 9:7 (2010)
- Sears B. The OmegaRx Zone. Regan Books. New York, NY (2002)
- Sears B. The Zone. Regan Books. New York, NY (1995)
- Sears B. The Anti-Inflammation Zone. Regan Books. New York, NY (2005)
- Sears B. Toxic Fat. Thomas Nelson. Nashville, TN (2008)
- Yee LD, Lester JL, Cole RM, Richardson JR, Hsu JC, Li Y, Lehman A, Belury MA, and Clinton SK. “Omega-3 fatty acid supplements in women at high risk of breast cancer have dose-dependent effects on breast adipose tissue fatty acid composition.” Am J Clin Nutr 91: 1185-1194 (2010)
- Yokoyama M, Origasa H, Matsuzaki M, Matsuzawa Y, Saito Y, Ishikawa Y, Oikawa S, Sasaki J, Hishida H, Itakura H, Kita T, Kitabatake A, Nakaya N, Sakata T, Shimada K, and Shirato K. “Effects of eicosapentaenoic acid on major coronary events in hypercholesterolaemic patients (JELIS): a randomised open-label, blinded endpoint analysis.” Lancet 369: 1090-1098 (2007)
Anna Maria Fornaro –
I live in New York. Do you have any tests available for New York residents?
Dr. Sears Zone Customer Support –
Anna, Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, New York law restricts us from distributing CIT kits there. We do apologize for any inconvenience. Thank You, Dr. Sears Zone
Juha –
This other thing is that when do you uptade your first book on zone diet. I have high blood sugar and dont know what to do. I do not want to use any meds.
Linda M DeFord –
Is everyone financially independent? $75 for one test is extremely high for a senior on fixed income. That’s a large percentage of my monthly food budget and I, like most seniors, don’t have family that sends birthday $ once a year. It’s already high for any of the products that would help me get to my goal of being healthy, lose obesity and diabetes meds, arthritis and asthma but without a senior discount of any kind, it’s gonna be a long and difficult road. Wish me luck.
Sue M –
Hello, I live in Australia and was wondering if this test can be mailed to Australia? Is it possible to use this test kit here and mail test back to the US? thanks.
Dr. Sears’ Zone –
Sue, Thank you for your question. Yes, you can purchase the CIT kit from Zone Labs, have it shipped to Australia, and mail it back to get your results. The kit will arrive to you with international shipping and mail instructions. Hope this helps you out and please let us know if we can be of further assistance. Thank You, Dr. Sears’ Zone
barbara dilavore –
this is my first time ordering your test kit.
Kristen Freed –
I just received my test results and I’ll admit I was a little nervous as I may have ended up on the naughty list a bit too often. Did someone say COOKIES!!!! Anyhooo, clearly I had nothing to worry about, having found myself taking my fish oils (4) much more regularly, and as a result an EPA if 4.7%, up from 3.8%. I stopped eating mammals and saw my AA drop from 12.6% to 10.8%. My total score 2.3 vs. 3.3 a year ago! Clearly something good is happening!!! Will next try cutting back on eggs. I really love this aspect of the zone – that the results are so measurable.
Dr. Sears’ Zone Customer Support –
Thanks for sharing Kristen and glad to see your numbers improving. Yes, being able to measure your results is a great way to know how well you are keeping yourself “in the Zone”. Keep up the good work. Thank You, Dr. Sears’ Zone
Lawrence Waters –
I’ve found The Fatty Acid Profile Report, that’s available in addition to the AA and EPA levels report, useful in fine-tuning the Zone Diet. It gives the LA, GLA, DGLA, and AA levels which help tract the production of AA; the EPA and DHA and DPA levels which reflect the effect of your Fish Oil supplement; and the Monounsaturated, Saturated, and Trans Fatty Acid levels, which when added to the Polyunsaturated Omega-3 and Omega-6 levels, reflect the effects of any changes I make to my diet on my fatty acid levels. I get the test every year to supplement my annual doctor’s office blood test to help adjust my diet to attain your suggested levels for wellness. That’s a lot of very helpful information for just $75.
Fred Emmite (verified owner) –
I would recommend this test to ANYONE wishing to measure inflammation.
donald maika –
trade enquiry
William A Taylor –
The people who explain the results are very helpful. After trying one, we ordered two more for two other people!
William B –
The test kit was easy to follow, and the results arrived in about 10 days or so. I then took advantage of the 10 minute follow-up call with one of their representatives to learn how to better reduce my AA levels. My EPA levels were pretty close to target, but I already take a large amount of fish oil each day
LANE CURA-MENG (verified owner) –
A relatively inexpensive way to determine your health. I’m going to do another in a few months.
Scott Stevenson –
What are the clinic’s and/or sites to send blood samples in Ontario,Canada
Dr. Sears’ Zone Customer Support –
Scott, Thank you for your question. The CIT Kit is an at-home blood spot test and each kit is provided with a return envelope to mail to our testing Lab here in the USA. Based on that, we do not offer any clinics or sites in Ontario, Canada. You can just order the CIT Kit, do it at home, and send off to await your results. Thank You, Dr. Sears’ Zone Customer Support
Joseph Kane –
Do you offer discount for family testing with several dealing with severe data stew for years.
Need 6 kits to start and how often to repeat. Wife and I will lan to attend next crucial event.
Dr. Sears’ Zone Customer Support –
Joseph, Thank you for your comment. At this time we do not offer any additional discounts on the CIT kits. With that said, we are always happy to try and work with our customers and we recommend reaching out to our customer support staff at 800-404-8171 Mon-Fri 9am-7pm EST to see how we may be able to help you out. Thank You, Dr. Sears’ Zone Customer Support
Byron B. (verified owner) –
We have used the test kit three times (to date) for our son with TBI and my wife, myself and our other son have also taken initial tests are we are all now taking OmegaRx2 on a daily basis. We believe the tests have been timely and accurate and we will continue to use them as we work towards better inflammation.