Aaron Hartman, MDFunctional Medicine Specialist | Clinical Researcher

Low Omega-3 Levels and Heart Disease Risk #shorts

25 Mar 2026 · 0 min

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0:29

In this short video, Dr. Aaron Hartman discusses the historical balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in human diets, noting that ancient ancestors likely consumed these fats in a ratio ranging from 1:1 to 1:4 (omega-3:omega-6). He explains that this balance helped modulate inflammation, with a slightly higher proportion of omega-6 possibly needed due to greater infection and injury rates in the past. In contrast, the modern American diet exhibits a dramatically skewed ratio of about 16:1 (omega-6:omega-3), which he claims results in a four‑fold increase in inflammatory potential. He implies that this elevated inflammation may contribute to higher heart disease risk.

Typically there's some controversy on the numbers, but typically our ancient ancestors ate like a 1:1 to 1:4 ratio of omega-3s to omega-6s in their diet. Because you need that balance of either equal inflammation or anti-inflammatory, or maybe 4:1 of the 6s and 3s. So, and that just probably relates to we had more infections and more illnesses and injuries hundreds of years ago, thousands of years ago. So just needed more of the omega-6s versus now. But either way, 4:1 ratio, not a big deal. The current ratio for the average American is a 16:1. We are 4 times more inflammatory.