BiOptimizers Podcast with Dr. Evan Lewis
What are some specific ways you can improve health and performance with omega-3s? Our guest knows the answer and he’s here to explain the science behind this healthy type of fat and how it can actually reverse diabetic nerve damage – something he was the first to do.
Dr. Evan Lewis has a passion for nutrition and health that led him to his graduate studies, including a PhD at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nutritional Sciences. In that program, he studied the effects of pro-nerve omega-3s on nerve-muscle interaction and performance in elite athletes.
His research led to a clinical trial of omega-3 nutritional therapy as a means to regenerating diabetic nerve damage; the positive results were the first of their kind. This research has since been awarded funding from the Canadian Institute for Health Research, Banting & Best Diabetes Centre and the Canadian Diabetes Association.
To bring this ground-breaking research out of the lab, Dr. Evan founded Nutarniq Corp and launched Frontline Neuropathy in Canada to help people suffering from neuropathy. Most recently, Evan and the team at Nutarniq released Frontline Blood Sugar & Nerve Support as a preventative nutrition therapy for those with or at risk of diabetes.
To start today’s episode, I asked the question I’m always so curious to know: how did he go into this field? Dr. Evan says it was by accident. When he was training as a collegiate athlete, he was focused on nutrition and improving his performance. He also had a plan to go into research or sports performance after his education so he worked with the men’s Olympic sailing team on improving hydration.
But ultimately, it was through his own experience that he had an “ah ha” moment: towards the end of his own sailing career he got into cycling. He realized everyone was talking about building bigger, stronger muscles. But they were missing a very important piece: nerves. Nerves tell muscles when to fire and how long to fire. From there he got into the area of omega-3s and omega-3 supplementation, and experimenting with improving the contraction of muscles. In a few short weeks, he was able to show to improve athletes’ ability to jump higher and push more.
He didn’t stop with athletes, though. He also wanted to see if the same type of results could be shown in people who were not elite athletes, including people who were in a more diseased state.
Dr. Evan explains what he discovered and also how omega 3 fats actually work within the body.
We also dive into the differences between omega 3s and omega 6s, why we need both and what ratio we need to maintain optimal healthy. Dr. Evan also tells us what we can do to reduce inflammation naturally.