I wanted to ask what are your thoughts about the PK protocol for someone with an imbalance of omega-3 to omega-6 with a very high omega-3. What do you think about taking safflower oil and phosphatidylcholine (PC) oil that is sourced from soy?

Chris Kresser:  I’m not going to go into a lot of detail on the PK protocol since it is outside the scope of ADAPT and I don’t think a lot of people are familiar with it. But in answer to your question, if someone has very high omega-3 and that’s because of supplementation, I would be more likely to have them back off on the supplementation of omega-3 than I would to add additional omega-6. All of the omega-3 and omega-6 oils are fragile and susceptible to oxidative damage. There are quite a few studies now showing that high-dose omega-3 supplementation may not be beneficial and may even be harmful, and we certainly have plenty of studies showing that excess intake of omega-6, particularly in the form of industrial seed oils, can be problematic.  Those oils are in just about any processed and refined food and pretty much all restaurant foods, so we have to try very hard to avoid them. I’m not really a huge fan of supplementing with them for that reason. I know that’s recommended by some practitioners, but it just does not make a lot of sense to me at this point. It’s something I would like to look into a little bit further and possibly even experiment with, but given the ubiquity of omega-6 in our diet, supplementing with industrial seed oils doesn’t totally sit well with me.