177: The Heart Risk Marker Most Doctors Aren’t Testing For

We challenge the idea that heart risk is just cholesterol and explain why “normal” numbers can still hide an inflammatory burden that drags down focus, recovery, and resilience. We break down a simple way to measure omega-3 balance and give practical nutrition, supplement, and lifestyle steps to tune inflammation like a race setup. 
• cholesterol as essential physiology and a signal of demand 
• chronic inflammation as a quiet performance killer in motorsports 
• AA versus EPA and why balance matters 
• omega-3 index and AA:EPA ratio targets 
• how the at-home finger-stick test works and why CLIA-certified labs matter 
• food-first omega-3 strategy with fatty fish guidance 
• what to avoid with processed and fried foods 
• EPA-focused omega-3 supplement basics including dose, EPA:DHA ratio, TG form, third-party testing 
• sleep, hydration, toxins, training load, and stress as inflammation drivers 
If you enjoy conversations around physiology, recovery, longevity, and high performance health, click subscribe so that you never miss an episode. 
If you're the kind of person who's serious about optimizing performance naturally at the root level, you can apply to work with Victory Lane Wellness at VictoryLaneWellness.com. 

Transcript

Cholesterol Isn’t The Whole Story

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Most people believe heart risk starts and ends with cholesterol. And if cholesterol looks normal, you're good, right? But here's something that surprises most people. Research has shown that cardiovascular risk involves more than cholesterol numbers alone. So if cholesterol isn't the entire picture, what else matters? Because for drivers, for crew athletes, and team owners, this isn't simply a heart conversation, it is a performance conversation. Let's break that down.

High Performance Health For NASCAR

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Hello, I'm Jeffrey Morda. If you're like most in NASCAR's top-tiers, drivers, crews, owners, or executives, while you're busy chasing podiums, have you fully considered who's taking care of you? Right here, you're about to start transforming your mind and body for peak race day performance with high performance health, designed exclusively for the demands of NASCAR. As a certified high performance health coach and consulting hypnotist, I've coached elite entrepreneurs and athletes to higher energy, sharper focus, and greater resilience. Naturally, safely, and backed by science. And right now, I'm bringing that same engineered approach to the best in motorsports. Here you'll find no wasted time, just a unique blend of integrative health, mental conditioning, and proven recovery strategies delivered in plain language that you can use right away. Imagine a season without burnout, brain fog, or the costly crash of your health. Because the truth is, the real race starts within. I'm grateful you're here. Yes, welcome back to Breaking Boundaries for Champions, the only high performance health podcast for motorsports professionals. I'm your host, Jeffrey Mort, your personal high performance health coach with Victory Lane Wellness, where the focus is on naturally fueled high performance health for drivers, for crew athletes, and industry leaders looking to optimize performance at the root level. If you enjoy conversations around physiology, recovery, longevity, and high performance health, click subscribe so that you never miss an episode.

Why Cholesterol Rises In Stress

SPEAKER_00 2:28

Today's topic, the inflammation marker most people never hear about. Most people believe that high cholesterol automatically equals danger. And to a point, that belief makes sense. But here's where things become interesting because cholesterol itself is not the villain lurking in the darkness. Cholesterol is actually essential physiology. Your body relies on cholesterol for things like hormone production, testosterone and sex hormones, cortisol production, vitamin D synthesis, cell membrane integrity, nervous system support, brain function, and more. And as a matter of fact, your brain itself contains substantial amounts of cholesterol. So cholesterol is not a mistake. Your body intentionally makes it. The better question becomes why does cholesterol become elevated? And this is where things become really interesting. Often elevated cholesterol isn't only a production issue, sometimes the body is responding to increased physiological demand, things like inflammation, oxidative stress, metabolic dysfunction, insulin resistance, as we talked about on last week's episode, poor thyroid function, and chronic stress, which is synonymous with motorsports. And that's why we're talking about this today. Think of cholesterol like repair materials, repair materials arriving at the track. If damage increases, more repair trucks get called in. Now, this doesn't mean that high cholesterol doesn't matter. It means that context matters. So let's dive into this here.

Chronic Inflammation Steals Your Edge

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Let's talk about inflammation, because inflammation itself is not bad. Inflammation is protective. You cut your hand in the shop, inflammation helps healing. You catch a virus on a plane, inflammation helps mobilize immune defenses. The problem becomes chronic inflammation. Because when inflammation stays elevated, so that would be the chronic inflammation, recovery capacity decreases, resilience declines, oxidative stress rises. Think of oxidative stress as rusting from the inside out. And the tissues of the body experience more wear and tear, so to speak. And over time, the body may become less adaptable, less resilient under stress. And for motorsports professionals, that means slower recovery, lower resilience, more fatigue, reduced cognitive sharpness, and potentially less reserve when the body encounters those additional stressors. Nothing dramatic at first, just enough to lose that edge. However, unaddressed inflammation can eventually become a serious issue. So

AA Versus EPA Balance Explained

SPEAKER_00 5:33

let's break down uh what's known as EPA AA and EPA. So omega-6 fats, they're they're not bad. Omega-3 fats, they're not magic. You need both. And the issue becomes balance. You hear me talk about this in almost every episode. It's not about uh things in moderation, it is about balance. So the AA stands for arachinonic acid. This is an omega-6 acid, and it is an inflammatory signaling. Um, its role in the body is inflammatory signaling. The EPA is an omega-3 acid, and its role is inflammatory resolution. So think of it like a race setup. You need both acceleration and braking. Too much of either creates problems. So inflammation affects more than just future health. For drivers, we're talking about focus under pressure, which happens every week when they're behind that wheel. And for crew athletes, this is recovery between weekends. And for those team owners, this is decision making and sustained energy, longevity, legacy, it all plays a role due to balanced levels of inflammation.

Testing Omega-3 Index And Ratios

SPEAKER_00 6:49

So, how do we know? How do we know if we are balanced with our inflammation? Well, one thing I love about high performance health is that we don't have to guess. We can measure. And at Victory Lane, we use uh Victory Lane Wellness. We use a test that's called the Omega-3 and inflammation test. Actually, it looks like this. I happen to have one right here for show and tell. Comes in a little kit like this, mailed right to your home. Uh, you can keep these in the uh in your in your bus, in your coach with you. You can do these at home or even at the track. It's a simple finger stick with a lancet, a few drops of blood on a card that gets mailed right to a CLIA-certified lab. That's important, that the lab is CLIA certified. And all information, it's kept completely confidential and secure. And this inflammation test evaluates your omega-3 index. So we want to see that level below a nine, ideally. And honestly, some people are up well above uh 18, 24, or I've even seen elevations up at 48. We want you below a nine. And then that arachidonic acid to EPA ratio, we want to see below a three to one ratio. And this creates inflammatory balance because what is not measured cannot be optimized. So you might be wondering what moves these numbers?

Food First Then Smart Supplementation

SPEAKER_00 8:11

Well, let's let's start with food first, because we are always nutrition first over at Victory Lane Wellness. You want to aim for approximately three to four servings weekly of fatty fish. So that could be things like wild-caught salmon, uh, mackerel, sardines, anchovies, those are all fishes, uh, yeah, fishes that are high in omega-3s. Uh, some additional omega-3 foods that are not uh fish-based, they are plant-based, things like chia seeds, walnuts, flaxseeds, those are those are okay, but they're not going to really move the needle like that wild-caught fish will. But sometimes food alone isn't enough. And, you know, when we're talking about food, we want to make sure we're avoiding the inflammatory diet. So processed foods, especially the that snack draw that we talked about last week in um last week's episode of Breaking Boundaries for Champions. And we want to especially avoid fried foods. Fried foods are high in omega-6, highly inflammatory, high levels of arachidonic acid, and we want to make sure we're avoiding those at all costs. Um, like I said, sometimes food alone isn't enough. And especially with travel, race schedules, inconsistent nutrition, which we're we're gonna dial that in and create an episode and a very specific plan on how to keep nutrition consistent uh while traveling, and especially during the race season, um, things like elevated physiological demands uh can play a role in that as well. So food just isn't enough. Our foundational approach often includes when we talk about the science-backed supplementation. Most people need two to three grams daily of a high quality omega-3 support. And, you know, if somebody's over 200, 250 pounds and they have out-of-balance levels according to the inflammation test, we might move them to three, uh, three grams, maybe even four grams for a very short time. But the average person needs about two, two and a half to three grams. Now, we recommend an EPA-focused uh omega-3 supplement because EPA tends to have stronger anti-inflammatory effects clinically. And what we look for is a clinical dosage, so the two to three grams, but the the supplement needs to have a two to one ratio of EPA to DHA. That's very important uh because the body can easily convert the EPA to DHA. It can also convert DHA to EPA. It's just not as easy. Um, and this is what we see according to uh the thousands and thousands of lab test results that we've seen. And you want to also look for in your supplement uh triglyceride bound. So it might say TG form on it or TG bound. Why is this important? Because triglyceride bound omega-3s generally have better absorption and resemble the form naturally found in fish. And then also you want a product that is third-party tested for heavy metals, including mercury. Fish oil is oftentimes uh extracted from anchovies, is usually a great food source based. Um, you know, we try to stay away from bigger game fish like tuna fish or swordfish because the bigger fish usually have a higher mercury content. And that is something we certainly don't want because that's going to contribute to oxidative stress and inflammation and make that cycle um even greater. So this is clinical level foundation support. And of course, you know, we're not providing any medical advice. We don't claim to treat, diagnose, or cure any disease. But what we do is we get to the root cause of the issue with the functional lab testing that's done right at home or right at the track. And we recommend the highest quality products. This is not gas station fish oil with flames on the bottle, my friends. Um, and so other lifestyle factors that can negatively affect a healthy balance of inflammation uh would be actually, I would say the number one thing is probably poor sleep in a close second with you know poor nutrition, eating a lot of uh fried food, seed oil,

Sleep Stress And Other Inflammation Drivers

SPEAKER_00 12:20

things like that. But poor sleep is going to drive inflammation through the roof. Cellular hydration is another one, toxic loads or environmental toxins, um, as well as um toxins inside the body. So I'm talking about bacterial overgrowth, yeast, fungal overgrowth, uh, mold, which is an external uh toxin, but that can get into the body and grow inside the body. Um training is another big one that can cause inflammation. Yes, not training enough. And what a lot of the pit athletes we see can definitely be over-training. So this is a great way to measure uh your level of training as well. Chronic stress, that's another big driver of inflammation. And we have episodes here on the Breaking Boundaries podcast, episodes on all of these topics. And they don't just talk about the problem. We also, in every episode, we give a naturally fueled high-performance health solution for every one of these issues that we talk about. So back to that driver recovering slower than last season, or that pit crew athlete feeling more inflamed after race weekends, that owner running on caffeine and stress, that may not simply be aging. Sometimes the system is carrying a heavier inflammatory burden.

Precision Tuning And How To Apply

SPEAKER_00 13:41

So the white flag is out here on breaking boundaries, the final lap. Being disease-free doesn't automatically equal optimized, and normal cholesterol doesn't always tell the whole story. Because in motorsport, the edge doesn't come from passing inspection, the edge comes from precision tuning. If you're the kind of person who's serious about optimizing performance naturally at the root level, you can apply to work with Victory Lane Wellness at VictoryLaneWellness.com. Every enrollment supports race for a reason, providing advanced functional testing for chronically ill children through racing related charities. We will see you in Victory Lane. Bye-bye.