aren't fatty acids good for our ph balance, skin and heart? Your input is always appreciated mrs d!!!!!!!
bizi

Yes, Bizi,
I think they bring down inflammation too.

M

the inflammation thing is a little complex.

Fatty acids are used in the synthesis of prostaglandins - these are substances our body makes which are responsible for pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory response.

There are basically 3 types, one of which tends to have anti-inflammatory type actions while the other two have different types of primarily pro-inflammatory type actions.

prostaglandins are derived from fatty acids, some of which can be synthesized in the body. a deficit in dietary intake of essential fatty acids can cause the body to have an imbalance of what it needs to make the prostaglandins in "balanced" way. this can also happen if we get enough, but our intake is skewed.

It is a tricky business because there is not, in every case, a single metabolic pathway by which a fatty acide can be metabolized. The body will "choose" different metabolic pathways based on what it has available but also the proportions of what it has available, and accordingly, produce different quantities of the different types of prostaglandins. This process is affected by other nutrients necessary for metabolism of certain EFA's - eg, Magnesium, Zinc, Vit C and B complex... probably others. Deficiency in these, no matter if you are getting all the right EFA's, can produce an imbalance in prostaglandins.

An excessively high dietary intake of meat and dairy for example, will generally provide too many omega-6 ESSENTIAL fatty acids. These are not per se "bad for you." What is bad is a disproportionate intake of these.

FWIW, EPA, which is found in fish oil, is one of the building blocks for anti-inflammatory type prostaglandins. However what the article i posted tells us is, taking more of it might not help, unless you aren't getting enough of it. Now it is true that eating habits in our current society have been skewed towards high meat consumption (high Omega-6 source), so that most of us get have a much too high ratio of Omega-6:Omega-3s.. To make things worse, many of us lack required "assistive" nutrients for the processing of Omega-3's to produce our nice anti-inflammatory prostaglandins, because we do not eat our share of veggies!

i apologize to anyone fully knowledgeable about the precise biochemical processes involved for the gross oversimplification for the purposes of illustration.

i apologize to anyone in difficulty reading, if i have made this too complicated. Unfortunately it IS quite complicated.

~ waves ~

I believe the main dietary skewing factor is SUGAR and high glycemic carbs. This stimulates excessive insulin release, which then favors PGE2 formation.

Meat and dairy are primarily saturated fat providers, which is neutral to formation of the the various prostaglandins.

What really provides Omega-6s are polyunsaturated oils.
Peanut oil, safflower, CORN (a biggie),sunflower, soybean etc. Most vegetables contain adequate Omega-6 content so we don't really need to supplement this when trying to balance with the Omega-3s. The average person who consumes fried food and does not supplement flax in the diet, can have ratios of 1:20 or higher of Omega-3: 6. Some ADHD kids can have even higher ratios it has been found in testing.

Eating fast food and fried food will quickly skew you to the inflammatory side as well.

The Zone diet was formulated to balance protein, carbs, and fat so that the EFA chemistry is as anti-inflammatory as possible.
Dr. Sears PhD. explains this in detail in his many books.
"Enter the Zone" was his first one, and now there are others.

Dear MrsD

From everything i have read, there are indeed many, many, skewing factors. I was not aware of the "sugar" one - although i have my doubts (for now, in opinion only) as to it being the "main" one. My reasoning here is that the other skewing factors wil not necessarily go away if you take away the sugar. Chemically, the metabolic routes do vary based on the proportions of the individual EFA's available, i cannot be more specific than that without a reference but unfortunately i do not have them anywhere near... i apologize for that. Also, the body simply cannot use supplements correctly to make PGE2 if it doesn't have ALL the building blocks!

I will however look into the sugar influence further - thank you for pointing it out as well as the observations on ADHD where i suspect there may be organic differences as well, but again, i would have to look into that.

Mostly, I wanted to describe the process of prostaglandin synthesis in order to point out that the question is not as simple as take extra this or extra that, and to dispel generic notions regarding what a single EFA can do. Unfortunately when folks talk nutrients, a simple answer of this kind is often sought but in this case it really cannot be distilled so simply.

i want to encourage folks to consider the big picture and to realize that the big picture is different for each person.

~ waves ~

Well, for us, following the recommendations by Dr. Sears, my son was able to function better without his Ritalin and manage to go to the college of his choice which earlier seemed not a viable option.

I reversed my asthma, and long standing GERD (although I still have my GI congential twisted problem and a hiatal hernia), and improved my skin tone considerably by following the Zone diet. I no longer need daily medications for either of these past painful issues.

Removing trans fats, consuming more Omega-3s (which today is easier because of smart foods available) and reducing carbs and sugar, avoiding fried foods-- all were highly successful.

We all still take our fish oil (I've switched myself to Krill oil), consume more flax products (Smart Balance helps with this).
Buy Omega-3 enriched eggs. We use magnesium to support the EFA chemistry. I find today, I am pretty balanced and can take less supplemental fish oil. Hubby won't eat the enriched peanut butter so he still takes fish oil and flax oil. One a day.

We rarely get sick any more. I don't need asthma inhalers anymore but keep one as a rescue. Typically it expires without being used even.

It took a bit of getting used to...but we did it. I find others less enthusiastic about changing diet enough to improve health, so supplements are easier for those types of folks.

Today at my age I am favoring antioxidants more heavily than before.

Dear MrsD

i am glad for your hard-earned success, and do not get me wrong, i appreciate your sharing your experiences with us.
It is true, many folks won't even consider changing their diet... even though i do agree that is the best way to go.

Anyway, kudos to all of you
and best wishes for your continued good health!

~ waves ~

Yes.

This is good, Waves.

M

Thanks MrsD for doing that checking. and yes, i ran into "grouped" AED lists too... sigh.

regarding the folate, the deal was different. it is not a direct depletion due to drug metabolims. what i read - and i only found it in one place... you can kill me now i don't know if have it but i have to go to pdoc's - is that its absorption is inhibited by depakote. so if one were on depakote for a lenghy period, their folate tissue stores would gradually become depleted.

Mari... thanks. i am glad you foudn that helpful.

i have to run

~ waves ~