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EPA DHA In
Omega 3- Ever Wonder What It Means? |
by Lois Smithers |
http://seabasedhealth.com
Every once in a while you'll stumble across an
expert whose words and passion sink right into
your soul and so it was the day I listened to Dr.
Joseph Hibbeln of the National Institutes of
Health on a radio broadcast as he explained why
we have chronic inflammation and what it all
means. Dr. Hibblen is a psychiatrist and lipid
biochemist known as one of the world's leading
authorities on Omega 3.
When you cut your finger and it turns red, that's
inflammation of the good kind that rushes in to
heal the wound. But when it gets out of control
from the very food we eat (Omega 3 Seed Oil),
inflammation turns in and attacks the body in
dreadful ways. See TIME cover story, 2/04,
Inflammation, The Secret Killer, Missing Link
Between Heart Attacks, Cancer, Alzheimer's and
other Disease and What You Can Do About It.
What is Omega 3 seed oil? Dr. Hibbeln defines
seed oils as "literally vegetable oils that have
been squeezed from seeds and primarily those
seeds are soybean oil overwhelmingly and to some
extent, corn oil, safflower and other oils and
the big deal is that in these oils the ratio of
Omega 6 to Omega-3 fatty acids is about 10 to one,
whereas in our diets and evolution that ratio
was about one to one. So you had a one to one
balance to inflammation when we were evolving and
now it's a 10 to one balance in favor of
inflammation because of the predominances in the
seed oils."
So, we have Omega 3 from fish oil, and we have
Omega 3 from seed oil, which correctly should be
labeled Omega 6 but without making a fuss over
the confusing distinction, when you see Omega 3
on products in your grocery store, ask yourself
one question. Is the source of the Omega 3 on
that product seed oil? You can't very well put
Omega 3 from fatty fish in cereal now, can you?
And what do we need less of? Dr. Hibbeln explains
why it is so critical to know the difference.
"Omega-3 fatty acids, (from fish oil) when those
fats are swimming around in your blood stream and
your immune system, they produce compounds which
reduce inflammation and help to prevent heart
disease; and the American Heart Association now
recommends that people eat fish three to four
times a week or take fish oil supplements to help
prevent the progression of heart disease. It's
more than 38 peer-reviewed studies which have
been systematically reviewed.
Omega -3 fatty acids are one of those two
polyunsaturated fatty acids. Polyunsaturated
simple means that it has many double bonds. The
key here is that there's two families of
polyunsaturated fatty acids, the Omega-3 fatty
acids which you find primarily from fish oil, and
the Omega-6 fatty acids from seed oils -
eventually the body converts them into a compound
called arachidonic acid and arachidonic acid is
good in low amounts, but in high amounts it makes
a lot of inflammatory compounds. It makes
compounds that make your joints ache, compounds
that increase the inflammation in your blood
stream and leads to arterial sclerosis.
How big a deal is arachidonic acid? It is such a
big deal we've created billion dollar industries
for the production of Vioxx and Celebrex and
Ibuprofen, all of which their main purpose is to
keep arachidonic acid from being converted into
these inflammatory compounds. But remember, the
origin of arachidonic acid is from what you eat.
It's from seed oils. Take away the seed oils or
swap them out, your body will not be full of so
much arachidonic acid and will not have a pro-
inflammatory predisposition."
And that makes me very glad I discovered the
healing benefits of Omega 3's From Fatty Fish (
capitalized intentionally) a long time ago. I
won't buy an Omega 3-laced grocery store product
today and add more of the wrong Omega 3 to the
inflammation level in my body. Courtesy
of
Articl-dir.com |
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