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A look at omega fatty acids

DEBATE ABOUT omega fatty acids has increased over the last decade. While separating fact from myth can be frustrating, let’s attempt to do just that.

What are omega fatty acids?

Contrary to popular belief, fat has important biological functions, from making up the basic structure of our cells to storing energy. But some fats are good for us, while others are not. Saturated fats often come from animal sources. An excess of saturated fats is bad for us, in part because they raise our bad LDL cholesterol, clog our arteries and cause heart attacks and strokes.

On the other hand, unsaturated fats, which include monounsaturated fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), are generally considered healthier. Omega fatty acids refer to a whole family of PUFAs: omega-3, omega-6 and omega-9 fatty acids. (It’s a little complicated, but the numbers refer to the fatty acid’s chemical makeup.)

Trans fats, incidentally, are unsaturated fats that have been partially hydrogenated. They’re found in deep-fried foods and other products, and are at least as artery-clogging as saturated fats.

Where do omega fatty acids come from?

Nature provides a bounty of sources of fatty acids. Here’s a short list:

  • Omega-3 fatty acids: flaxseed, fish oils
  • Omega-6 fatty acids: vegetable oils such as corn, sunflower, soybean, evening primrose, and borage and blackcurrant seed oils
  • Omega-9 fatty acids: olive oil

How can this food chemistry lesson help me improve my health?

In general, people who consume higher amounts of omega-3s are healthier because they have fewer problems with a variety of maladies, including plaque in their arteries, heart attacks, high blood pressure, macular degeneration, depression, menopausal symptoms, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis symptoms and some types of infections.

There is currently some controversy over the beneficial effects and even the safety of omega-6s, given that the typical North American diet is often too high in omega-6.

Typically, you can consume 10 to 30 times more omega-6 than beneficial omega-3, and while there is no consensus on what a healthy ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 is, consuming more omega-3 helps balance out the ratio. Increasing your intake of omega-3 by eating more fish can potentially expose you to
some of the toxins found in the fish, such as mercury, PCBs and dioxin, but quality supplements bearing a Natural Product Number have had those toxins removed or reduced to within Health Canada safety limits.

Breakthrough Heart Disease Medications

High-Dose Statins

For people recovering from heart attacks, drugs called statins are already standard medicine. Statins, such as Pravachol and Lipitor help patients lower their cholesterol levels. According to the American Heart Association, 42 percent of heart attack victims die within the first year, making it important to lower cholesterol levels following a heart attack.

The studies show lowering heart attack victims’ cholesterol to levels dramatically below current standards appears to be an important strategy for saving lives and preventing new heart problems.

However, the latest research on statins showed although the higher dosages helped reduce subsequent cardiovascular events, the high-dose regimen may increase the risk for muscle-related complications.

Torcetrapib (CETP inhibitors)

Cholesterol tests are a common practice at doctor’s offices every year. Typically, a lot of attention is paid to levels of LDL that clogs arteries. However, recent evidence has indicated that levels of HDL (the good cholesterol that unclogs arteries) are equally important. Low HDL is one of the most common risk factors for heart disease.

The drug, called torcetrapib, has CETP-inhibitor properties and is designed to inhibit the cholesteryl ester transfer protein. In earlier study phases of torcetrapib, the drug was found to be most effective when given in combination with a statin drug.

Source: Ivanhoe News

Coronary heart disease

Coronary heart disease includes angina, heart attacks, and cardiac arrest. Many nutrients have been shown to reduce these, including vitamin E, alpha-linolenic acid, folic acid, vitamins C, B6 and B12, unsaturated fats, fruit and vegetables, dietary fiber, whole grains, nuts, alcohol, fish oils and magnesium.

Even today in the twenty-first century, heart disease statistics are frightening: In a study performed in the UK in 1991, 48% of everyone who had a heart attack died within 30 days. Half of those who died had NO prior symptoms – the first warning that they had heart disease was the last! Sadly, this is especially the case when young people have a heart attack. If half of heart attacks are fatal, then waiting until one develops symptoms is much too late for many people. Prevention, therefore, is essential, and good nutrition is a very powerful part of prevention.

Some of the reductions are truly remarkable. These results suggest that relatively simple and inexpensive changes in nutrient intake can dramatically reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, which continues to kill almost one third of the populations of most Western countries.

Sudden unexpected death (cardiac arrest) is very common with heart disease. Many of us have friends, colleagues and even family members who simply dropped dead and who never had the opportunity to reach the high-tech facilities in our hospitals which may have saved them. Because of these horrifying figures prevention is far more effective than waiting until symptoms appear and then starting treatment.

Here are some of the studies showing how coronary heart disease can be affected by nutrition and supplementation:

Vitamin E

• Women in the Nurses Study who took vitamin E for short periods shoed almost no benefits; however, when they took it for more than 2 years, the risk of coronary disease was reduced by 41%.
• The USA Male Health Professional Study: 44,000 male doctors and other health professionals were followed for 4 years. Those men who took at least 100iu of vitamin E per day for more than 2 years had 37% less coronary artery disease.
• A study of 11,000 older people aged 67-105 years: taking vitamin E supplements reduced coronary heart disease deaths by 47%, and taking both vitamin C and E by 53%.
• Despite the negative attitude of the medical press, many doctors recommend antioxidant vitamins. USANA Vitamins Proflavanol® C100 is using innovative Nutritional Hybrid Technology to combine two of USANA’s most popular Nutritionals, Proflavanol® and Poly C®, Proflavanol® C100 packs the best of both worlds into a single, powerful pill.
• In a survey of cardiologists in the USA, 44% personally used antioxidant supplements and 37% recommended them to their patients.
• A smaller survey was taken of members of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians: 15% consumed antioxidants and 20% recommended them to their patients. However, when they developed heart disease themselves, 34% of Australasian physicians took antioxidant supplements.

Alpha-linolenic acid

This is one of the few fats our bodies cannot manufacture. This is an omega 3 fatty acid found in oily fish and flax seed oils which seems to be beneficial for the optimal function of blood vessels, nerves, skin, hormones and joints.

Women in the Nurse Study who had a high intake of alpha-linolenic acid had 45% fewer heart attacks than those taking only a little or none.

Folic acid and vitamins B6 and B12

These B vitamins help lower the blood homocysteine. High blood homocysteine level is an important risk factor for heart disease. Women in the Nurses Study who took higher doses of folic acid (greater than 700ug/day) had 31% less coronary heart disease. Those who took vitamin B6 (more than 4 mg/day) had a 33% reduction.

Dietary fat intake

We eat four types of fat – saturated fats (animal fats), polyunsaturated fats (vegetable and fish oils), monounsaturated (olive oil) and trans fats (mostly man-made fats). It appears that the trans fats are by far the worst, although most medical authorities recommend also reducing the amount of saturated fat eaten as well.

• Women in the Nurses Study who had high overall fat intakes did not have more heart disease. But looking at the types of fat, there was a difference. Trans fats were the worst – doubling the risk of heart disease to 200%, while saturated fat increased heart disease by 17%. Monounsaturated fat reduced heart disease by 19% and eating more polyunsaturated fat reduced it by 38%.
• Trans fat intake: the partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils to produce margarine and shortening produces trans-fatty acids. Women in the Nurses Study who had higher intakes of trans fats had more coronary heart disease. Regular users of margarines for 10 or more years had a 67% increase.

Refined sugars

Sugars which are rapidly absorbed into the blood stream cause peaks in blood glucose and insulin. These are called high glycaemic sugars, and have been blamed for obesity, diabetes, and also can aggravate heart disease. Many processed carbohydrates fall into this category: e.g. bread, white rice, sweets, cakes and cookies.

• Women in the Nurses Study who ate high glycaemic foods had more than 2 ½ times the risk of developing coronary heart disease.

Blood Sugar and Metabolic Syndrome

High blood pressure. High blood sugar. Unhealthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Excess abdominal (belly) fat. If you were to look into a crowd of Americans, say, at a football game or large concert, and start counting how many of them could check off all of these conditions as relating to them, you’d be tagging one of every six people. That’s forty-seven million Americans. Collectively, this set of conditions has a strange name: metabolic syndrome, or, stranger still, syndrome X. You may not intuitively put high blood pressure, for example, in the same category as metabolism, but all of these conditions share a unique relationship. And when they combine in the body, they can have an epic impact. These risk factors double your risk of blood-vessel and heart disease, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. They increase your risk of diabetes by five times.

When you hear the word diabetes, most likely it’s related to type 2, so-called adult onset diabetes. It’s the most common form of diabetes; of the 23.6 million people with diabetes, 90 percent to 95 percent have type 2. Like type 1, this form disrupts the body’s ability to metabolize sugar for fuel, but type 2 is not an autoimmune disease. In type 2 diabetes, the beta cells of the pancreas continue to make insulin, but when there is too much fat, there is a resistance to insulin, so the body cannot use it effectively. When that happens, a person is said to be insulin resistant and prediabetic. As the disease progresses, insulin production slows down after several years, and the result is similar to what occurs in type 1 diabetes: glucose, the body’s preferred form of energy, builds up in the blood and the body cannot efficient use of its main source of fuel.

Unlike type 1, this form of diabetes is associated with older age, obesity, a family history of diabetes, physical inactivity, and ethnicity. About 80 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight, which is why this type gets so much media exposure now that obesity rates have soared. For some, reversing this disease is possible through changes in diet and exercise habits. But for others, the ravages of this disease can make for a long struggle that destroys the quality of life and brings a complicated morass of medical challenges.

Because activated vitamin D can increase insulin production, it’s no surprise that research has indicated that UVB radiation – and hence, adequate levels of vitamin D in the body – may have an indirect role in preventing type 2 diabetes. We have yet to learn the exact effect vitamin D has on the risk for type 2 diabetes, but the evidence continues to collect showing a clear association between sufficient vitamin D and efficient cellular metabolism. Numerous longitudinal studies have consistently demonstrated that people who suffer from type 2 diabetes typically have low vitamin D levels.

A lack of vitamin D is related to both insulin resistance and impaired pancreatic beta cells, which are the sources of insulin for the body’s metabolism and which do possess vitamin D receptors. In studies done with mice, beta cells lose their capacity to secrete insulin when their vitamin D receptor isn’t functioning as it should because of low vitamin D.

In 2004, researchers at UCLA unveiled their findings after trying to make better sense of the CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults) Study, a population-based look at vitamin D’s role in metabolic syndrome. The CARDIA Study examined a sampling of 3,157 black and white adults aged eighteen to thirty years from four metropolitan areas in the United States. What it found was that among over-weight adults, the more milk peo9pel drank, the less likely they were to be insulin resistant. The numbers, in fact, are quite staggering – people with the highest dairy consumption had a 72 percent lower incidence of metabolic syndrome. The study concluded that dairy consumption could reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The UCLA team confirmed this conclusion in its own study and reported specifically on how higher levels of vitamin D correlated to this lowered risk.

Even more revealing have been the studies done on the effect both vitamin D and calcium – the high-powered couple – can have on reducing one’s risk for diabetes. One large study published in 2006 by Diabetes Care that looked at middle-aged women concluded that a high daily intake of vitamin D (greater than 800 IU) and calcium (greater than 1,200 milligrams) was associated with a 33 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Type 2 diabetics tend to be stuck in a vicious cycle whereby they battle weight problems and lack the energy or motivation to exercise, precipitating other health challenges – from their overworked organs to their inability to get a good night’s sleep. The number of potential hazards that flow from their condition and resulting secondary conditions is practically limitless. Add to that a vitamin D deficiency, knowing all the areas in which vitamin D can have a positive impact, and you can quickly grasp the magnitude and intricacy of this problem. Achieving a break in the cycle typically requires a complete lifestyle and dietary change, as well as a focus on reducing stress levels that can thwart weight-loss efforts and perpetuate hormonal imbalances.

In the last few years, the spotlight has been turned on teens, who are currently changing the actuarial tables. Soaring obesity rates among our adolescents may actually shift their longevity, snipping two to five years off their life spans as compared to their parents’. And new research has also linked low levels of vitamin D to high blood pressure and high blood sugar in this age group – the very risk factors for heart disease and conditions associated with this elusive metabolic syndrome. A team of researchers found that teens with the lowest vitamin D levels were more than twice as likely to have high blood pressure and high blood sugar than those with higher vitamin D levels. They were also four times more likely to have metabolic syndrome than their counterparts with optimal levels of vitamin D. The vitamin D-deficiency pattern was consistent with earlier findings in that blacks had the lowest levels, followed by the Mexican Americans; whites had the highest levels, but all of the teens showed a deficiency. Further research will determine the extent to which vitamin D lies behind these health problems and how much of an impact it can have in preventing, treating, and reverting these problems.

What Resveratrol Can Do for You

Scientists around the world have discovered many ways that resveratrol may benefit heart health. In 1995, Canadian researchers reported that resveratrol could protect against heart disease by reducing platelet aggregation, an early step in the development of blood clots that can lead to heart attacks or strokes. In 2002, German researchers found that resveratrol stimulates production of nitrous oxide, which helps relax arteries. In 2003, Italian researchers provided evidence that resveratrol could reduce the risk of atherosclerosis by keeping inflammatory cells from sticking to artery walls. Later that year, American researchers reported that resveratrol could slow the progression of atherosclerosis by inhibiting the spread of vascular smooth muscle cells.

Resveratrol may also pay a role in cancer prevention, by inhibiting certain enzymes that activate some carcinogens and by promoting the excretion of other carcinogens. When cancer has already taken hold, resveratrol can arrest the cell cycle of cancer cells (allowing for DNA repair) and induce apoptosis (programmed cell death). Resveratrol can also inhibit cancer cell proliferation and angiogenesis, the process through which tumors support their growth by creating new blood vessels.

Resveratrol and Bioavailability

In vitro studies have shown resveratrol to have many potent actions, and resveratrol is well absorbed in the gut; however, some researchers question whether the effects shown in the laboratory can take place in the body. In the May 2005 issue of the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, scientists from the German Research Center of Food Chemistry wrote, “The oral bioavailability of resveratrol is almost zero due to rapid and extensive metabolism”. In other words, very little resveratrol makes it into the blood.

The German researchers were not the first to discover this, however. In 2004, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina acknowledged the low bioavailability of oral resveratrol, but suggested that resveratrol accumulates and provides benefits along the digestive tract. And in the November 2000 issue of the journal Xenobiotica, Italian researchers provided evidence that flavonoids and other components of grapes and wine improve the bioavailability of resveratrol.

Some researchers have taken a different approach to the problem of oral resveratrol bioavailability by skipping the stomach altogether. Using a delivery system known as PEGylated liposomes, supplements can deliver resveratrol through the mucous membranes in the mouth and directly to the blood. However, even resveratrol delivered directly to the blood is rapidly metabolized by the liver and removed from the blood in as little as 30 minutes.

However, low bioavailability does not mean resveratrol is useless; some researchers feel that it means investigators should shift their focus. For example, the previously mentioned German researchers suggest that future research focus on the effects of resveratrol metabolites.

The Bottom Line

Grape seed extract contains powerful antioxidants and can reduce oxidation, strengthen and repair connective tissue and promote enzyme activity. It can also help moderate allergic and inflammatory responses by reducing histamine production. These actions help fight disease and boost your immune system. If you want to improve your chances against disease, enhance your health and fight the effects of aging, grape seed extract can help.

Grape Seed Extract and Resveratrol Fast Facts

Uses and Benefits: Grape seed extract is an antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory, an antihistamine and an antiallergenic. It also improves circulation, promotes healing, restores collagen and strengthens weak blood vessels.

Sources: Grape seed extract is available at most health food stores. There are many different brands with different levels of active constituents, so ask your local supplement provider for recommendations.

Some of the beneficial nutrients in grape seed extract are also available in other foods. Resveratrol is found in grapes (and grape products such as red wine and purple grape juice), peanuts and some berries.

OPCs are found in many types of foods – usually in the peels, skins or seeds – but usually only in extremely small amounts. Some of the best sources are seasonal fruits such as grapes, blueberries, cherries and plums. Grape seeds contain the highest known concentration (95 percent) of OPCs, and pine bark the second highest (80 to 85 percent). Food processing and storage time reduce OPC bioavailability.

Other Names: Another name for OPC complex is Pycnogenol. This was the name originally given to the complex by Dr. Jacques Masquelier, the first to scientifically discover OPCs. Dr. Masquelier patented the process of extracting OPCs from the bark of maritime pine trees, and Pycnogenol is now a trademarked name for OPC products extracted from pine bark.