Originally published August 15 2005
Make sure your diet is rich in essential fatty acids
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
To stave off dry skin, hair loss and irritability, make sure your diet is rich in essential fatty acids.
THE body does not manufacture essential fatty acids (EFAs).
EFAs are important because they are the starting materials for other important metabolites such as gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), prostaglandins and tromboxanes.
Poor tissue structure It is the GLA and the resulting prostaglandins that are important to health.
Prostaglandins control many functions in the body, such as maintaining proper blood clotting mechanism, and may be helpful in various health disorders such as heart attacks, high blood pressure, arthritis, diabetic neuropathy, menstrual cramps, allergies, atopic eczema (improving skin roughness and itch), migraine headaches and fertility.
Prostaglandins reduce the release of inflammation-causing lysosomes and slow down the formation of inflammatory substances.
This proves beneficial for conditions such as arthritis.
Dr David Horrobin of the Institute for Innovative Medicine in Montreal, Canada, was the foremost researcher in the study of the relationship between cis-linoleic acid, gamma-linolenic acid and prostaglandin production.
We can make GLA out of "cis-linoleic acid", a form of linoleic acid that occurs in nature, such as those found in evening primrose oil, flaxseed oil and plant oils.
On the other hand, the "trans-linoleic acid" form is mostly man-made.
Too much of trans-linoleic acid in the diet will interfere with the production and utilisation of GLA from cis-linoleic acid.
The discovery that oils from borage (starflower), blackcurrant and certain fungi had two to three times more the amount of GLA generated much excitement in the beginning.
Evening primrose oil has a surprisingly simple structure and consists almost entirely of GLA with polyunsaturated fatty acids and almost no saturated fatty acids.
Borage, black currant and fungi oils on the other hand are complex oils that have high levels of saturated fats and other substances that may actually inhibit GLA.
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