Essential
Fatty Acids - Their Role in Asthma
It is accepted that virtually everything humans experience via the gastrointestinal, or respiratory, tract, has either a positive or negative effect on the construction, repair, maintenance or renewal of our cellular structure.
Countless studies have indicated the destructive roles which chemicals, food additives, processed foods, drugs, pollution, radiation and other sources of oxidative stress, play in the oxidative damaging of cells.
The immune system uses oxidation to kill the invaders. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, "friendly fire" also damages and kills cells through what is known as oxidative bursts.
This damage of our cells leads to the inflammation, which is now understood to be the underlying cause of the disease known as asthma.
Basic Building Blocks of Life
It is well documented that the basic
building blocks of cells consist of minerals, vitamins, amino acids, essential fats and
water, all of which help to build cells and our immunity and therefore, our resistance to
the environment.
A primary example is the process by which essential fats help build cellular membranes. All cells in the human body are enclosed in a membrane primarily comprised of essential fatty acids (EFA’s), in the form of compounds known as phospholipids.
Phosholipids largely determine the fluidity and integrity of cell membranes.
The kind of fat
consumed determines the type of phospholipid in the cell membrane. Phospholipids made of
saturated fat or trans fatty acids are
significantly different inferior than those made from EFA’s.
Carpentier and colleagues report that recent advances indicate a great potential for omega-3 EFAs incorporated into membrane phospholipids to modulate cell response to various stimuli and to influence several intracellular metabolic processes.
Furthermore, some of these EFAs directly influence the production and the action of important mediators, the eicosanoids.
In practical terms, an increased intake of omega-3 EFAs may reduce inflammatory and thrombotic responses while protecting tissue microperfusion and immune defenses.
The researchers also reported that
uptake of omega-3 EFAs and liposoluble vitamins was fairly fast and occurred in several
types of cells, leading to an efficient incorporation of omega-3 EFAs in cell membranes
within a few hours.2A
The role of EFA’s and their by-products have been shown to be of significance in asthma.
Studies of EFA’s show that omega-3/omega-6 ratios and their consequential offspring, prostaglandins, play pivotal roles in asthma.
This balance between omega-3 and
omega-6 plays a direct role in inflammation in the body. This balance can be upset by a variety of dietary
factors:
| · Nutrient deficiency in the production of the delta 6 desaturase enzyme |
| · Deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids |
| · Inclusion of trans fatty acids |
| · High carbohydrate intakes leading to increased insulin |
| · Ingestion of red meat and/or egg yolks high in arachidonic acid |
| · Excess oxidation |
The following figures depict prostaglandin metabolism and give further indications as to how inflammation can be the result of nutritional deficiencies.