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. 

This oxidative damage is also caused by the immune system's response to microscopic invaders - viruses, bacteria, molds, etc.. 

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:

The following figures depict prostaglandin metabolism and give further indications as to how inflammation can be the result of nutritional deficiencies.

Omega-3 Family and Pathways

Omega-6 Family and Pathways