New England Health Advisory

After I lost my mother to heart failure, I was really worried about losing my dad, who was in his 80s. Except for a stint in the Philippines during World War II, a handful of overnight business trips, and trips to the hospital to have four kids, my parents had never spent any significant time apart since they were married more than 60 years ago.

What was he going to do? How was he going to cope without his lifetime companion and best friend?

I was worried because I knew the odds—most widowers die within three years of their spouse’s passing.

When a family member dies, you are at the center of a whirlwind of activity that keeps you from truly feeling the death of your loved one right away. There are so many family and friends visiting and calling.

And then you’re alone with your memories and your loss.

But a little four-legged member of the family, Max, held the secret to helping my dad cope. Dad wasn’t alone in that big house because he had Max, his miniature Schnauzer. And I am absolutely certain that Max understood what my dad was going through; Max missed my mother, too, and he waited for her return for the rest of his life.

Of course, my dad’s grieving didn’t end just because he had a dog, and to this day, he misses my mother, but Max helped my dad through this transition by giving him a reason to get up every the morning. Max had to be fed and walked, and he had to visit the groomer and see the vet.

Studies have shown that interactions between people and pets can reduce anxiety, depression and loneliness, and enhance a person’s general sense of wellbeing.

Max got my father out of the house, and every time they went outside, a neighbor stopped to talk to my dad, providing him with social interactions that he might have otherwise missed if Max weren’t there.

One study done by researchers at the University of California Davis, showed that owning a bird helped increase morale and alleviate depression and loneliness of seniors living in a skilled rehabilitation facility.

Pets are always glad to see you, even if you screwed up at work or had a bad day, and they don’t care if you are tall or short or fat or thin or smart or stupid. A pet’s love, loyalty and companionship are unconditional, so it’s pretty easy to see how they can help your emotional health.

But pets can help your physical health, too. Just petting a dog reduces your blood pressure. In addition, owning a pet lowers your cholesterol and triglyercide levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Studies show that pet owners are healthier than people who never owned a pet or people who no longer own a pet.

Some pets, like dogs, need to be walked, so that increases your opportunity to get outside and exercise. (Just take a dog for a walk repeatedly at the same time each day, and you have a fitness partner for life—neither rain, nor snow, nor dead of night will keep a dog from his expected walk.)

Several studies have shown that dog owners walk more than non-dog owners.

Because they are so darn cute, pets increase your opportunity for socialization. Everyone wants to pet the cute puppy or look at the pretty cat. Fellow pet owners, who number over 71.4 million in the United States, just love to talk about their beloved companions.

The bottom line is that pet ownership is good for you, regardless of your age.

“As research has developed from small, descriptive reports to more systemic study, there is steadily increasing evidence that companion animals provide many important physiological, psychological and relational benefits,” Dr. Froma Walsh wrote in a perceptive review in the journal Family Process (Human-Animal Bonds 1: The relational significance of companion animals).

“Companion animals, although not for everyone, can meet many core psychosocial needs and enrich our lives,” Walsh wrote. “They provide pleasure and relaxation; deep affection and steadfast loyalty; and security and consistency in our changing lives. These attachments bring joy and comfort to children and adults and contribute to healthier, happier, and even longer lives. Bonds with companion animals may not be our whole lives, but they can make our lives whole.”

It’s been four years since my mother’s death, and my dad is still going strong, taking care of himself and living his life.

Unfortunately, Max died of heart failure two years after my mother. My dad was sad to see him go and grieved his loss, but he realized that he didn’t want to wander around that big empty house by himself, so he went to a shelter and adopted a new dog he named Buddy.

Yours in Health,

Marie Rosenthal
Contributing Editor
New England Health Advisory

I had a few patients come to me recently after taking antidepressants.

The drugs weren’t doing anything for them. This is something I see all too often.

Antidepressants are prescribed for everything under the sun. Many times for symptoms that don’t even fall under the prescription guidelines.

But it’s big business. In a recent study, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that antidepressant drugs are the most prescribed drug in America.1

Unfortunately, they rarely work. In fact, they can do more harm than good.

A study, known as the Woman’s Health Initiative, followed 136,000 women aged 50 to 79.

Researchers found that the women taking antidepressants were 45% more likely to experience stroke, and 32% more likely to die overall.2

I’m never surprised by findings like this.

Antidepressant drugs have been linked to several negative side effects in the past, including birth defects in pregnant women and increased suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

What’s more, if you’re already on antidepressants and stop taking them, chances are you’ll experience withdrawal symptoms. Ironically, these can include depression and anxiety.

And get this – when you experience depression as a withdrawal symptom, it’s usually worse than the depression that originally caused the need for the drug in the first place!3

The benefits antidepressants provide simply don’t outweigh their risks.

I always tell my patients they need to ditch the drugs and start making real changes in their life.

If you’re not already, start exercising. Get your heart rate up. This makes your body release serotonin – the “feel good hormone” – and your mood will improve.

Avoid heavily processed foods. They’re laden with chemicals that can cause hormonal imbalances and leave you feeling less than stellar. Also, avoid alcohol or limit your consumption. It’s a depressant and will only intensify your feelings of depression.

Finally, you can also try any one of these three safe, all-natural “depression busters”:

St. John’s Wort – This common flowering plant is just as effective as prescription drugs when it comes to improving your mood. It’s also safer. German researchers found that those who took St. John’s wort for 4 to 12 weeks felt just as good as those taking prescription drugs for the same period of time.4 Even though this alternative is far safer, make sure to take it with medical supervision. St. John’s wort is chemically active and can have an impact on your body – especially if you’re taking other medications. Check with your doctor first.

SAMe (S-adenosylmethionine) – For over 20 years, SAMe has been widely used in Europe to treat depression. And in 2002, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study that confirmed its efficacy. The study gave one group of people SAMe and the other the antidepressant imipramine for 6 weeks. Both groups reported the same amount of improvement in mood. Better yet, the SAMe group also reported significantly less side effects.5 You can get SAMe at your local health-food store. I recommend you take 200mg a day to start. If after two weeks you’re not seeing considerable improvement, increase to 400mg.

Testosterone – It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman. Low testosterone levels can mean fatigue, low energy, and overall feelings of depression. Get your hormone levels tested. If your doctor finds an imbalance, consider natural hormone replacement therapy.

To your good health,

Al Sears, M.D.

1.    http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/09/antidepressants/index.html
2.    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6809697/Antidepressants-linked-to-increased-stroke-risk.html
3.    http://www.helpguide.org/mental/medications_depression.htm
4.    Linde K, et al. “St John’s wort for major depression.” Cochrane Reviews. 2008. 4:CD000448.
5.    Roberto Delle Chiaie, Paolo Pancheri, and Pierluigi Scapicchio, “Efficacy and tolerability of oral and intramuscular S-adenosyl- L-methionine 1,4-butanedisulfonate (SAMe) in the treatment of major depression: comparison with imipramine in 2 ulticenter studies”, Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, Nov 2002; 76: 1172S – 1176S.

By Inger Pols

A friend of mine called me recently and said she’d read an article about a really important test to assess your wellness and she was concerned because she had gone through her records and found that her doctor had never given her that test. She was wondering whether she should demand the test or change doctors.

When she told me the article was about homocysteine, I knew she had read that high levels of homocysteine in the blood are reliable risk factors for heart attack, stroke, diabetes, cancer, neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, thyroid concerns, infertility, depression, digestive disorders and chronic pain.

And I also understood why she had not been tested; most doctors do not test for homocysteine levels for several reasons … and I’ll get to them.

But first a little info on what homocysteine is and why it matters.

What is Homocysteine?

Homocysteine is an intermediary amino acid. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein, which control virtually all cellular processes. There are 20 essential amino acids that the body needs to function: 10 of which the body can make, and 10 of which must come from our diets.

Homocysteine is not one of those essential 20. It is made from another amino acid called methionine, which is one of the essential amino acids we must get from food. We get it mainly through protein-rich foods like fish, eggs and sunflower seeds.

Now, the next five paragraphs are going to get a little science-heavy, so those not inclined to textbook reading can jump ahead to the next section.

During what’s called the methionine cycle, methionine is converted to a substance known as S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe). SAMe performs an important function in its ability to donate methyl groups as needed during chemical processes throughout the body. When SAMe donates its methyl group, homocysteine is synthesized. Scientists would say the SAMe has been methylated, which means it has lost a methyl group. This is important because the methylation process regulates gene expression, protein function and RNA metabolism.

All homocysteine in the body is created during this methionine cycle and most of it ends up bound to plasma and stored. But it can be released into the bloodstream when changes occur in the body’s biochemistry that are not ideal. So high levels of homocysteine are linked to a variety of specific health problems.

Once homocysteine is released into the bloodstream, one of two things can happen to metabolize it. First, it can be remethylated back into methionine. This process requires folic acid (folate), vitamin B12, vitamin B2, zinc, magnesium and TMG (or trimethylglycine) from choline. Most of the body’s homocysteine goes this route, known as the remethylation pathway, which creates more SAMe to support further healthy methylation.

The other possible option for the homocysteine is that it can be used to create cysteine, which is then converted into glutathione, a powerful antioxidant. When the body is under oxidative stress, this conversion process, known as the transsulfuration pathway because it produces sulfate byproducts, can be accelerated. The sulfate products are normally flushed from the body through urination. This pathway requires B6, B2 and zinc for proper function.

Both SAMe and glutathione benefit the body in important ways (glutathione is an anti-aging, antioxidant, detoxifying agent and SAMe has been shown to effectively treat depression, osteoarthritis and liver disease and it affects our cells’ ability to grow and function properly), so we want our bodies to be able to convert homocysteine efficiently. When the conversion process goes awry, homocysteine levels in the blood will increase.

The Dangers of High Homocysteine Levels

High homocysteine levels have been shown to increase free radical oxidation in the body, and the damage that goes along with them. This can accelerate aging. High homocysteine levels can also damage artery walls in one of several ways: They can contribute to atherosclerosis, or thickening of the artery walls; they can increase the likelihood of your blood clotting, potentially leading to a stroke; and they can lower the nitric oxide in your blood. Nitric oxide plays a critical role in healthy and flexible artery wall maintenance.

High homocysteine levels also affect your immune system, since weakened conversion processes to glutathione means less glutathione will be present and less antioxidant protection will be available to the body.  And high homocysteine levels promote higher levels of two chemicals the body uses to promote inflammation, arachidoic acid and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2). As we learned in the cholesterol article, inflammation is a necessary and healthy part of our normal body function. But chronic inflammation can cause permanent damage to systems and tissues such as nerves, joints, and arteries and can also result in chronic pain.

Because of the concern about inflammation and its effect on antioxidation, some argue homocysteine is a marker for a higher risk of most every chronic condition, including cancer. At a minimum, when homocysteine levels are high, we know that something is wrong inside the body and some important process is not functioning as it should. If homocysteine is such an important indicator, why aren’t we hearing more about it?

There are a number of reasons. First, the test is relatively expensive and is rarely covered by insurance. As a result, it’s not readily available. Another reason is that there are currently no patented drugs for lowering homocysteine levels, so pharmaceutical companies have no interest in contributing to the marketing, which is how most medical conditions gain attention today. Another reason not to test is that some doctors don’t know what to tell their patients if the test comes back high; without a drug to prescribe, the only answer is to change your diet and/or lifestyle, something not every physician is comfortable tackling in a brief office visit.

If your doctor does decide to test you, which typically only occurs with cardiologists working with high-risk heart patients, you’ll want to see a score of below 8.9 units. (lower is better). In between 9 and 19.9 units, your risk of dying a premature death from a chronic condition or degenerative disease will increase from significant to extremely high.  If the reading is over 20 units, you risk a heart attack or stroke at any moment.

The Prescription: Change Your Diet

So, as I told my friend, for most people who appear reasonably healthy, there’s no need for the test.  But whether you are tested or not, if you would like to improve your homocysteine levels, the prescription is clear: Change your diet. Eat mainly healthy fats and oils like omega 3s and avoid bad fats like trans fats. Increase your consumption of vegetables: Try to get half of your calories from vegetables, especially dark leafy green ones! Make sure your protein sources are high quality ones like organic eggs, wild fish, legumes and small amounts of nuts and seeds.

Look to ensure that your diet is rich in folate, vitamins B12, B6, B2, zinc and magnesium. (If you eat as above, it should be. If not, supplement with a whole food supplement.) A greens superfood powder or pill may also be helpful if you find your diet lacking. And work to reduce stress, a known pro-inflammatory.

A special note to vegetarians and vegans: while generally it is stated that high homocysteine levels result from a diet too heavy in meat and too light in vegetables, studies have shown that many vegans and vegetarians have high homocysteine levels. One study showed vegans to have 50% higher homocysteine levels and vegetarians to have 30% higher homocysteine levels than their omnivore counterparts. This is because their bodies lack the B12 required for the conversion processes. (B12 is typically found in animal protein.)

Vegetarians were found to have 37% less (and vegans 59% less) B12 than the omnivore group, enough to constitute clinical deficiency in 78% of the vegans and 26% of the vegetarians. The study also showed that people eating vegan and vegetarian diets lacked the essential amino acid methionine because the levels in plants are lower than those found in meat. Vegetarians—and especially vegans—need to consider adding B12 to their diets through injections, sublingual (under tongue) or spray B12 supplements.

Homocysteine may not yet be fully understood, but its importance is definitely being recognized. If you are a high risk for heart concerns, you may want to push for a homocysteine test. But because the prescription will be to change your diet, you may want to consider making some of those changes, whether you are tested or not.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

By Al Sears. M.D.

With a simple test I can tell you if you’re likely to have a heart attack or stroke.

I can also give you a remedy to help make sure you never do – no matter how high your risk is…

The test checks for levels of homocysteine. It’s your number one indicator of heart disease.

The big drug makers play down the importance of this critical factor. They haven’t figured out a way to make any money from it, so they try to convince you that it doesn’t matter.

Turns out knowing your homocysteine level is even more useful than we thought. Homocysteine can foretell a host of other diseases as well.

And here’s the good news: It’s easy to keep your level low.

Homocysteine is a naturally occurring amino acid. But too much of it irritates the lining of your blood vessels and prevents them from dilating. This increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.

One study found that levels of homocysteine were dramatically higher in men who died from heart attacks. They discovered that men with high levels were four times more likely to suffer a fatal heart attack than those with lower levels.1

In Norway, doctors studied men with heart disease for six years. Again, they found that those with high levels of homocysteine suffered the highest number of heart attacks. The higher their levels, the lower their chances of surviving.2

But their most startling discovery is that homocysteine levels are your strongest predictor of death. More so than any other measured factor, including cholesterol.

High levels of homocysteine can also alert you to other problems and potential diseases including:

• Kidney disease
• Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Depression
• HIV/AIDS
• Psoriasis
• Hypothroidism
• Gout
• Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, (SLE)
• Cancer

As you can see, many of these conditions don’t have a direct link to heart disease or stroke. Yet my own experience backs up the evidence.

The connection between high homocysteine and an underactive thyroid is also critical. Many times doctors fail to recognize thyroid problems. The result can leave patients with fatigue, migraines and depression.

The irony is that you can easily manage your homocysteine. A simple blood test will tell you if you have high homocysteine levels. I like to keep my patients’ levels at 7 or below.

I have not had a single case of elevated homocysteine that couldn’t be corrected with the right combination of natural supplements.

Here’s what I use with my patients. (Amounts are daily.) You can find these at your local health-food store:
•    Vitamin B12 – 500 mcg
•    Folic acid (B9) – 800 mcg
•    Vitamin B6 – 25 mg
•    Riboflavin (B2) – 25 mg
•    TMG (Trimethylglycine) – 500 mg

To your good health,

Al Sears, M.D.
Bibliography:

1.    Wald NJ, et al. Homocysteine and ischemic heart disease: results of a prospective study with implications regarding prevention. Arch Intern Med. 1998; 158:862-7.
2.    Nygard O, et al. Plasma homocysteine levels and mortality in patients with coronary artery disease. New England Journal of  Medicine, 1997, 337:230-6.

By Inger Pols

This is part five of a series on the supplements I think every adult should take. Previous issues focused on whole-food based multivitamins, ubiquinol, fiber and omega 3. You can read them by clicking here.

The final supplement on the list is vitamin D, which is made in our bodies through sun exposure. But today, we simply don’t get enough direct exposure to sunshine, without sunscreen, to make the vitamin D we need.

Vitamin D helps with bone health by facilitating calcium absorption. It also plays an important role in many other healthy body functions. Vitamin D has been shown to improve immune health and heart health, protect against cancer, autoimmune diseases, depression and a host of other conditions.

Vitamin D deficiency is a major cause for concern as it affects multiple systems in our bodies. Vitamin D deficiency is far more pervasive than previously believed, with research now indicating virtually all adults and children have lower than optimal vitamin D levels.

The only way to know how much vitamin D you need on a daily basis is to get your levels tested a couple of months after you begin to supplement. You want to see levels of 125-200 nmol/L, or nanomoles per liter. (Sometimes test results are reported in nanograms per milliliter or ng/ml. It’s the same test, just a different measurement: Like miles per hour versus feet per second. If your test results are in ng/ml, you will want to see at least 50 ng/ml for optimal vitamin D function.)

Estimates now suggest that 5,000 International Units, or IU, of vitamin D a day or 35 IU per pound for kids or heavier people is appropriate. But some of us need more: I was recently listening to a renowned brain expert say that as a physician, he was shocked when he found out after vitamin D testing that his body required 10,000 IU a day to function at its optimal level since he lives in southern California and is exposed to sunshine all year.

My whole food multivitamin contains 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 and I get plenty of daily summer sunshine, so I don’t take a supplement in summer. But most multivitamins have shockingly low levels of vitamin D3. So even if you are taking a good whole-food multivitamin, you’ll most likely need to add some D3, unless you get time outside without sunscreen every day. And even though my multivitamin provides a good baseline, I still find that I need to supplement with an additional 1,000-2,000 IUs of vitamin D3 during the long New England winters. Unless you are in a warm weather climate, you probably will too.

If you haven’t read my full article on vitamin D, you should check it out. Before we leave the topic of supplements, I want briefly mention three other supplements that did not make my top five list that you may want to consider: collagen, probiotics and DIM.

Collagen

If you read my article on bone health, you know how important collagen is to avoiding bone fractures. You can and should get your collagen from eating good collagen-rich foods like dark green leafy vegetables. But if you find—like many—that you may not be eating enough collagen and you are not taking a good whole-food multivitamin, you may want to consider collagen supplementation.

As I shared in an earlier article, in order to maintain my weight and to prevent blood sugar issues, I try to eat small amounts of protein, healthy fats (omegas 3s) and fiber at every meal or snack. If I am ever in a situation where I am not consuming protein, I will take a collagen supplement (and a fiber or omega 3 supplement if needed) for balance. While not nearly as good as eating the right foods, in a pinch, it’s better than taking in carbohydrates (sugar) without any having protein to balance it out since carbs ingested without a protein counterbalance are stored as fat in the body.

Probiotics/Digestive Enzymes

We’ve all heard of antibiotics: They kill off or inhibit the growth of bacteria. But antibiotics also kill off the healthy bacteria in our digestive tract and inhibit our ability to digest food and to absorb nutrients. Probiotics contain the beneficial flora that your digestive system needs and digestive enzymes that work in your stomach to help break down foods. Both can be damaged by illness, poor diet and antibiotics, so if you have experienced any of those and have not taken a course of probiotics and enzymes afterward, your digestive system is likely not operating at top capacity.

Probiotics and digestive enzymes are also a must if you have digestive concerns such as cramps, constipation, diarrhea, gas or bloating or Irritable Bowel Syndrome. If you struggle with allergies or asthma, food sensitivities such as sugar or gluten, yeast infections or urinary tract infections, rosacea, acne or skin conditions, headaches or migraines, chronic bad breath (halitosis), PMS or hormonal imbalance, or achy joints, you should consider probiotic supplementation.

Depending on how long and how strong your course of antibiotics was, or how severe your digestive concerns are and what your diet is like (if it is very acidic), you may want to stay on probiotics for a while to ensure balance is restored and maintained. At a minimum, you’ll want to take probiotics and digestive enzymes while taking antibiotics and for several weeks afterward. A two to three month supplementation cycle is great for restoring balance and digestive health after any significant stress to your digestive system. Eating yogurt can help, but your body most likely needs more help than yogurt alone can provide.

Even if you haven’t had antibiotics lately or faced a digestive health concern, your system could still be imbalanced from a concern long ago. Probiotics can help restore balance if you have a heavily acidic diet that promotes yeast and causes other imbalances in your digestive pathway. I recommend a month (or two) of probiotic and digestive enzyme supplementation every year to help ensure your digestive system has everything it needs to maximize the nutrient absorption of the food you are eating.

There are many different probiotic strains and each works differently in the body, so you may need to experiment with more than one brand to find the right one. If you are facing a specific issue, research your condition to find the best strains. The right probiotic should make a difference within the first week or two. If you don’t see improvement after two weeks, try another brand with different strains of bacteria. If you are just looking to restore balance annually with no specific concerns, choose a highly rated probiotic that has bifidobacteria and lactobacillus acidophilus in the billions.

DIM or Diindolylmethane

Diindolylmethane, or DIM, promotes healthy hormonal balance through beneficial estrogen metabolism. DIM is a naturally occurring phytonutrient found in cruciferous vegetables (like broccoli, cabbage or collards), which we know are good for us, but do not eat nearly enough of. DIM can balance estrogen by blocking “bad” estrogen and promoting good or beneficial estrogen in our bodies.

For women, healthy estrogen metabolism prevents breast, cervical and uterine cancers; for men, it is required for prostate health. (Men, you have estrogen in your bodies and are exposed to it in foods and the environment as well, so it’s just as important for you!) We are going to be talking more about DIM and prostrate health in Friday’s issue.

Not everyone needs DIM, so it didn’t make my top five list. But if you’re concerned about hormonal balance, fibers, tumors or reproductive cancers or prostate health, DIM is a supplement you should consider taking daily. (I found it quiets my hot flashes.) Generally speaking, unless cancer runs in your family, you are perimenopausal and/or you are already struggling with reproductive issues like fibroids or hysterectomy, it’s something you can wait to take until you’re in your 50s.

Research has shown that most DIM supplements cannot be absorbed; they require microencapsulation. Only one company, BioResponse, has a patented microencapsulation with extended release naoparticles, ensuring predictable absorption. This company is the only brand being used in all the published clinical trials, including those sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, so it’s the one I take and recommend.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory

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By Inger Pols

This is part four of a five-part series on the five supplements I think every adult should take. Last week’s issues focused on whole-food based multivitamins, ubiquinol and fiber. You can read them by clicking here.

The fourth supplement every adult should be taking is one you’ve likely heard a lot about: omega 3. Research shows that 99% of us are omega 3 deficient, and a recent study at Harvard directly linked omega 3 deficiency to death in an estimated 72,000-96,000 people a year. To put that in context, there are approximately 40,000 deaths a year from breast cancer. Clearly, we need to start paying more attention to omega 3.

Omega 3s help reduce internal inflammation, which is linked to almost every chronic condition that plagues us. They play a very important role in heart health: Inhibiting thickening of the arteries, lowering the amount of lipids that circulate in our bloodstream, and helping arteries to relax.

Omega 3s can reduce obesity by stimulating the hormone leptin, which regulates food intake, body weight and metabolism, and they help prevent cancer cell growth. Omega 3s can also reduce depression, improve mental clarity and focus, reduce dry or itchy skin, improve hair and nails, and help prevent autoimmune disorders and Type 2 diabetes.

Three Types of Fatty Acids

Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid. Fatty acids fall into three groupings: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Each type is made up of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms that fill in the spaces around them.

In saturated fatty acids, all of the spaces around the carbon atoms are completely filled in, i.e., saturated. As a result, they are very stable regardless of temperature. Saturated fatty acids are found mainly in dairy, red meat and chicken, but they can also be found in tropical oils like red palm oil and coconut oil. Our bodies can also make some saturated fat from eating carbohydrates.

Monounsaturated fats have a double bond between two carbon atoms and are missing two hydrogen atoms. They are called mono because of their single carbon double bond and unsaturated because not all of the spaces are filled—two hydrogen atoms are missing. Because the chain can bend at the double bond point, when you mix a large number of these chains together, it won’t be dense or compact; there will be room in between. As a result, these acids are usually liquid at room temperature and are relatively stable, though not as stable as saturated fats because they are not packed as tightly. The most common monounsaturated fat is oleic acid and examples are olive oil, avocados, peanuts, cashews, pecans and almonds. Your body can also make monounsaturated fat from saturated fat.

Polyunsaturated fats are missing several hydrogen atoms and they have two—or more—double bonds. As a result, since there is more than one double bond, they are called poly, meaning many. At each double bond, there is a kink in the chain, so they tend to be very loosely packed and remain liquid, even in colder temperatures. They are highly unstable fats and they can go bad (turn rancid) easily when exposed to heat and light.

When polyunsaturated fats turn rancid, free radicals are created and travel around in your blood causing damage to just about everything they interact with. Free radical damage has been tied to cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s, Parkinsons’s, cataracts, tumors and aging. The most common polyunsaturated fatty acids are omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids. They are called essential fatty acids because our bodies cannot make them; we must get them from the food we eat.

Omega 3s can do a lot of good. But rancid omega 3s can do a world of damage. We need omega 3s, but we need to ensure that they do not turn rancid in our bodies. Antioxidants will mitigate this, so it’s important to take antioxidants regularly along with omega 3s.

Fish oil is low in antioxidants, so some people like to take krill oil as an omega 3 supplement instead. Krill oil is a very pure omega 3 source and also contains antioxidants to help mitigate any free radical damage that may occur if oils turn rancid in your body.

Balancing Act: Omega 6 Versus Omega 3

Let’s go back to omegas 3 and 6. We need both of these essential fatty acids, but in today’s food supply, omega 6 acids are used heavily in processed foods. Vegetable oils such as corn oil, sunflower, soybean, cottonseed and safflower oil contain at least 50% omega 6 and very little omega 3. In addition, factory farming reduces the amount of omega 3s in meat, fish, eggs and vegetables.

I’ve read that a chicken that is free to eat its normal diet of grass and bugs will lay an egg that is a perfect balance of omega 6 to omega 3. However, the traditional vegetarian grain-fed chicken will yield an egg that is more like 20:1 omega 6 to omega 3. Nature undisturbed knows to work in perfect balance, but our changes in farming have disrupted that balance and left us with an overabundance of omega 6.

Ideally, we need a 1:1 ratio of omega 6 to 3, but our bodies can still cope fairly well with up to a 4:1 ratio. Unfortunately, the typical American diet is more like a 20:1 and can be up to a 50:1 ratio of omega 6 to omega 3. This is one reason it’s so important to supplement omega 3s. Not only do we need them in isolation, but we need them to balance our omega 6 intake.

An imbalance of omega 6 and omega 3 will prevent all of the wonderful health benefits I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter. In addition, an unbalanced ratio that favors omega 6 over omega 3 can lead to weight gain, sterility, high blood pressure, digestive concerns, blood clots, inhibited immune function, inflammation and even cancer.

Three Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids

How do we get omega 3s back in balance? I recommend you eat a varied whole food diet to get the three types of omega 3 essential fatty acids: ALA, EPA and DHA.

ALA or Alpha-Linoleic Acid is found in dark green leafy vegetables, flax and hemp seeds, walnuts and vegetable oils. EPA or EicosoPentaenoic Acid is found in cold-water fish like salmon, tuna, cod and mackerel and in seaweed. It can also be found in grass-fed beef and free-range (non-vegetarian fed) eggs in smaller amounts. DHA or DocosaHexaenoic Acid is found in the same foods as EPA.

Eating abundantly from these food groups will ensure that you have ample healthy fatty acids and a good balance of them in your body. If needed, the body can convert ALA to EPA or DHA, though the conversion process is slow. While we probably cannot overdo our dark leafy green vegetable consumption, supplementating ALA at high levels has been shown to have some adverse effects on the body. So when taking omega 3 supplements, EPA and DHA ae generally recommended.

Increasing omega 3 consumption overall is important, but so is ensuring that we have a healthy balance of omega 6 to omega 3 at every meal. I try to pay attention to my omega 3 food sources, as well as restrict my consumption of omega 6 heavy foods, but given modern farming practices and the overabundance of vegetable oils in foods, I still feel the need to take an omega 3 supplement with every meal to ensure I stay in balance.

I prefer fish oil pills because they tend to be more stable and they are more portable, but my daughter hates pills and takes the oil. Today, fish oil often has a citrus flavor and is no longer a challenge to swallow, especially when mixed into a drink. Choose a brand that screens for impurities like PCBs and mercury and keep it in the refrigerator or away from heat and light. If it smells funny or changes color, throw it out. Making sure your diet is rich in antioxidants is also a good way to prevent potential damage from oil that’s gone bad.

One caveat: Omega 3s can exaggerate the effect of prescription medications that are trying to do the same thing. For example, if you are on blood thinning medications like Coumadin, Plavix or even aspirin, you should discuss omega 3 consumption with your physician because it can be a blood-thinning agent. While omega 3 can be a helpful part of insulin and diabetes management, it can raise fasting blood sugar levels, so if you are on blood sugar medications such as Glucotrol and Glucotrol XL, Micronase or Diabeta, Glucophage or insulin, talk to your doctor as your dosage may need to be adjusted.

To your health!

Inger Pols
Editor of New England Health Advisory