excerpted from the book "Saturated Fats May Save Your Life"

GOOD AND BAD

Studies have shown that people who eat as little as one fish meal a week can reduce their risk of dying from cardiac arrest by fifty percent.1 Fish is without question the best source for omega-3 fatty acids, because it supplies EPA, the direct precursor to PGE3, the compound that initiates protective mechanisms against heart attack. Fish oil supplements are believed to provide the same degree of protection as eating seafood, but many nutritionists do not recommend oil from fish liver because of the possibility of contamination.

Many people nowadays are avoiding all types of meat and meat byproducts, including fish. These people prefer a vegetable source for omega-3 fatty acids. Alpha-linolenic acid, which the body can convert into EPA, is found to some degree in many plants. Flaxseed contains the highest percentage of alpha-linolenic acid (57%) of any commercially grown plant. Because of its high alpha-linolenic acid content, flaxseed oil has become the leading supplemental source for this essential fatty acid.

Over the past several years we have witnessed a flaxseed revolution. A few years ago no one ever heard of flaxseed, nowadays it's considered a new super nutrient. It's been hailed as a panacea for many ills. No respectable health food store would be caught dead without a half dozen assorted varieties available for sale.

Both good and bad can be said about alpha-linolenic acid and flaxseed oil in general. Unfortunately, the bad is ignored in preference to promoting only the good. This has created the misconception that flaxseed oil provides great benefits with little risks. In reality, there are many risks.

Studies suggest that alpha-linolenic acid may be useful in treating numerous conditions. The most notable being: cancer, arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, hypertension (high blood pressure), heart disease, phrombosis, dermatitis, lupus nephritis, and in lowering total cholesterol. If it can do all this, isn't that proof that flaxseed is a useful dietary supplement? It can appear that way, but if you understand how flaxseed oil works, you would consider it a dangerous drug to be used with extreme caution just as you would other powerful drugs, rather than look at it as a harmless dietary supplement.

The best thing that can be said about alpha-linolenic acid is that it has a neutralizing or balancing effect against the overconsumption of linoleic acid found in vegetable oils. Since vegetable oil consumption can lead to numerous health problems, alpha-linolenic acid can be useful in reversing or preventing these problems. The reason why flaxseed oil has been shown to be useful for so many health problems is because vegetable oils cause so many. Flaxseed can counterbalance these effects. In so doing, however, the body must suffer the ravages of internal warfare.

So in one respect, flaxseed oil can be very useful. But as a consequence, the body must suffer with side effects that can be every bit as destructive as a prescription drug. In most cases, alpha-linolenic acid supplementation is unnecessary because there are other ways to bring the essential fatty acids in our bodies into balance without causing further harm.

Since alpha-linolenic acid is extracted from flaxseed, it is considered a "natural" substance and, therefore, regulated as a dietary supplement. Supplements, for the most part, are relatively harmless. But because flaxseed oil is readily available to anyone, and because it is recommended for the treatment of just about every ailment from stomach ulcers to kidney disease, it is easy to take too much, and instead of suffering from an excess of omega-6, like most everyone else, you may suffer from an excess of omega-3. The effects can be just as bad, if not worse.

DANGERS OF FLAXSEED OIL

Heart Disease

There is a great deal of evidence on flaxseed oil which suggest that it isn't the best thing to be eating in its concentrated, refined state.

Alpha-linolenic acid from flaxseed affects the liver's ability to process certain nutrients. For example, it inhibits the production of enzymes necessary to synthesize cholesterol. Some people may consider this a positive effect because it lowers the body's total cholesterol level. Others question any substance that stifles the body's normal metabolic processes. Cholesterol which is formed in the liver is not the same as the cholesterol that clogs the arteries. So inhibiting the liver's production of cholesterol does not affect cardiovascular health. The cholesterol that contributes to plaque in the arteries is oxidized cholesterol. Non oxidized cholesterol does not clog arteries, but is used in cell membranes. nerve tissue, and as part of the brain, and therefore is an important and necessary component of our bodies.

Our intestines absorb fats from the foods we eat and package them together into small bundles called lipoproteins. Lipoproteins are then released into the bloodstream and transported throughout the body. As they are carried through the circulatory system, fat is dispersed and picked up by our cells.

Polyunsaturated oils, including flaxseed oil, are easily oxidized. When it oxidizes it kicks off a series of free radical chain reactions that affects all molecules around it. Millions of molecules can be destroyed or oxidized by the generation of a single free radical. Cholesterol that is in close proximity to a polyunsaturated oil that is becoming oxidized, as is the case in lipoproteins, will also become oxidized. These oxidized, free-radical damaged oils are absorbed into the lining of the artery walls and contribute to the formation of plaque. Non-oxidized fats are incorporated into the cells as they should be, and do not end up as plaque deposits. Here is the warning: even though alpha-linolenic acid may lower total cholesterol, it actually contributes to athero sclerosis and all forms of cardiovascular disease. It does this by causing the oxidization of cholesterol and other fats, both of which are components to arterial plaque.2

All polyunsaturated oils provide a source of free radicals which can damage arterial walls which initiates the plaque-building process. PGE2 derived from vegetable oils constricts blood vessels and increases platelet stickiness, which raises blood pressure and causes further damage to arterial walls. When injury occurs to the artery in this type of environment, oxidized fat is attracted to and incorporated into the injury site. Because platelets become sticky, blood clots easily form on injured artery walls. These clots can grow big enough to block an artery or break off and float down and lodge into a smaller artery. When an artery is clogged, cells are deprived of much needed oxygen, causing tissue death. In the heart it can cause a heart attack; in the brain it can cause a stroke. Studies show that lipid peroxides (oxidized vegetable oils) are associated with coronary heart disease, caused by enhanced free radical formation.3

It is interesting to note that the countries that consume the most vegetable oils are also the ones that have the highest death rate from heart attack and stroke.

The effects of free radical damage and plaque buildup are partially offset by the fact that PGE3 from the alpha-linolenic acid in flaxseed oil makes platelets in the blood less sticky and diminishes vasoconstriction (widens artery passageways), so positive results could be deducted. The stickiness of the blood and widening of the artery passageways are temporary benefits that occur only as long as PGE3 is in the blood. PGE3 has a short life so must be replenished continually to retain benefits. Plaque, on the other hand, represents long term damage that won't just go away once the cause has been removed. In brief, what I'm saying here is that flaxseed oil can have short term benefits, but because it is highly susceptible to free radical generation, in the long run it can actually contribute to cardiovascular disease. It's ironic that a substance recommended to help prevent heart disease can actually contribute to it!

This may be difficult for some people to believe because many people who are at high risk of having a heart attack have been able to reduce their symptoms (such as lower blood cholesterol and blood pressure) after taking flaxseed oil. One well known nutritionist (name of this person, with whom I am personally acquainted, is not included so as to protect privacy) who promoted the use and benefits of omega-3 fatty acids as healthy for the cardiovascular system and even wrote a popular book about it, suffered a heart attack himself. He was considered an expert on the health benefits of flaxseed oil. He ate very little meat, avoided saturated fat like the plague, and faithfully took flaxseed oil supplements every day for many years. But it didn't work. Flaxseed oil helped to keep his cholesterol level and blood pressure within normal ranges, but he still developed cardiovascular disease and suffered a heart attack. The flaxseed oil only masked the symptoms, it did not prevent the disease. It is interesting to note that he ate a heart healthy diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables and low in animal fats. But he continued to supplement his diet with vegetable oils, particularly flaxseed oil. If it didn't protect him, how can we expect it to help us?

Keep in mind that I am referring primarily to oxidized flaxseed oil, the type that is usually sold as a dietary supplement and not fresh oil. Some brands of flaxseed oil are preserved with natural antioxidants such as vitamin E which will prolong their shelf life. But even they will oxidize if too old or not stored or handled properly.

The oil industry tries to downplay the danger of free-radical damage that can be caused by flaxseed and other polyunsaturated oils. They admit that oxidation of their products poses a potential problem, but stress the benefits outweigh the risks. They have done a great deal of research and have accumulated a long list of health conditions for which flaxseed and other oils have shown to be of benefit. Many of these degenerative conditions, as you have seen, are a result of too much linoleic acid from vegetable oils rather than from a deficiency in alpha-linolenic acid. Just simply reducing the intake of vegetable oils is all that is needed to reestablish the body's balance.

One of the loudest claims we hear for the use of flax-seed oil is for its cancer fighting ability. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Western countries. If alpha-linolenic acid from flaxseed oil can prevent or cure cancer it would be a very valuable remedy. Many studies have been undertaken which show alpha-linolenic acid has potent anticancer properties. There is no question in this regard, the studies are clear. Because alpha-linolenic acid comes from flaxseed oil, which is considered a "natural" product, the health food industry and natural health care practitioners have embraced it as a miracle worker.

There are some problems, however. Flaxseed oil can hardly be classified as a "natural" product. It is highly processed and refined, making it no more natural than white sugar (or even aspirin which originally came from the bark of the white willow tree). Many of the synergistic elements of the whole plant are removed to obtain a pure oil. just as all the phytochemicals, vitamins, and minerals are removed from sugar beets to make sugar (or the willow plant to refine aspirin, although nowadays aspirin is synthetically manufactured). The oil resembles a drug more than a food. Depending on your viewpoint of medicine, this isn't necessarily bad, but it certainly can't be considered natural.

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