General Health
High intake of omega 3 fatty acids fights chronic diseases
By David Liu, Ph. D.
Apr 20, 2008 - 1:17:46 PM

SUNDAY April 20, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- A mini review published on April 11, 2008 in Experimental Biology & Medicine Early Edition showed that a lower ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids is protective against a series of chronic diseases.

In the review, Simopoulos A.P. from Nutrition and Health (location unknown) cited several sources of information as suggesting that human beings evolved on a diet with a ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 essential fatty acids of about 1 compared to the current ratio of 15/1 to 16.7/1 in Western diets.

Omega 6 fatty acids are abundantly present in vegetable oils including corn oil, safflower oil, cottonseed oil, peanut oil, and soybean oil while omega 3 fatty acids are found in cold water fish such as oily fish such as salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies and sardines, flaxseed, nuts and eggs.

Simopoulos said excessive amounts of omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFA and a very high omega 6 /omega 3 ratio promote the pathogenesis of many chronic disease including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune disease whereas increased levels of omega 3 PUFA and a lower omega 6/omega 3 ratio have a beneficial effect.

In the case of cardiovascular disease, a ratio of 4.1 was associated with a 70 percent decrease in total mortality. A ratio of 2.5/1 reduced cell proliferation in patients with colorectal cancer but a ratio of 4/1 with the same amount of omega-3 PUFA had no effect.

One case study reported at foodconsumer.org showed a man with multiple lung cancers had eliminated the cancers in a few months using high doses of omega-3 fatty acids, specifically, docosahexaenoic acid or DHA (10 or 15 grams per day).
 
In the review, Simopoulos also mentioned that the lower omega-6/omega 3 ratio was associated with decreased risk of breast cancer.  In the cases of other conditions, a ratio of 2-3/1 suppressed inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and a ratio of 5/1 benefited patients with asthma.

The author of the review said in the article that the optimal ratio may vary from disease to disease and also depend on the severity of the disease under consideration.  However, a lower ratio of omega 6/omega 3 fatty acids is more desirable in reducing risk of many chronic diseases commonly seen in the Western countries.

For more information on omega 3 fatty acids, read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega-3_fatty_acid