LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

DHA

Toss the Prozac and Try This for the Kiddos

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Without dredging up horrid memories of high school, do you remember that our cells are made of a lipid bilayer?
That means that the outside of our cells are formed of two layers of fats sandwiched together.  For cells to function properly, a message needs to pass through this sandwich layer.  It works out that the healthier the fats in this sandwich, the better a message gets into or out of a cell.  Things just work better.
So, healthier fats = better messages.  Unhealthy fats = messages get lost.
Consider this in the brain.  Would you want the message to get to where it’s supposed to?  Of course.  So, better fats = better sandwich = better messages.
This can translate to neurotransmitters like serotonin or epinephrine or dopamine getting from one cell to another.  So, of course we would expect to see psychological problems like depression get better with higher intakes of healthy fats.  Seems pretty simple, huh?
Which leads us to this particular study, where researchers looked at the relationship between dietary fish intake and depressive symptoms in over 6500 Japanese children who were between 12 and 15 years of age.  Here’s what they found:
  • In boys, higher fish intake was linked to 27% lower risk of having depressive symptoms.
  • EPA intake had the strongest effect (29% for EPA, 21% for DHA).
  • Looking at omega-3 intake (and not specifically fish intake), there was a 28% lower risk.
  • The protective effect was limited to boys.

Depression and Essential Fatty Acids (i.e. Fish Oils)

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DID THE 90’S DESTROY OUR BRAINS??

Few things have had such a detrimental effect as the release of the USDA’s food guide pyramid in 1992.  There was no differentiation between healthy and unhealthy fats.  Over the next 15 years, the American public was brainwashed by this pyramid, and with the demonization of fats, “fat” became synonymous with “fattening.”  We saw rates of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and psychological disorders increase.  Given the importance of DHA in the brain, this particular study should come as no surprise.  Researchers looked at 14 studies and found those diagnosed with depression had lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids.  So, if you have dealt with any type of psychological condition and your doctor has NOT recommended fish oils, you need to find a new doctor.  If a doctor has not cracked a medical journal in their specialty in over a decade, this is not the type of physician I want treating me or my family.

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Can Supplements Help with Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries?

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As a chiropractor, I am familiar with mild traumatic brain injuries following head traumas and car accidents.

I was very surprised at the information I covered in a previous blog post on post concussive brain injury that can be read by clicking here.  That research study pointed out just how common these types of injuries were after motor vehicle collisions.  Far more common than I would have thought, and I see car accident patients all the time.

Anyone who has experienced a brain injury following a crash knows how frustrating it can be.  I usually tell patients it can last anywhere from a few months to a year or more.  Symptoms can include:

  • Headaches
  • Difficulty thinking clearly
  • Short term memory loss
  • Irritability
  • Anxiety
  • Problems sleeping
  • Dizziness

Given how disrupting this can be to life, anything that can be done to shorten or decrease the severity of these symptoms is a good thing.  This particular article looks at just this question.  In it, the author evaluates the ability of the omega 3 fatty acid DHA (docoshexaenoic acid) to impact symptoms of post concussive disorder.  Given that the cell walls of our brain are made up of fats, this makes sense.

Here’s a summary of the benefits of DHA on post concussive syndrome:

  • There is evidence that DHA in the diet provided either before or after brain injury improves certain outcomes like spatial learning and memory.
  • Early evidence also suggests that DHA can positively influence aspects of the damaging pathway that occurs after brain injury.

While this is a review and not a study, the mechanisms certainly make enough sense to suggest that it may help for post concussive syndrome.  Looking deeper, it would make sense to suggest that regular use of DHA, in addition to all the other benefits, could protect your brain in the event of a head injury.

The bottom line is that if you participate in any contact sport or your son or daughter participates in a contact sport fish oil supplementation should be on the list.  While I can’t guarantee that it will help protect your brain in the event of brain injury, given the cost and safety of fish oil supplementation, it certainly makes sense.

Should You Take Fish Oils? Only if You ALSO Do This

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The concept of omega-3 fatty acids and the benefits for cardiovascular disease originated in the 1970’s with Dyerberg and Bang’s study on the Inuit Eskimos.

Since then, the research on the relationship of omega-3 fatty acids (most popularized by fish oil supplements) has exploded.  Protective effects on cancer rates, seizures, diabetes and heart disease have been demonstrated.  However, lately, research has not been quite as favorable and the most recent study found not effect of fish oil supplements on heart diseae (fish in the diet, however, was still protective).

The are several situations where the benefits of fish oil may not be fully realized.  Here are my thoughts:

  1. Highest on the list is likely that the dosage that many people are taking is generally not high enough (I’ve covered dosage in a previous blog article that can be read by clicking here) and this can definitely affect the benefit.
  2. First, much like anything else, supplements are not designed to work in a vacuum.  In other words, a crappy, processed lifestyle loaded with omega-6 fats will not be counterbalanced by any amount of fish oil supplementation.
  3. The processing of fats in our bodies is complex and requires balance between omega 3, 6 and 9 fatty acids.  Mother Nature provides the best balance.  Make sure your fish oil supplement contains the omega 6 GLA (black currant, borage oil or evening primrose).  If not, you may generate inflammation rather than protect against it.
  4. Fish oils can become oxidized in our bodies if we are burdened by oxidative stress from a poor quality lifestyle.  A diet loaded with protective phytonutrients from a large array of fruits, veggies and spices will help protect the fats that you take in, whether from a supplement or fish.

With that being said, this particular article just adds additional insight to #2 above.  Researchers looked at the relationship between the levels of EPA + DHA (the fish oils) and physical activity and the ability of the fish oils to lower multiple cardiovascular risk factors.

Not surprisingly, only those who were regularly active got a benefit from higher levels of omega 3 fatty acids in his or her blood.

Hate to use this as a push to be more active, but I’m going to.  Overall, the bottom line is that you HAVE to lower your risk of heart disease and stroke through a comprehensive program.  Singly taking fish oils or singly exercising is not going to give you the bang for your buck that a combination is going to.  And this is yet another reason why mainstream medicines’ approach to heart disease prevention (i.e. “a single pill will fix it all”) is such a failure.

 

Stereoacuity at age 3.5 y in children: pre-, postnatal dietary factors – (02-08-01)

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Stereoacuity at age 3.5 y in children: pre-, postnatal dietary factors

The idea that breastfeeding, which provides high levels of a the fatty acid DHA, which is responsible for healthy nervous system development, provides better development of visual acuity is not a new concept. The interesting part of this study is that mothers who ate diets high in fatty fish had a positive effect on their children as well.

AJCN — Abstracts: Williams et al. 73 (2): 316

Read entire article here

Could Anti-Inflammatories Be THE Enemy? 3 Steps to Take

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This is certainly not the first time I’ve written about the hazards of using anti-inflammatories at the first sign of a twinge.  But this one is going to take it from a different viewpoint.

I think we could all agree that the process of inflammation is a natural one.  After all, why would the human physiology have a process in place that is useless?  It wouldn’t.  Inflammation serves several purposes.  One key purpose would be the prevention and management of infections.  Your immune system (the system responsible for the inflammatory response) gears up to fight off an invader, and, should that invader break through, it will gear up an attack on that invader, be it a virus, bacteria, yeast or even a tumor cell.  Another key purpose is the clearing out of damaged tissue and subsequent repair of the damaged region.

Each of these actions of the immune system needs balance and control:

  1. Too much protection against an invader and you get allergies and asthma.
  2. Too strong of a reaction against an invader and you could go into shock.
  3. Too strong of a response to an injury and undamaged tissue gets taken out in the process.

But these are all on the upswing of the inflammatory response and controlling this side of things is a good thing.  But can our society’s obsession with anti-inflammatories be affecting the natural history of this process?  You bet!

Consider inflammation as pushing a boulder uphill.  Once you get it over the top, the going’s easy from there.  Anti-inflammatories may, in the initial stages, make the hill smaller.  But the initial stages of inflammation are supposed to end–after a few days with an infection (hopefully) and within 24 hours with an injury (depending on severity of the injury).  We used to think that inflammation, once started, would resolve all on its own.  We now know this is not true.

The resolution of inflammation is not a passive process.  The body has to actively end inflammation.  And there are some critical factors needed for this process.

Namely, our old friends, DHA and EPA from fish oils.

Specifically, DHA and EPA are required to make a class of compounds referred to as Resolvins and Protectins (I know, but I didn’t come up with the creative names…).  If you’re a biochemistry nerd, you can read more about them in this particular review.

This begins to explain the many benefits we see from essential fatty acid supplementation on a long list of chronic disease.  More importantly, you can begin to lay out some “to do” things on your journey to control and resolve inflammation in your own body.  These include:

  1. Increasing your intake of healthy fats found in such foods as wild caught fish, olive oils, raw nuts, seeds and avocados.
  2. Decreasing your intake of less healthy fats found in hydrogenated oils and vegetable oils.
  3. Avoiding anti-inflammatories.  With the exception of aspirin, which may help the process, other anti-inflammatories actually slowed or stopped the ability of EPA and DHA to halt inflammation.
  4. If inflammation from an autioimmune disorder or chronic pain is a concern, consider supplementing UP TO 3 full grams of omega-3 / day (this does NOT mean 3 capsules per day).

So, next time you think about curbing inflammation with drugs, shift your thinking.  Think about how you are going to RESOLVE your inflammation instead.

 

How Much Would You Pay for 2.2 More Years of Life?

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Interesting question and would likely generate a wide range of answers depending upon where in the life cycle you are. But an even more important question would be, what would you be willing to DO for 2.2 more years of life?

This answer requires action and not wealth.  Quitting smoking (or never starting).  Exercising.  Eating a diet without processed foods.  Cutting back on stress.  All changes that you can (and should) make that have a solid foundation of research for increasing longevity.

But many times it is not merely about quantity of life.  Quality becomes a much more important factor when it comes to life.  Who wants to live to 90 but spend 5 years infirm in a bed on oxygen, your life little more than existing?

No one would opt for this end to his or her life, although I could argue that lifestyle is a conscious choice done during life that will lead to this end of life, essentially meaning that you DID choose this course.  But what if the choice was much easier than actually exercising?

Before we get into the longevity-inducing intervention highlighted here, I need to make something clear.

Pharmaceutical interventions are typically one-cause / one cure approaches.  That means that we use a statin to lower your risk of having a heart attack and hope for the best (which, as you are all aware of by now, this “best” is a 1% lower risk of having a heart attack with statin use).  And you can’t pile up 20 drugs to give you a 20% lower risk of having a heart attack.  Drugs just aren’t cumulative like that.

Lifestyle, on the other hand, IS cumulative.  Exercise CAN work with eating more whole grains, fruits and vegetables to dramatically lower your risk of a heart attack or death.  This is where the power of lifestyle comes in.

So, with this in mind, this particular study looked at how much of a difference healthy fats in the blood made on longevity in this large group of study participants.

To raise your blood levels of the healthy fats like omega-3 fatty acids, you can eat raw nuts, wild caught fish, use olive oil and more seeds.  Supplementation with fish oils is a good idea to augment what you get from your diet.

Here’s what the researchers found:

  1. Higher omega 3-PUFA led to a 27% lower risk of death from all causes.
  2. Specifically, EPA was 17% lower, 20% lower for DHA.
  3. The greatest protection was on heart deaths.
  4. Overall, those with the highest levels lived an average of 2.22 more years after age 65 years.

Given that good quality fish oils in our office run about $15 / month, 2.2 years would cost you $390.  Pretty economical, if you ask me…

So, would you pay $390 for 2.2 more years of life?

Low seafood in early pregnancy as risk factor for preterm delivery – (02-27-02)

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Low seafood in early pregnancy as risk factor for preterm delivery

There is now a wealth of evidence pointing to the importance of essential fatty acids, most notably DHA and EPA in normal brain development. This article looks at the benefits from another angle. However, always remember that, when choosing your source of fish to stick with cold water deep fish to lower risk of exposure to heavy metals and other “junk” that is filling our waters. I personally always try to stay away from fresh water fish and eating canned tuna more than every few weeks.

bmj.com Abstracts: Olsen and Secher 324 (7335): 447

Read entire article here