Essential fatty acids and eicosanoids

Edited by Roberto Eusebio

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OMEGA-6 (AC. ARACHIDONICO) AND OMEGA-3 (EPA AND DHA)

Food Science has now achieved a greater awareness of the fact that diet influences many biochemical and hormonal factors of our body, the same mechanisms that influence our overall health and sense of well-being and satiety.

The modern Dietologists therefore seek a control of these hormonal and biochemical factors with the intervention of a balanced and sustained diet over time, in order to establish a virtuous circle. Among the mediators that we intend to try to balance with the diet there are the eicosanoids, now measurable also in Italy with a new test performed with the gas chromatographic method. Eicosanoids derive from essential fatty acids, AGE or EFA (Essential Fatty Acids), so defined because the human organism cannot generate them; therefore it is necessary to take them with food.

Eicosanoids are substances capable of modulating some endocrine responses. They are represented by different families of substances (prostaglandins, thromboxanes, leukotrienes, etc.) and according to dietitians their levels can be modulated by taking specific drugs and by diet. Eicosanoids can for simplicity be distinguished into derivatives of Omega-6, to which Arachidonic Acid (AA) also belongs, with effects that are usually "negative" on the metabolism, and in derivatives of Omega-3, to which the Eicosapentaenoic acid belong (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with "positive effects" on metabolism. In fact, derivatives from Arachidonic Acid (Omega-6) have the ability to increase allergic reactions, cell proliferation, blood pressure, inflammatory reactions, platelet aggregation, thrombogenesis and vasospasm; they also increase LDL cholesterol and decrease HDL cholesterol. Instead, derivatives from the EPA (Omega-3) have opposite effects. The influences between eicosanoids and hormones, particularly testosterone, insulin and growth hormone are so complicated that in medicine it is only at the beginning of complete understanding of the overall effects. The objective of modern diets that tend to establish an overall balance in biochemical and hormonal metabolism is to structure a food situation that promotes the production of Omega-3 eicosanoids and represses that of Omega-6 derivatives, harmful if present in excess. Among the most anticipated objectives there is also the regulation of the hormone insulin, capable of modulating the presence of sugars in the blood and therefore the production of Omega-6 eicosanoids which derives from hyperglycemic situations (a lot of blood sugar). Scientific research is increasingly committed to a greater understanding of the biochemical, genetic and hormonal mechanisms that govern us and it is clear how the developments of Biomedical research will have an influence on our state of health in the future.