Chemistry Research at WCS: 2017

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

DHA: Socioeconomic and Gender Studies.

Article: DHA effects in Brain Development and Function

Authors: Lotte Lauritzen, Paolo Brambilla, Alessandra Mazzocchi, Laurine B. S. Harslof, Valentina Ciappolino, and Carlo Agostoni

Source: MDPI Nutrients

Date: 4 January 2016

Link: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/1/6/htm

Summary:

The brain accumulates DHA the most following the two years after a child is born, after this period, DHA accretion continues into childhood, but at a much slower rate. Afterwords, the level of DHA is maintained. A study found that children who were supplemented with LC-PUFA formulas after being born or after breastfeeding, scored higher on problem solving tests. This effect is greatly enhanced by the region in which the child is being supplemented. In low-income countries, children that take fish oil supplements are shown to benefit more from supplementation than children in high-income countries. Another effect that DHA supplementation had on children is that they were in more control of there mood. In a study with 450 children, 8-10 year old children were supplemented with fish oil and were shown to have a reduction in impulsivity in anti-social behavior.

Interestingly, a study of 4000 American children has shown that cognitive performance increase was stronger in girls than in boys, it could be possible that the different anatomy of boys and girls could contribute to this. Another gender related effect is related to the arterial blood pressure after omega-3 supplementation. Boys who had fish oil supplementation had reduced blood pressure, while the girls were unaffected.

In a study with patients ranging greater than 65 years old, those complaining of mild memory loss showed an improvement in memory after being supplemented 0.9 g/day of DHA for 24 weeks. In a study with rats, rats were given a high dietary intake of DHA, which caused an increase in DHA levels in the hippocampus. The mice were shown to have improvement of memory performances. Studies have shown that people with schizophrenia have been shown to be effective in mediated the symptoms of DHA. It is thought that the supplementation of DHA may help to repair the damage caused by oxidative stress.

Omega-3s, Mercury, Apo-E4, and Cognitive Decline

Article: Association between serum long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and cognitive performance in elderly men and women

Author: T A D'Ascoli, J Mursu, S Voutilainen, J Kauhanen, T P Tuomainen, J K Virtanen

Source: European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Source Date: April 13th, 2016

Link: http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v70/n8/abs/ejcn201659a.html

Summary: Scientists organized a study to determine if fish intake and the long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that are gained from a high level of fish intake can slow cognitive decline. They studied the effect of 3 PUFAs (EPA, DPA, and DHA) on older individual’s results on various neuropsychological tests, and sought to determine if exposure to methylmercury from fish or the Apo-E4 phenotype had an effect on the potential cognitive benefits of these PUFAs.

In the study, they had 768 people take five neuropsychological tests: the Trial Making Test, the Verbal Fluency Test, the Selective Reminding Test, the Visual Reproduction Test and the Mini Mental State Exam. These neuropsychological tests are made up of specifically designed tasks which are used to measure a psychological function which is known to be linked to a particular brain structure or pathway. This is helpful because it can be used in a clinical setting to diagnose mental deficits in brain function.

After conducting the study, they found that those with high levels of EPA, DPA, and DHA (specifically DHA) had much better performance in the Trail Making Test and the Verbal Fluency Test. Hair mercury content only resulted in decreased performance in the Trail Making Test, and overall, the mercury had very little effect on the long-chain fatty acids and increased cognitive performance. In addition, the Apo-E4 phenotype did not affect the increased cognitive performance that resulted from PUFAs in these tests.

These results are significant because they show that the cognitive benefits of a diet rich with long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, which is usually obtained through a diet rich with seafood, largely nullify the cognitive risks of the consumption of mercury as well as the risks of the Apo-E4 phenotype.

Alterations in Cognitive Functions through DHA

Article Title: DHA Effects in Brain Development and Function

Author: Lotte Lauritzen, Paolo Brambilla, Alessandra Mazzocchi , Laurine B. S. Harsløf, Valentina Ciappolino, and Carlo Agostoni

Source: Nutrients Open Access Journal Group (MPDI)

Source Date: January 4, 2016

Link: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/1/6/htm

Summary:

It is believed that the accumulation of DHA in the brain takes place during the brain growth. This will take up to two years of age. After two years of age, the amount of DHA in the brain are kept forever. Minimal DHA expansion after two years happen. The factors to how much DHA a baby receives is based upon maternal transfer & dietry supplements. You get the most DHA accumulation during third trimester of pregnancy. And during the third trimester, the whole-body DHA accretion is about 50 mg/day; AA (arachidonic acid) can be 100 mg/day. Post-natal accumulation of the fatty acids found in infant tissue is from the maternal breastmilk. With this study, they were able to test the IQ from children by examining the effect of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the fatty acid desaturase gene cluster. They based their tests upon 3 groups of children. one is breast-fed, one is formula-fed (LC-PUFA), and the other is normal-fed. The results came out to be that breast-fed children had higher IQ overall among the 2 other categories. And Australia was also generally higher than NZ, UK, and Spain. While this was expected in their study, there was still one unknown factor whether breast-fed children's mothers each had different amounts of Omega-3 intake.
Another study done suggested that the group of kids who continued supplementation were strong at problem solving while only being 9 months of age. However, a contrasting study prove to stronger with children who have low socioeconomic status with a low consumption of fish. On top of that, girls had the opposite effect when they also had iron deficiency anemia. They have done little study with children in high-income countries though. 4000 American children were tested and founded that the omega-3 LC-PUFA consumption was stronger in girls than boys though. The research group believed that they were starting to find a trace of this PUFA study to be an example of gender-related nutrition. They decided to test the omega-3 LC-PUFA intake on 6158 subjects who were over teh age of 65. They discovered that high amounts of fish consumption in these subjects protected their cognitive abilities allowing them to stay mentally healthy.

Infants Neuroprotection from Hypoxia-Induced Dopamine Dysfunction by Omega-3s

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5021959/

Article: Maternal dietary supplementation with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids confers neuroprotection to the newborn against hypoxia-induced dopamine dysfunction
Author: Michael J Decker, Karra Jones, Glenda L. Keating, Elizabeth G. Damato, and Rebecca Darrah
Source: NCBI US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health
Date: June 7, 2016Summary: A mother's intake of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may lead to neuroprotection (the recovery or regeneration of the nervous system and its functioning) for newborns against the harmful effects of hypoxia-induced dopamine dysfunction. Hypoxia-induced refers to the deficiency of oxygen reaching the tissues and dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is produced in various areas of the brain, including the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area. This neuro-hormone is released by the hypothalamus and serves to release prolactin (a hormone that stimulates milk production after childbirth). Sadly, almost 84% of premature infants suffer hypoxic (lack of oxygen), anoxic (total depletion of oxygen), and ischemic (blood deficiency to brain) difficulties. Of these babies with live births, 8-11% have behavioral, motor, or cognitive dysfunction. Nothing has been found yet to prevent this phenomenon during pregnancy. However, dietary supplementation of omega-3 PUFAs have shown to reduce stroke-induced neuropathy in rats, so studies were expanded to determine whether omega-3s could impact neuroprotection for infants. This research was found by testing newborn rat pups exposed to repetitive hypoxic insults (which imitated the effects of premature childbirth in infants).

The results were that baseline brain dopamine levels did not change between rats born to mothers who had consumes omega-3s and standard rats. Rat pups born to mothers with regular diets who were exposed to 5 days of repetitive hypoxic insults experienced a 57% reduction in striatal (part of the basal ganglia of the brain) dopamine levels and significant apoptosis (death of cells). However, the omega-3 rich rat pups experienced no loss in striatal dopamine levels and only minimal apoptosis. This research is very promising for the brain development and neuroprotection of infants who are exposed to hypoxic insults.

Alzheimer's and Omega-3's

http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/full/10.2217/fnl-2016-0008

Future Medicine

March 11 2016

Nicolas G. Bazen

Alzheimer's disease has become more prevalent in recent years. This is because as life spans increase so does the risk for Alzheimer's. While some measures can be taken to prevent alzhiemer's there are currently zero therapies to combat it. Alzheimer's is complex and overall results in cognitive decline. Both synaptic pruning and dendritic spine damage both caused by oxidative stress lead to dementia. DHA is throughout the central nervous system and is concentrated in the synaptic, dendritic, and photo-receptor membranes. DHA in the brain decreases with age and Alzheimer's disease. Even in early stage dementia the amount of DHA is lower. Also an Alzheimer's brain is unable to produce NPD1 (a pufa) effectively which is a defense mechanism. The importance of NPD1 is furthered by when there is oxidative stress in the brain the body counteracts this by producing more NPD1.
DHA has been proven to help prevent cognitive decline in normal brains, but no research shows the effect on brains with dementia. This is because multiple studies have been conducted, but conflicting results have been found. This makes the question of DHA supplementation to combat dementia tough. Another issue is that the intake and absorption of DHA is not well understood. With uptake into the body, Alzheimer's causes the liver enzymes that transfer DHA into the brain to be dysfunctional. Conclusively, how these fatty acids affect dementia has a lot of questions and within the answers to these questions could hold the solutions for preventive measures, slowing of progression, and restoration of brain cells. The issue with much of this research that needs to be done is that it is highly complex with many different factors and that there is no perfect animal to study besides humans that replicate how the brain and dementia work exactly like the human brain.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Supplementation with Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Psychiatric Disorders

Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4999787/
Title: Supplementation with Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Psychiatric Disorders: A Review of Literature Data
Authors: Lindsay Brown, Academic Editor, Bernhard Rauch, Academic Editor, and Hemant Poudyal.
Date: July 27, 2016
Source: MDPI Journal of Clinical Medicine

Summary

Highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs) are in neural phospholipids and are important in neuronal cell membrane. They help the mechanisms of brain cell signaling like dopaminergic and serotonergic pathways. Dopaminergic is the dopamine neurotransmitter and serotonergic means a nerve cell that releases and is stimulated by serotonin.
Schizophrenia
Studies show that patients with schizophrenia have low levels of EPA and DHA. A 12-week placebo-controlled trial in 30 males and 15 females on stable antipsychotic medication who were still symptomatic. Only 35 patients completed the trial. EPA was shown more effective in the reduction of symptoms as assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Less encouraging findings were also present with a study by Fenton and Colleagues who designed a 16-week study. 87 patients were given 3g of EPA a day vs. placebo. There were no positive or negative results shown.
Conclusion
Biggest improvements with omega-3 supplementation have been seen with mood disorders, in particular, depressive symptoms with a does as low as 1g a day. EPA is seen to be more effective than DHA.

High ω-3 diet could alleviate blood-brain barrier dysfunction

Title: High ω-3/ω-6 ratio diet could alleviate blood-brain barrier dysfunction in rat model with traumatic brain injury
Author: Jianguang Su, Kai Quan, Kun Fan, Jiaying Zhang, Jingfang Liu, Wei Hua, Ying Mao
Source: www.ijcem.com
Link: http://www.ijcem.com/files/ijcem0039219.pdf
Source publish date: November 30, 2016
Summary:

Researchers in this research is working to find out the protective effect of high omega-3 diet on delayed blood brain barrier dysfunction in post-traumatic brain injury using mice model. There are several significant results of the lab. First, the high omega-3 diet helps the brain after traumatic brain injury. The brain injury and cerebral edema is less extensive in mice with high omega-3 diet. The cerebral edema attenuated in high omega-3 group as well, indicating the protective effect. Second, high omega-3 diet help reduce the amount of 4-HNE in production. 4-HNE is known as a biomarker of oxidative stress. It also enhances the tight junction proteins shown by the increase of ZO-1 and Occludin. These proteins are crucial in cell communication. Third, 4-HNE inhibitor helps protect the post-TBI brain as well. When 4-HNE inhibitor is injected into the low omega-3, the cerebral edema shows less damage as well. They hypothesize that there’s correlation between Omega-3 and 4-HNB inhibitor. Fourth, high omega-3 diet helps increase recovery speed of cognitive function. Using the water maze test, the researcher find out that high omega-3 group has shorter escape latency, longer time in target quadrant, and higher number of platform crossing. These means high Omega-3 diet could improve the spatial learning and memory function.

Cerebral edema is one of the biggest risk factor in Blood Brain Barrier dysfunction. The researchers speculate mechanism of how Omega-3 and Omega-6 affect the BBB dysfunction is related to the metabolites of them. The product of Omegs-3 peroxidation is 4-HHE known to protect the brain. The product of Omega-6 peroxidation is 4-HNE which has carbonyl group to cause protein carbonylation effecting the function. The result is the changes of permeability of endothelial cells caused by changing in tight junction protein.

Omega-3 Memory Function Benefits in Aging Population

Article:

Impact of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation on Memory Functions in Healthy Older Adults

Source: IOS Content Library

Date: 30 March 2016

Link:

http://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad150886

Summary:

Memory loss in aging populations is a common phenomenon in aging populations, in some cases leading to serious conditions and diseases such in alzheimer's. Research has indicated that the beginning of such diseases and memory loss in aging individuals occurs far before their observable onset. Thus, taking steps to prevent such diseases is important in even for healthy aging individuals. This study looked to examine what (if any) effects long-chain omega-3 fatty acid supplementation had in helping this prevention. The test conducted was a double blind supplementation of either long chain n-3's or a placebo to 44 healthy adults aged 50-75. At beginning and end of the 26 week study, the researchers used the LOCATO tool (which is a "significant and robust" way to measure object-location memory) to test the cognitive performance of the test subjects. In addition, the team tested the participants using the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test, aquired the participants' dietary information, and tested their omega-3 blood levels. At the end of the study, the group given the omega-3 supplements had far higher omega-3 blood levels than the placebo group, showing the supplements had been successfully digested and added to the body. This did not correlate to auditory learning, as neither group (placebo or supplemented) showed a significant advantage over the others in the Rey Auditory Verbal Test. However, more importantly, the omega-3 supplemented group showed significant improvements over the placebo group in object-location memory.
Thus, this study strongly indicates that omega-3 levels can improve a person's ability to retain and use object location memory as they age. Obviously there are more areas of memory than object-location, and it is unclear why this specific type of memory is affected by the presence of n-3's more than others.
Although the general idea of omega-3's being beneficial for memory retention is not a new concept, this study provides one of the most substantial pieces of evidence that exists to back up the claim.

Cognitive Impairment, B Vitamens, and Omega 3s

Title: Omega-3 Fatty Acid Status Enhances the Prevention of Cognitive Decline by B Vitamins in Mild Cognitive Impairment

Authors: Abderrahim Oulhaj, Fredrik Jerneren, Helga Refsum, A. David Smith, Celeste A. de Jager

Source: IOS Press Content Library

Date: Jan. 2016

Link: http://content.iospress.com/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad150777?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad150777

Summary: This trial studied the combined effects of B vitamins (folic acid, B6, and B12) and omega 3s (docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid) on patients who had mild cognitive impairment. MCI is basically an intermediate stage between the expected levels of cognitive decline that come with aging and dementia. Over the course of two years, 266 patients with MCI over the age of seventy were either placed in a group that took B vitamins or a placebo group. Over that course of time, patients were rated on their performance on baseline cognitive tests and their clinical dementia rating. Plasma concentrations of homocysteine and omega 3's were measured.

Those in the Vitamin B group with increasing levels of omega-3s achieved increasingly better scores on the baseline cognitive tests and dementia ratings. The increasing concentrations of omega-3's in the placebo group, however, had no effect on these scores. This suggests that Vitamin Bs and omega-3s work together to achieve the effect of slowing cognitive decline. Another telling factor was that when omega-3 fatty acid concentrations were low in patients, the B vitamins had no effect of the cognitive decline of mild cognitive impairment.

Among those with "good omega-3 status", it was found that 33% of those on Vitamin B supplements had clinical dementia scores greater than zero (if you score above zero, you have progressed into the stages of dementia), compared to 59% of placebo patients. Basically, more placebo patients had progressed into the early stages of dementia. It was found that DHA alone significantly enhanced the cognitive effects of the Vitamin B. EPA was less effective.

B vitamins lowered levels of homocysteine in blood plasma. Homocysteine is a non-essential amino acid. Elevated levels of homocysteine in the blood is recognized as a risk factor for cognitive impairment, Alzheimers, and dementia. The vitamin B treatment in this trial only improved the status of patients with high baseline homocysteine concentrations, slowing the rate of both global and regional brain atrophy.

Cerebral Ischemia and Omega 3s

Article 1: Novel insights into the effect of Vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids on brain function

Author: Richa Rathod, Anvita Kale, and Sadhana Joshi

Source: Journal of Biomedical Science

Date: January 2016

Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4727338/pdf/12929_2016_Article_241.pdf

Article 2 (source used in Article 1): Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids enhance cerebral angiogenesis and provide long-term protection after stroke.
Authors: Wang J, Shi Y, Zhang L, Zhang F, Hu X, Zhang W, et al.
Source: Journal of Biomedical Science
Date: August 2014
Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24794156

Explanation of Cerebral Ischemia: http://www.columbianeurosurgery.org/conditions/cerebral-ischemia/

Homocysteine is a non-protein alpha-amino acid. Homocysteine is recycled into methionine or converted into cysteine with the aid of Vitamin B12. If there are high levels of homocysteine in the blood stream, meaning homocysteine is not being converted, a person is more prone to endothelial cell injury. Endothelial cells line our blood vessels and help control inflammation and blood clotting among other things. When endothelial cells are damaged, they cannot perform all their function properly. This could lead to blood clotting. When a blood clot blocks a cerebral vessel, not enough oxygen gets to the brain. This leads to the death of brain tissue, cerebral infarction, or ischemic stroke. Cerebral ischemia is a condition that occurs when there isn't enough blood flow to the brain to meet metabolic demand.

After a stroke caused by cerebral ischemia, the most important therapeutic strategies are enhancing angiogenesis (formation of new blood vessels) and improve cerebral microcirculation (circulation of blood in the smallest blood vessels). Supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids have been found to improve neurological function after cerebral ischemia. A study done on mice showed that omega-3s induced upregulation (process of increasing the response to a stimulus) of angiopoietin 2 (a growth factor that signals a process where new arteries and veins form from preexisting blood vessels). And angiopoietin 2 facilitates endothelial proliferation, which caused a new barrier to form in the blood vessels. The reformation of these barriers has led to studies showing the overall improvement of cognitive function after someone has suffered from a stroke.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Extraction article

Articles that are relevant to extraction of FAs listed in comments

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Gas Chromatography Standards for Beef

Source 1 Title: Fatty acid composition and cholesterol content of beef and chicken meat in Southern Brazil
Author(s): Jussara Carnevale de Almeida, Magda Susana Perassolo, Joíza Lins Camargo, Neura Bragagnolo, Jorge Luis Gross
Source: RBCF (Revista Brasileira de Ciências Farmacêuticas)
Link: http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rbcf/v42n1/29865.pdf

Source 2 Title: Linolenic Acid (for Sale)
Author(s): N/A
Source: Sigma-Aldrich
Link: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sigma/62170?lang=en&region=US

Source 3 Title (MS): Profiling of Fatty Acids Conmposition in Suet Oil Based on GC-El-qMS and Chemometrics Analysis
Author(s): Jun Jiang and Xiaobin Jia
Source: NCBI
Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4346870/

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Omega-3s and Location

Article 1: Japanese Diet Rich In Fish May Hold Secret To Healthy Heart: Omega-3 Fatty Acids From Fish Appear To Prevent Clogged Arteries

Author: American College of Cardiology

Source: Science Daily

Link : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080728192645.htm

Article 2: The Nordic diet... the Scandinavian secret coming over here

Author: Adrian Lee

Source: Sunday Express

Link: http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/426559/The-Nordic-diet-the-Scandinavian-secret-coming-over-here

First Semester Material

Micro Effects

Omega-3s decrease the chemical thromboxane, a natural anticoagulant, production in the liver.

Omega-3 decreases in the inflammatory response, therefore weakens immune system of the body.

Omega-3s have a significant impact on different cellular structures and chemical levels in the body.

Unsaturated fatty acids break up the tightly packed saturated fat phospholipids, loosening up the membrane and giving it more fluidity

Omega-3 has been found most beneficial to patients who has suffered from some kind of respiratory or cardiovascular disease, decreasing the fibrosis built up from the damage and also repairing the scarring tissues.

Omega-3 essential fatty acid family is made up of omega-3 fatty acids that humans cannot synthesize on our own.

Omega-3s fights off free radicals.

Free DHA molecules would help protect the brain and limit the damage of the brain injury.

Omega-3s can help maintain the synaptic integrity of an individual by utilizing endogenous signaling to prevent inflammation in the brain and induce cell survival.

The Omega-3 fatty acids can fuse with the membrane of the red blood cells allowing control and rebalance in antioxidant levels.

Macro effects

Consuming less fish has an increased risk of psychological diseases such as depression and bipolarism.

Rate limiting enzyme lowers the rate in which Serotonin is being produced and causes irregular neurological behavior.

Synaptic vesicles, made of mainly fatty acids, is responsible for the release of the neurotransmitters.

The transmitters flow across the synaptic cleft and bind with ligand-gated ion channels causes a change in potential, then they popped off.

This increased fluidity of neural membranes helps in allowing the synaptic vesicles to bind to the membrane easier the opening or closing of ion channels.

Children who took Omega-3 and Omega-6 supplement showed significant improvement in their reading ability compared to children who took a placebo.

People with hippocampus size in the lowest quartile had an omega-3 level of 3% less than highest quartile.

Taking Omega-3 pills increase the insulin and amino acid reaction allowing for a faster protein synthesis to occur.

Patients with ADHD and Alzheimer have less DHA, EPA and more oxidative damage in neuron.

Oxidative damage causes neuron-degeneration preventing neurons from absorbing chemicals normally.

Semester Two

Pollution and Other Contaminants and their Effects

Ellen:

POP(Persistent organic pollutants) are prevalent in farmed fatty fish because they are lipophilic. POPs have adverse effects on the body.

Dioxin: Affects AhR signalling cascade, GLUT proteins (isoforms 1&3) and the H+ gradient + ATP formation in mitochondria, lead to beta cell death.

Taylor:

Fish Carcinogenicity: 10 metals discovered as a result of bioaccumulation.

Wet season produced the worst fish to do agricultural waste, many fish exposed to arsenic.

Scombrotoxin: Temperature exposure causes flesh amino acids to convert to histamine.

Grass-fed Beef vs. Grain-fed Beef

Tessa:

Grass fed beef will have higher amounts of fatty acids in general, including N-6’s, N-3’s, ALA (Alpha Linoleic Acid), TVA (Vaccenic Acid), and Linoleic Acid.

ALA does not commonly convert to DHA because the western diet affects conversion rate. TVA converts to anti-carcinogen CLA in tissues of humans and the lumen in animals.

Nick:

N-3 levels of grass-fed cows will be higher than that of grain-fed cows. As a lower n-6:n-3 ratio is desired, leaner cuts such as strip loin provide a ratio of 3.35:1.

Grain-fed cows will have higher amounts of monounsaturated fatty acids. MUFA’s decrease the risk of type II diabetes, but the average n-6:n-3 ratio is 12:1.

Matthew:

Much of the DHA found in fatty fishes is found in algae. Algae then can be used for omega-3 supplements or can increase the n-3 levels of the livestock that eat it (still in early development). ALA can be converted to EPA and DHA, but only at a few percent efficiency. Interestingly, vegetarians can convert more efficiently.

Illness and Disease

Jack:

Omega-3’s increased the risk of type II diabetes in women. It is thought that the omega-3’s caused cells to oxidize, causing the cells to have pro inflammatory products.

Higher levels of omega-3’s have been associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer, but no concrete evidence has been discovered.

Anthony:

It is believed that Vitamin D. and Omega-3’s work in conjunction to lessen or prevent type I diabetes. There is a hypothesis that omega-3 supplementation can replace the role of insulin to sterilize RBC.

ApoE4 Gene

Charlie:

People with the ApoE4 gene do not perform well in cognitive tests because their brains take up less omega-3’s compared to other genotypes. (ApoE2 and ApoE3).

With DHA supplementation, the reaction time and memory improved, with women receiving greater benefits from supplementation.

Lauren:

ApoE4 is a susceptibility gene that increases a person’s chance of having Alzheimer’s because it impairs the body's antioxidant defence system, which cause more oxidative stress from the oxidation of DHA.

ApoE4 transports beta-amyloid less efficiently, which could lead to plaque build up in the brain. Beta-amyloid plaque has been shown to cause the cognitive deterioration in Alzheimer’s.