Category Archives: Eicosanoids

Babies Need Essential Fatty Acids Too

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Robert Barrington

Essential dietary components are those required by the body to maintain health, but which cannot be synthesised endogenously. Vitamins and minerals are the most well known essential elements, but there are also a number of amino acids and fatty acids … Continue reading →

Posted in Alpha Linolenic Acid, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Essential Fatty Acids, Fish, Fish Oils, Pregnancy | Comments Off on Babies Need Essential Fatty Acids Too

Sudden Infant Death And GLA

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Robert Barrington

Sudden infant death syndrome SIDS is not fully understood. A number of theories have been presented to explain this unfortunate and devastating event, some of which involve nutritional mechanisms. In 1980, a theory was presented by Johnson and his coworkers … Continue reading →

Posted in Abdominal Obesity, Arachidonic Acid, Breastfeeding, de Novo Lipogenesis, Delta 5-desaturase, Dihomo Gamma Linolenic Acid, Eicosanoids, Essential Fatty Acids, Gamma Linolenic Acid, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Linoleic Acid, Liver, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Pregnancy | Comments Off on Sudden Infant Death And GLA

Fish Oil: Keep it Cold, Keep it Dark

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Fish oil is beneficial to the health because of the long-chain trienoic, pentaenoic and hexaenoic polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) that it contains. In particular, the omega 3 fatty acids eicosapentanoic acid (EPA, C20:5 (n-3)) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA, C22:6 (n-3)) … Continue reading →

Posted in Alpha Linolenic Acid, Antioxidant, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Docosapentaenoic Acid, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Eicosatraenoic Acid, Essential Fatty Acids, Fish, Fish Oils, Linoleic Acid | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Fish Oil: Keep it Cold, Keep it Dark

Hydrogenated, trans and Deodorised Fats

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from plants have important health implications because two of these fatty acids, α-linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3 (n-3)) and linoleic acid (LA, C18:2 (n-6)) are essential to health. Unsaturated fatty acids have double bonds that gives the … Continue reading →

Posted in Alpha Linolenic Acid, Arachidonic Acid, Dihomo Gamma Linolenic Acid, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Essential Fatty Acids, Fish Oils, Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Linoleic Acid, Trans Fatty Acids | Tagged , | Comments Off on Hydrogenated, trans and Deodorised Fats

Docosahexanoic Acid and Eicosapentanoic Acid: Conditionally Essential Nutrients

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Essential nutrients are defined in nutrition as those required by the body, but which cannot be synthesised endogenously. There is therefore a requirement to obtain such nutrients from food. The essential nutrients include the vitamins and minerals, as well as … Continue reading →

Posted in Docosahexaenoic Acid, Docosanoids, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Essential Fatty Acids | Tagged | Comments Off on Docosahexanoic Acid and Eicosapentanoic Acid: Conditionally Essential Nutrients

Fish Oil: Responders and Non-Responders

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Robert Barrington

vidence suggests that some of the inconclusive results in nutritional intervention studies may be due to the presence of non-responders within the study population. For example, calcium is able to lower blood pressure in some individuals with hypertension, but a … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachidonic Acid, Cardiovascular Disease, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Essential Fatty Acids, Fish Oils, Inflammation | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Fish Oil: Responders and Non-Responders

Does Vitamin E Decrease Platelet Aggregation?

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Detrimental changes to platelet aggregation can be caused by an imbalance in dietary intake of the essential fatty acids. This is because both α-linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3 (n-3)) and linoleic acid (LA, C18:2 (n-6)) are converted to other fatty acids … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachidonic Acid, Cardiovascular Disease, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Essential Fatty Acids | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Does Vitamin E Decrease Platelet Aggregation?

More on Alcohol and Omega 3 Fatty Acids Metabolism: This Time Wine

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Alcohol shows favourable effects on lipoprotein concentrations because it is associated with an increase in high density lipoprotein (HDL). This has been suggested to be the reason for its beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease. However, consumption of ethanol has been … Continue reading →

Posted in Alcohol, Alpha Linolenic Acid, Cardiovascular Disease, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Docosanoids, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, HDL, Wine | Tagged , , | Comments Off on More on Alcohol and Omega 3 Fatty Acids Metabolism: This Time Wine

Alcohol Raises Plasma Omega 3 Concentrations: We Have a Winner

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Alcohol is interesting because despite its unhealthy reputation within the mainstream, even relatively high intakes are protective of disease. In particular, alcohol appears to protect from cardiovascular disease, and a number of mechanisms have been put forward to explain this … Continue reading →

Posted in Alcohol, Alpha Linolenic Acid, Cardiovascular Disease, Delta 6-desaturase, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Docosanoids, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Essential Fatty Acids, Fatty Acids, Fish, Fish Oils, Flax Oil | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Alcohol Raises Plasma Omega 3 Concentrations: We Have a Winner

Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Disease

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Robert Barrington

The role played by the n-3 (omega 3) fatty acids in the development cardiovascular disease is interesting because while the effects of the parent compound α-linolenic acid (ALA, C18:3 (n-3)) are inconsistent, intakes of its metabolites eicosapentanoic acid (EPA, C20:4 … Continue reading →

Posted in Alcohol, Cardiovascular Disease, Docosahexaenoic Acid, Docosanoids, Eicosanoids, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, Essential Fatty Acids, Fish, Fish Oils, HDL, LDL, Triglycerides / Triacylglycerols, VLDL | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Disease