This last week Tina, my hair stylist, asked me what might have caused her shop’s owner to suddenly develop an allergic reaction to their beloved family dog—a reaction so severe they had to find a new home for him—and at the same time cause her daughter to develop a severe case of asthma. I didn’t know, but I went searching. I was amazed at what I found. I think you will be as well.
One of the most important groups of nutrients in our diet—as important as vitamins and minerals—are the essential fatty acids (EFAs). Research indicates they may be as important to our health as taking our daily multi-vitamins.
When an individual is low in EFAs, she will develop allergies to things such as corn and wheat, cats or dogs, detergent, dust, feathers, or wool. By replenishing the body’s stores of essential fatty acids, these allergies will usually go away. Allergies often go away when the nutritional deficiency that caused them is addressed. In other words, no one should be allergic to wheat forever. The key is to replenish the EFAs.
What about the asthma? Turns out low EFAs also cause respiratory problems such as asthma and emphysema.
There are a host of other symptoms that result from a deficiency of essential fatty acids. Following are a number of symptoms that could be improved by increasing one’s intake of EFAs:
- Gritty feeling in the eyes or dryness
- Lack of tearing
- Adrenal insufficiency
- History of miscarriages
- Infertility
- PMS
- Hair loss
- Alopecia (patchy hair loss)
- Brittle hair; split ends
- Patches of hair that are unmanageable; they stick up on end
- Bleeding gums
- Poor wound healing
- Nose bleeds
- Hardening of the arteries
- Heart attack
- Brittle nails
- Skin problems such as dry, flaky skin or dry patches of skin
- Chapped lips
- Eczema
- Psoriasis
- Easy bruising (this can also be due to a vitamin C and bioflavonoid deficiency)
- Enlarged pores
- Irritability/nervousness
- Memory loss
- Headaches
A Low-Fat Diet Can Harm Our Health
The low-fat, no-fat craze has wreaked havoc with our health. The advocates of this kind of diet didn’t tell us that omitting essential fatty acids would set the stage for all sort of problems—from dry skin and thinning hair, to allergies and asthma, to psoriasis and eczema. Low-fat diets can also contribute to joint problems, arthritis, inflammation, PMS, depression, and mental disorders.
The Best Sources of Essential Fatty Acids
The EFAs include alpha linolenic acid (ALA), gamma linolenic acid (GLA), and eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
Next, we’ll look at each of these fatty and their best food sources.
You’ve probably heard many times about the good fats in fish and fish oils. It turns out that fish, and especially salmon, provides some the very best EFAs—EPA and DHA. Both EPA and DHA have been found to be deficient in individuals suffering from bipolar disorder, dementia, Alzheimer’s, aggression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A landmark study published in January, 2001 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) studied the diets of 80,000 female nurses over the course of 14 years. They found that stroke due to blood clots could be reduced by 50 percent by eating fish two to four times per week. In October, 2000 the American Heart Association released new guidelines recommending that everyone eat at least two 3-ounce servings of fish every week.