The credit for this book must go to those who dedicate their lives to lipid research. I by a stroke of fate have had the time and impulse, to try and bring the importance of lipid research, to a wider audience. I tentatively and respectfully advance some original material, in that I have not seen the theories elsewhere, but I would be surprised if they have not crossed the minds of others. I am constantly reminded of how complex the subject is, and how very little I know.

WE ARE ARGUABLY OMEGA THREE/SIX CENTRIC. OMEGA 3 AND 6 MOTHER FATS CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED FROM DIET. WE CANNOT MAKE THEM FROM SCRATCH. WE AND ANIMALS CANNOT CONVERT OMEGA SIX TO OMEGA THREE.

Plants can make them and convert them, we cannot. The body has a limited ability to convert Omega 3 and 6 mother fats, into longer fats of the same family. Western dietary elements, stop people converting the mother fats, to the long chain fats. The body uses its ability to manufacture, elongate, and disassemble fats, their effects, and availability, to control body systems. These systems include sex hormones, steroids, metabolism and sleep.

The message of the book, ‘balance the Omega Threes and Sixes’, is founded in extensive and solid research of others, but is still a matter of debate. The need to balance Omega Threes and Sixes is arguably fundamental to human health.

I am no medical Luddite. I am immensely grateful to western medicine. However, the very successful commercial market model, does not sit well, with determination of cause and prevention. There is no commercial benefit in pointing out simple preventive strategies. For example economically successful drugs, COX blockers, seek to reverse or moderate, the downstream impact of excess Omega 6 on inflammatory conditions like arthritis, asthma, and pain.

This dichotomy applies from top to bottom. It is not the decision of an individual, but the sum of all the knee-jerk reactions. Researchers cannot insist to their bosses, that a discovery suggests prevention would be a better starting point, or parallel path option to a drug; they would not have a job. The conclusion of commercial trials will always be, “this mechanism could provide a target for a drug”. The conclusion will not be “this is an effective prevention mechanism –  we had better tell everybody”.

That is the consequence of profit as a sole market driver. It is untenable to allow people to become ill, as an inevitable consequence, of there being no corporate profit driver for prevention. The cost of illness to individuals, nations, and humanity, is too high.

Prevention has to take a higher priority. With more effective prevention, the need for medical intervention will not disappear, it will just shift focus to areas beyond prevention.

The balance of Omega 3 and 6, is absolutely key to health and behaviour. We are badly distorting intake ratios, primarily through excess Omega Six in vegetable oils. We also change the fat profiles of the animals we eat, by feeding them heavily on grain, which is high in Omega 6. We are breeding crops low in Omega 3, to achieve longer shelf lives. We remove Omega Three from the food chain to extend shelf life. We block the body’s internal fats elongation pathways, with excess Omega Six intakes from vegetable oils, excess sugar, trans fats, etc.

Omega 3 intake in the West, is recorded as falling over the last 15 years. DHA in breast milk in Canada and Australia, has fallen by about 50 per cent in the last 15 years. DHA in Canadian breast milk was .17 per cent, compared with .99 per cent in Japan. In Canada in 2005, only 10 per cent of women met the dietary DHA intake recommendation. Twenty per cent had only traces of DHA in their diet. [Average DHA - Canadian breast milk 0.14 per cent - Japan .99 per cent].

Omega Six really does alter behaviour, metabolic rate, sleep, sex hormone and steroid production. Omega 6 levels in the cell membranes of the body, influence behaviour and mood, by controlling chemicals in the brain such as dopamine, serotonin, and melatonin. Omega 3 and 6 fats impact on immune function, T-cells, natural killer cells, and macrophages . Omega 3 and 6 have a role in regulating stress responses, through the hormone steroid pathways, lipid rafts, and gene expression. For example DHA reduces norepinephrine [AKA noradrenaline, a chemical released during a stress response]. Omega Six makes inflammatory chemicals. It is now accepted inflammation and stress response are linked, and a factor in neurological conditions such as depression and mania.

Omega Six products and pathways have fundamental consequences. Omega Six chemical products, PGE2s, have been shown to influence, and even maybe control, the enzymes by which cholesterol is turned into the sex hormones and steroids. Cox blockers shut off legs of the Omega Six pathways.

The most startling revelation on my journey, was that common COX blocking drugs intervened in the hormone levels, in the gestation of rats at a critical period, and totally homosexualised, changed the mental sexual orientation of offspring. Inappropriate hormones at a critical time near birth, actually altered the physical structure of key parts of the brain from male to female, or female to male.

Rats were turned homosexual by drugs intervention. The same drugs are used in humans, in pregnancy, but no research has been done in humans. Similar alteration of brain configuration linked to sexual orientation have been observed in humans. Could there be wider implications of such drug interventions, at critical pregnancy developmental points, in humans? Opioid analgesics (Codeine is a weak one) and antifungal agents, also affect PGE2, and so potentially the sex hormone pathways . It is acknowledged more research is required.

I suggest Omega Six consumption and availability, connects humans to the fecundity of nature via the body’s sex hormones, brain messengers, and chemical pathways. These fats alter the very structure of the brain. Omega Six confers essentially male behavioural attributes. Omega Three confers essentially female attributes. Omega Six and Three intake levels modify behaviour in fundamental ways, through known chemical pathways such as dopamine and serotonin.

I suggest the fats conversion pathways, and Omega Three-Six balance, are fundamental to sleep and body repair. The Omega Six PGE2, has been shown to be higher in daytime. DHA with melatonin appears to be central to sleep, and may be higher at night. Melatonin and DHA, close down the Omega 6 pathways at night. Many of the body chemicals follow a day night rhythm. Lack of DHA, and excess Omega Six, may impair melatonin activity, and so prevent proper body shutdown, sleep, and repair. Lack of sleep is linked to many ‘Western’ conditions.

I postulate Omega Three-Six levels and balances, are the prime controlling factors, and external regulators, of the fertility cycle. Omega Six enzymes control steroid and hormone production. DHA closes down Omega 6 production. Oestrogen increases DHA production. The ability of women to make more DHA, helps define behavioural and physical differences, between the sexes. Building cells needs DHA. The baby’s need for DHA is a key part of hormone regulation.

The Omega Three-Six balance, and Omega Six availability, DHA, sleep and melatonin, alters the time of puberty, which also links to brain development.

Does excess Omega 6 delicately alter maleness and femaleness of offspring, and the sexual outlook and profile, at a very subtle level, of whole generations.

I suggest Omega 3 and 6 have a key role to play in obesity, by a combination of metabolic changes with Omega 6 forcing the body to store fat, interaction with fructose, and the lack of Omega 3, leading to a blocking of insulin and leptin functions. I tentatively suggest a possible mechanism, based on the desaturase pathways, for insulin and leptin blocking, and so ‘metabolic syndrome’.

Omega Six works with fructose, which also forces fat storage. Omega Six and fructose were originally scarce resources found together in fruits and berries.

Like smoking, it will take time to ‘prove’ that excess Omega Six, and the lack of Omega Three is bad for you. The body is so complex, so multifaceted and multilayered, that you are never going to get absolute ‘proof’ in the foreseeable future. Mankind cannot live on Omega 3s and 6s alone, so it is not possible to isolate their effect. That is the nature of these complex issues of human biology. As with smoking, there will simply be a growing consensus of opinion over time.

The chemical pathways and mechanisms do exist, to explain the extensive negative effects of excess Omega Six. However, demonstrating that many of the necessary pathways exist, it is not the same as proving cause and effect.

This book does not have many solutions for different conditions just three basic rules are applicable to everything;

-Once you accept they reduce one health risk, for instance heart related mortality, all the rest is a bonus.

This diagram represents, graphically in both senses, the impact of excess long chain Omega Six, on the risk of death from heart disease. This graph is from work by William Lands . He is a respected pioneer in the world of lipids, constant advocate, and originator of the need to balance the Omega Threes and Sixes. William Lands has been working in this field since the mid 1950s. The graph looks at the percentage of long chain Omega Six in tissue, against heart related death rates. The higher the proportion of Omega Sixes, the greater is the risk of death from a coronary related event.

Mr. Lands put it, you can pick your risk of a fatal heart condition by selecting your Omega Six intake level.

Bill Lands is the author of a fascinating book Fish, Omega-3 and Human Health, which passionately sets out arguments as to the need for education on the importance of Omega 3 and 6 in biological function, and the exciting and meaningful potential for disease prevention.

Long chain and mother Omega Threes in diet, also reduce the risk of cardiac events. This is accepted by the medical profession, and is backed with intake recommendations. Reduced cardiac risk is a reason to balance your Omega Threes and Sixes. All the rest is a bonus.

The question is, how long will it take for there to be wider medical recognition of the need to balance the Omega Threes and Sixes? How many children do you want give furred arteries, mental issues, compromised intelligence, asthma, diabetes, acne, and early puberty, before this simple truth is recognised?

It took a very long time for both scurvy and smoking to be fully recognised as issues, 50 or 60 years. Are you prepared to condemn another generation, to increasing early illness, increased global aggression, reduced intelligence, and take ‘western’ conditions to the less affected parts of the world ?

Please do not discard out of hand that balancing the Omega Threes and Sixes can reduce the risks of ‘western’ conditions, improve our intelligence, and reduce aggression, impulsiveness, because it sounds too easy and simple.

There is nothing simple about Omega Three and Omega Six. The chemistry is immensely mind numbingly incomprehensibly complex. Omega Three and Six are arguably amongst a limited number of master controllers of body processes.

The worst culprits of excess Omega Six supply are vegetable oils. World vegetable oil consumption is rising rapidly. The “Undeveloped” world too is seeing huge growth in ‘western’ conditions.

Good digestion is a massive health issue. Fat absorption is complex, and multi-stage. If you have adequate Omega 3 in your diet but do not absorb it, you have a problem. Omega 3 DHA intake levels for many are already low, below 100 mg day. It is clearly very important to absorb the already limited Omega 3 in the average diet. There are different absorption routes for different fats [11.20]. I was not aware, at the time I wrote 11.20, that long chain Omega 3s, may in fact not enter the body by the lymphatic system, but by direct absorption that takes place in the small intestine. It appears much is not known.

Digestive disturbances are common, and Omega 3 is scarce. Fat blockers may present much greater risks than is currently appreciated.

If the primary intake of Omega 3 is by direct absorption, a healthy intestinal tract may be immeasurably important.

We chemically adulterate fats to sell foods. The latest fat adulteration is interesterified fats [11.23]. Fats in nature come in particular configurations. Fats exist commonly in a chemical toast rack of three fats, a triglyceride. During processing in the body, the centre fat remains attached to the rack. The fats on each side are released, for processing and re-manufacture into new toast rack combinations. In nature, short chain saturated fats may not generally be found in the middle of the toast rack.

We make artificial fats with saturated short fats in the middle of the toast rack, so you can have flaky crumbly pastries [11.21], and biscuits, that last on the shelf. These are called interesterified fats. They are being used to replace hydrogenated fats. As yet we do not know the full consequence of this reorganisation of fats.

This is effectively another long term human dietary experiment you are about to become part of. Is it good or bad? Some suggest not so good, but as usual more trials are required to determine if there will be unforeseen future negatives. Given the fundamental importance of fats to healthy body function, is adulteration of fats a risk worth taking for flaky pasty. One for you at the moment I am afraid.

Those who live in the centres of civil organisation and administration are equally affected. Factory farmed chicken eggs in a Washington DC supermarket, have 10 times less DHA than eggs of a true free-range bird.

Nations are in competition. The Japanese have far lower rates of ‘western’ conditions. Japanese health costs per head are half those of the U.S. The Japanese score higher in IQ tests, and have lower crime. Japan has a far better Omega Three-Six profile. Japan has recognised the balance of Omega Three and Six in the diet is a national health issue, and issued intake guidelines.

We are programmed to alter our behaviour to maximise survival dependent on the fertility of the earth. In nature the availability of Omega 6 reflects the fecundity of the earth. Farming and mechanical extraction of seed oils has allowed us unknowingly to break that link.

Excess Omega 6 and lack of Omega 3 is arguably exaggerating the male traits outside design specifications, and downgrading feminine traits, making us more aggressive and impulsive. Lack of DHA links to poorer neurological function.

A widespread trend to lower intelligence and unbalanced exaggeration of masculine traits could be disastrous for humanity.

Future health costs of burgeoning ‘western’ conditions are almost unaffordable. To that, you can add wider consequential, more subtle, social and economic costs. The wider costs of illness to, the individual, carers, the wider family and society, are incalculable.