Men's health blog

How are the essential fatty acids working?

The exact mechanisms are not known and can only be guessed at. It may be that the persistent virus reduced the levels of EFAs, thus causing the symptoms of fatigue and aching muscles. The treatment of Efamol Marine made up this deficit. Secondly, evening primrose oil makes prostaglandins, which are needed for interferon, the body’s own way to fight viruses.

Conclusions for treatment of post-viral fatigue syndrome

Essential fatty acids provide a rational, safe and effective treatment for patients with this condition. Correcting the biochemical abnormality does bring about improvements in symptoms, though it is not a cure. It could be used together with other treatments.

Co-Factors

As in all viral infections, it is very important to take evening primrose oil together with its vitamin and mineral co-factors: Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, nicotinamide (B3), biotin, zinc, magnesium and calcium.

Glandular fever (Epstein-Barr virus infection, or infectious mononucleosis)

Research was done recently in the USA on 20 college students who had had a bout of glandular fever. The results show that this viral infection leaves patients with lower levels of essential fatty acids when the acute phase of the illness seems over, only returning to normal during the next 6 months in most cases.

In 7 of the 20 students their fatty acid levels had not returned to normal one year later. Low levels of essential fatty acids clearly coincided with increased symptoms. They experienced more fatigue, malaise, and difficulty in returning to full activity than the other 13 students.

Infection with the Epstein-Barr virus badly affects the levels of essential fatty acids. But these low levels seem to persist after the acute phase of the illness is apparently over and may leave the door dangerously open to illness some years later which may not appear connected with glandular fever in the teenage years.

A rational treatment for glandular fever and the months following it would be essential fatty acids, in the form of evening primrose oil and fish oils.

Viral infections in atopic eczema

Patients with atopic eczema are particularly susceptible to viral infections. They commonly get upper respiratory tract infections, and have a greater chance of getting an Epstein-Barr virus. They are also at particular danger from the smallpox vaccination.

Viral infections can also sometimes bring on an atopic syndrome in people who have no family history of atopic conditions.

It is now known that people with atopic eczema have a defect in their delta-6-desaturase enzyme, which blocks the metabolic pathway of essential fatty acids. By by-passing this metabolic block, evening primrose oil, together with fish oils, supply the missing essential fatty acids with their anti-viral properties and their ability to help maintain a healthy immune system.

Herpes simplex virus

Although no specific work has been done on evening primrose oil and herpes simplex virus, it is known that essential fatty acids have potent virus-killing properties. In the absence of other effective treatment, evening primrose oil with fish oil would be a rational treatment.

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A decade ago ulcers of the stomach and duodenum were thought to be stress related. Even the Duke of Edinburgh was heard to say that the trouble with British industry was that there were too many one ulcer men in two ulcer jobs. It is a fact that many surgeons were kept very busy chopping out bits of stomach and duodenum only to have their patients return a few years later for further re visionary procedures.

In the early 1980s, new varieties of antihistamine drugs were discovered which have the capacity to switch off the stomach’s acid production. The effects were spectacular in terms of healing peptic ulcers. Firstly Tagamet and then Zantac revolutionized the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers much to the chagrin of the now idle surgeons and medical students who had failed surgery exams because they didn’t know at least three surgical approaches to the treatment of peptic ulcer disease.

The peptic ulcer plot became even thicker when a team of Australian research workers, operating out of Perth, discovered that peptic ulceration occurs predominantly in the presence of a bacterium called Helicobacter Pyloridi. Both gastric and duodenal ulcers resolve following a two week course of triple antibiotic therapy. More to the point 50 per cent of people with chronic duodenal ulcers are completely cured by the application of triple antibiotic therapy. This result is far and away better than any obtained by Tagamet or Zantac.

The arrival of triple antibiotic therapy has not yet dinted the sales of Zantac, which is the world’s most prolific source of pharmaceutical income. Zantac generates sales in the billions of dollars every year. Doctors at the coal face still await an authoritative pronouncement nominating the use of triple antibiotic therapy as the first line of treatment in any attack on peptic ulcer disease.

Home Remedies

Nicotine, alcohol, aspirin, caffeine and spicy foods relate to higher incidences of peptic ulcer disease. Apart from avoiding these factors, there is now no specific anti ulcer diet.

Since ulcers relate to an infection of the stomach and duodenum, attention needs to be drawn to methods of preventing either cross infection from members of the same family or re-infection from other sources. Anti Helicobacter protocols have yet to appear, but it makes sense to maintain a high standard of personal hygiene, washing hands before each meal and the same again after going to the toilet.

The simultaneous treatment of family members or sexual partners with antibiotics is worthy of thought, but again no guidelines exist. Bananas, liquorices and milk give some protection from peptic ulcer disease.

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