Omega-3 Fat Is a Vitamin

In the 1920s, one of the several omega-3 fats was discovered. The researchers determined that it is essential for health and met the scientific criteria to be called a vitamin. Appropriately, this fat was named “vitamin F.” Yet you probably haven’t heard of vitamin F.

Why not? You can rule out omega-3’s fatty nature as the reason it lacks “vitamin status,” because there are other fat-based vitamins: vitamins A, D, E, and K. Instead, chalk it up to a bit of politics and bad timing. At the time of the vitamin F discovery, vitamin E also had just been discovered. Because of the scientific excitement over the newly discovered vitamin E, vitamin F was ignored and disappeared into oblivion (until the last decade). Although research on omega-3 fats has exploded, the name vitamin F never resurfaced.

It’s too bad that the vitamin F nomenclature didn’t stick. That term alone would emphasize how essential these fats are to our body. As with vitamins, our body can’t make these fats (or enough of them), so they are required in our diet. Also, a step up to “vitamin status” could have spurred earlier research on the vital roles that omega-3 fats play in human health and disease prevention.

After the discovery of omega-3 fats, 50 years passed until the first human case of omega-3 fat deficiency was identified. A child too sick to eat was fed intravenously with a mixture that contained no omega-3 fats. Instead of getting better, the child got unexpectedly worse and displayed symptoms of numbness, tingling, weakness, inability to walk, leg pain, psychological disturbances, and blurred vision. Ralph T. Holman, an expert in omega-3 fats, identifi ed the cause of the child’s problem as a deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids. His discovery put omega-3 fats on the map, beyond an esoteric research interest.

The incredible research into omega-3 fats within the context of their role as an essential vitamin helps to explain omega-3’s sweeping effects on health and disease. A new picture emerges of a nutrient deficiency that wreaks havoc in many different parts of the body, from the inner workings of the brain to the battlegrounds of immunity and inflammation. A vast majority of Americans do not get enough omega-3 fats in their diet.

Different Omega-3 Fats Affect Your Body in Different Ways

Just as there is more than one type of B vitamin (vitamins B₁, B₂, B₁₂, and so forth), there is more than one type of omega-3 fatty acid. Each of these omega-3 fatty acids affects your body in different ways. The types of omega-3 fatty acids found in plant foods are very different from those found in fi sh. So if you are tanking up on plant sources of omega-3 fat, such as flax meal or flax seed oil, you still could be deficient in the other omega-3 fats that are found primarily in fish. For example, many of the foods that boast of their omega-3 fat content are fortified with the plant form of omega-3 fat, not the types found in fish. This is not necessarily bad, but some consumers might be under the wrong impression that they are getting enough omega-3 fats when they are actually still deficient in certain types.

Structural Sentries

Omega-3 fats are involved in nearly every key function in the body and are an important structural part of every cell in your body. They are not the kind of fat that sits around for a rainy-day famine, waiting to be utilized. Let’s look briefl y at some of these vital roles:

• Biological fence. Omega-3 fats are the gatekeepers of cells. They
  make up the key architecture of the membrane, the biological
  fence that surrounds each cell. This affects the fluidity of the cells,
  which in turn influences a number of activities in your body.
  Notably, the composition and fluidity of cell membranes depend
  to a great extent on what you eat.

• Brain’s building blocks. Omega-3 fats are the key building blocks
  of the brain and eyes. They are to your brain as calcium is to your
  bones. In fact, the majority of the brain (60 percent) is composed
  of fat—the second highest concentration of fat in the body.

Essential Activities

Omega-3 fats are industrious worker bees throughout your body. Here’s a glimpse at their far-reaching impact on your health:

• Cellular communication. The cells in your body use wireless
  communication, and omega-3 fats help them stay in touch. It’s a
  lot like cell phone reception. If you don’t have enough omega-3
  fats, your cell-to-cell communication can be “out of range.” This
  is especially significant to brain function, which affects mood,
  learning, concentration, and memory.

• Turning genes on and off. Throughout your life, your genes are
  constantly being regulated, or turned on or off like a light switch.
  Amazingly, according to a new and dynamic area of research
  called nutrigenomics, what we eat influences our genes. Omega-3
  fats regulate genes in our brain and other parts of our body.

• Potent power brokers. Omega-3 fats help create highly potent substances
  called eicosanoids. Eicosanoids have an impact on a wide
  range of functions, including fertility, digestion, kidney function,
  breathing, blood flow, heart health, and immunity.

• Fighting inflammation. Like the nutritional equivalent of aspirin,
  omega-3 fats help fight inflammation and infection. This has
  many implications for autoimmune and inflammation disorders,
  including asthma, arthritis, lupus, inflammatory bowel disorders,
  psoriasis, cancer, allergies, and migraines.

Specific Roles in Your Body

As if these activities were not impressive enough, omega-3 fats play key roles in maintaining the health of your organs. Recall the symptoms of the sick child who contracted omega-3 fatty-acid deficiency: numbness, tingling, weakness, inability to walk, leg pain, psychological disturbances, and blurred vision. These symptoms illustrate the many different body functions affected by omega-3 fats:

• Brain. Omega-3s help make and regulate key chemicals in the
  brain that affect your mood. These fats are required for growth
  and development of the brain, not to mention brain cell communication,
  which can affect learning and IQ. This role of omega-3s
  has many implications for mood and learning disorders, dementia,
  stress, and hostility.

• Vision. Omega-3 fats are critical for vision throughout the life
  cycle, from eyesight development in the womb to prevention of
  vision problems in the twilight years. This role has many implications
  for vision disorders and learning.

• Blood. While blood is supposed to be thicker than water, blood
  thickness (viscosity) can be hazardous to your health. Omega
  fats keep your blood fl owing smoothly, which allows your heart
  to pump blood with less effort. Omega-3 fats also protect your
  arteries by keeping them elastic and flexible. This role has many
  implications for heart disease and stroke.

• Heart’s natural pacemaker. Omega-3 fats help the heart maintain
  a steady and slower beat. This may help prevent sudden cardiac
  death, which is a frequent consequence of cardiac arrhythmia.

• Sturdy bones. Omega-3 fats help increase calcium absorption and
  bone formation, and they prevent destruction of cartilage, thus
  playing a role in preventing and treating osteoporosis.

It’s not too hard to imagine that inadequate intakes of omega-3 will have some effect on every part of the body, including the brain. Clearly, omega-3s are required for a sound body and mind!

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