Where to find your EFA's

Getting enough essential fatty acids in one's diet shouldn't be a hard thing to do, but incase that it is there is a link I have found with a list of food sources that contain the vital Omega 3 and 6 acids that our bodies need.  That link can be found here.

Omega 3's and Lung Injuries

When looking for a way to help reverse the effects of Acute lung injuries, someone thought up the idea of using fatty acids to increase plasma in the lungs to help these patients so they wouldn't need the use of a ventilator.  While a good idea it seemed on paper, the actual study proved to not work out quite so well in the long run.  While using Omega 3 fatty acids id increase the plasma level in the lungs, this plasma increase didn't affect the acute lung injuries that the patients already had.  While it didn't improve the injury at all, it actually ended up making it worse.  The study actually had to be stopped early because patients taking the Omega 3 regiment had more days where they needed the use of a ventilator and ended up spending more days in intensive care.  So while it was thought that Omega 3's could be a very useful healing source, it appears that these essential fatty acids definitely are not a form of miracle drug that can be used to fix lung injuries.

A link to the study can be found here

Importance of Fatty Acids

Here is a nice youtube video that stresses the importance of essential fatty acids, and also explains how they work:   

Omega 3's and Bone Health

When discussing health, it would be easy to assume that fats really can't have any effect on the development of bones.  At least not in a positive way, one would assume.  However, this is not actually the case.  Studies noted in this article showed that the people that consumed higher amounts of Omega 3 fatty acids actually prevented bone loss.  Another thing that the Omega 3's did was help postmenopausal women maintain their bone mass so that they wouldn't suffer from osteoporosis.  In this same study it is noted that, "This study indicates that omega-3 fats can help maintain bone mineral density as well as help curtail inflammation in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis...", so i think that really sums up how important fatty acids are in relation to bone health.  

Another thing studied in this article was how fatty acids relate to dental health.  It notes that doctors are now starting to use the fatty acids anti-inflammatory properties in order to prevent periodontal disease, an extremely common problem that plagues older adults.  This disease causes erosion to the bone that holds the teeth and weakens the jaw bone, but the progress being made by the doctors with the omega 3's is starting to show that these omega 3's may in fact prevent against the inflammation that causes the bone and tooth loss.    

Omega 3 Fatty Acid Structure

This is what an Essential Fatty Acid looks like at the molecular level.  

More info on What Essential Fatty Acids Are

Here is a link to wikipedia that describes more thoroughly what exactly an essential fatty acid is, and what some of the functions are.  It also gives some resources as to which foods contain these acids and how they relate to health.  I know the jury is still out on whether wikipedia is a good source for info, but a lot of this page has been cited to other more reliable sources, so I think this link should actually be quite helpful.


Here's the link to the page.