Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Does Consumption of Omega-6 Seed Oils Worsen ARDS and COVID-19?

1. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Several years ago [1.01] I came across the following paper [1.02]:

While I have only been able to access the abstract [got it, see PS at end], it's pretty telling of something I've seen implied in a number of different disease processes:
"Conclusions: During intensive care treatment, patients with ARDS decrease their percentage plasma concentrations of total plasma linoleic acid, but increase their percentage concentrations of oleic and palmitoleic acids. As plasma linoleic acid concentrations decreased, there was usually an increase in plasma 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal [HNE] values, one of its specific peroxidation products, suggestive of severe oxidative stress leading to molecular damage to lipids."
HNE is a highly toxic breakdown product of omega-6  fatty acids (n-6), such as the linoleic acid mentioned above, that has been implicated in a number of different disease processes. [1.3] It's also a commonly-used marker of oxidative stress (OxStr), a process in which primarily n-6 fats in different cell structures are broken down into various toxins, including HNE. Linoleic acid is the n-6 fatty acid which is most commonly consumed in an industrial diet.

This was the first time I'd seen an example of this breakdown happening during the course of a disease, so I made note of it.

2. ARDS is the process by which SARS kills you.

The post moved to Substack.