Note:
I preface this article with a clear statement that I am not a health
professional. Please check with your doctor before you give your child
supplements. This information is gleaned from my own research and is offered
parent to parent.
Also,
I am not positing my experience with my daughter as conclusive evidence. For
anyone interested, this is not the only supplement we are using, but this
discussion is limited to EFAs.
When
Naomi Sarah was diagnosed at 3 months old with Prader Willi Syndrome, I
immediately began to research what others have done to help their children
nutritionally. Additionally, I looked for supplements used to treat similar
symptoms not necessarily specific to PWS but which are part of the syndrome.
The
purpose of this article is to share with you the reasons I decided to use fish
oil supplements to help in speech and brain development. You can hardly pick up
a magazine without an article or reference to our need for essential fatty acids
(EFAs). This is no longer a fringe idea. Almost everyone agrees that EFAs are
beneficial to heart health, reduce the risk of cancer, and may bestow mental
health benefits. For instance, EFAs are being used to treat patients with
manic-depression. Also, baby formulas are now including DHA.
This
got me thinking that I should try to determine why this might be.
First I needed to understand the meaning of all the acronyms being
bandied about in the articles I was reading—EFA, EPA, DHA, etc.
Essential
fatty acids are either omega-3 oils or omega-6 oils. EPA
stands for eicosapentaenoic acid and is a polyunsaturated fatty acid with 20
carbon atoms. DHA stands for docosahexaenoic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid
with 22 carbon atoms. Both are members of the omega-3 group of essential fatty
acids. EPA and DHA are found exclusively in marine animals—in fatty fish. The
best sources are fresh tuna, herring, sardines, and salmon.
Another
omega-3 fatty acid is ALA which stands for alpha-linolenic acid. It is found in
flaxseed and flaxseed oil and has 18 carbon atoms. It can be converted to EPA in
the body (in the liver) by the addition of two carbon atoms. EPA, in turn, can
be converted to DHA.
Omega-6
sources are corn oil, wheat germ oil, soy oil, borage oil, evening primrose oil,
blackcurrant oil plus many of the other cooking oils you find in the grocery
store. Almost all processed foods are very high in omega-6's.
As I mentioned above, we started Naomi Sarah on fish oils. We began giving her cod liver oil when she was about 5 months old. At the time, I was using a nutritional protocol suggested for the treatment of autism. At about 7 months, we switched her first to Efalex and at 8 months to ProEFA, a product which balances the omega 3’s and 6’s. We continued using this until she was about 14 months old. Then, my vegetarian leanings came into play, and I decided to try a product I had read about: Udo’s Oil.
The
blurb on Udo’s Oil reads: “Udo's Choice Oil Blend is a carefully blended mix
of the finest Omega 3, 6 and 9 varieties of Essential Fatty Acid sources.”
Apparently, the source of omega 3’s in this all-vegetarian product is
flaxseed. The oil definitely tasted
better than fish oil, and I was excited to try it both for Naomi Sarah and for
myself.
Unfortunately,
over the next couple of months, we saw Naomi Sarah’s language development slow
and then stop. She had been saying about 6-7 words and also using sign language
to communicate with us. Now, there
may have been other factors contributing, such as a real burst in her motor
skills. She began taking steps at 13 months, and by 15 months, she was really
walking well.
However, this is when I made the
decision to research using flaxseed versus fish oil as a source of omega 3’s.
I found references to research done by the National Institutes of Health
attempting to determine just how much ALA (remember, this is the omega 3 in
flaxseed oil) is actually converted to EPA in the body. The study was small and
included eight healthy subjects who were fed a standard diet for three weeks and
then given one gram of ALA labeled with an isotope tracer. The diet was
beef-based to avoid extraneous sources of EPA and DHA. The researchers measured
blood plasma concentrations of ALA, EPA, and DHA 8, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 168 hours
after ingestion of the labeled ALA.
The results show that only about 0.2 per cent of the ALA (2 mg) was actually converted to EPA. In contrast, about 23 per cent of the EPA was available for conversion to DHA. The researchers also noted that the half-life (the time it takes to reduce initial concentration by 50 per cent) of ALA in blood plasma was quite low at about one hour. In comparison, the half-life of EPA was 67 hours and that of DHA 20 hours.
So the conclusion of this study is that ALA is not a viable source of EPA and DHA and cannot replace fish and fish oils in the diet. (Journal of Lipid Research, Vol. 42, August 2001, pp. 1257-65)
Additionally,
on the speechville.com website,
I found more information about using flaxseed oil. The following is a quote from
Dr. Robert Katz (Director for EFA
Research, Cherab Foundation):
Flax
seed oil or freshly ground flax seeds are an excellent source of the essential
omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA or LNA) which is the quintessential parent
member of the omega-3 family of essential fatty acids (EFAs). The body
transforms it into EPA and the EPA into DHA.
This transformation is very inefficient (the yield is about 10%) and is further
inhibited by over consumption of omega-6 fatty acids from most vegetable oils or
certain disease states. Therefore, it is advisable to independently consume also
ready-made EPA and DHA from good quality fish of from high quality fish oil
supplements. Some recommended intakes are listed on the Introductory lecture on
EFAs that I gave at the First Conference on Therapy of Verbal Apraxia, July
23-24, 2001, Morristown, NJ.
By
the way, this website has lots of information about EFAs and other ways to help
speech delay. Also see cherab.org for
more information.
Summing
Up
It
has been six weeks since we switched back to ProEFA. I have noticed a big jump
in Naomi Sarah’s language. She is using almost all of the words she had lost,
and she has added more. She is using her signs to tell us what she wants, too.
Her speech therapist is very pleased and sees the difference very clearly.
My
understanding is that there are a number of very good products which achieve a
good balance of omega 3’s and 6’s. The newest ProEFA product, which is the
one I am giving to Naomi Sarah now, also includes borage oil (another omega 6
source) for gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and oleic acid as an omega 9 source.
Other good products are: Ultimate Omega, Coromega,
Efalex, and EyeQ. I order ProEFA from Kirkman Labs (kirkmanlabs.com)
or from the speechville.com website.
Yael
Putney
Manager
of Technical Documentation
DataCore
Software Corporation
Fort
Lauderdale, FL