Vitamins

Does the Professor recommend 20g daily for both men and women, regardless of size? There is a suggestion in another post of this, I am female 5ft 5 and 65kg, and am 3 weeks into the diet. I have had MS for 12 years and am just starting to need a cane some of the time. I have found already that I am less tired but that may well be psychological that I am actually doing something positive!

Wendy

Yes, and also if you are taking it in flaxseed oil, then by all means have a bit more - you should be having twice the amount of omega 3 to omega 6 and flaxseed oil contains less saturate fat than fish oil.

Lisa, just when I think I understand.... when the book finally arrives it may be clearer!

I am taking 10ml of Fish Oil (Omega 3 on label) and 10ml Flax Seed oil (just Omega 3 on label). Should I also be taking Omega 6, or am I getting that from nuts seeds and grains etc?

Wendy

Wendy you are doing just fine! Omega 6 comes from nuts & some vegetables. Rebecca recommends the following site for finding out more of what our food contains, and she's right it's an excellent source: here is a page on brazilnuts, if you scroll down and look under Fats you will see the breakdown of the fatty acids.

Korimako, just so we can be sure about your fish oil, would you please tell us more about what the label says? Does it say anything about the amount of DHA and EPA? How about saturated fat? What does it say about that. It would be nice to know what the label says.

Thanks! There is so much variation in fish oil that it is hard to know if a fish oil is a good one unless one reads the label carefully. And, even then, the label might have all of the needed information.

Rebecca

Rebecca,
The brand is Nordic Naturals.
EPA 825 mg 18% by volume
DPA 550 mg 12% bv
Other Omega 3's 350 mg 8% bv
Total Omega 3's 1725 mg 38% bv
Saturated fat 1.5%

www.nutritiondata.com is a great reference.

Wendy

Hi,

That fish oil looks okay to me although I wish that it had more DHA than EPA. I am also hoping it does not have any Vitamin E in it. I ensure my fish oils do not include vitamin E because of the problems with vitamin E supplements. I get my Vitamin E from sunflower seeds--I eat them everyday because they also contain linoleic acid, a fat recommended by the UK National Health Service for treatment of MS.

It is interesting that in fish oils highe price does not necessarily mean higher quality. I actually take an inexpensive fish oil that was tested by a consumer protection group here in the USA. I don't think it is available in other countries, however.

Best wishes and try not to be too afraid. MS usually does not turn out to be as bad as most imagine it will be. You know how it goes--we tend to exaggerate things a bit when we are frightened. At the same time, Jelinek's ideas are top notch. I think he diet recommendations are more important than any medicine you can take.

Rebecca

This could be a bit technical, possibly only answerable by the medically trained ..... from blood tests we know that my husband has a "partial delta-6-desaturase enzyme block". This results in his linoleic acid being high. He has been told to take zinc supplements "to help with this".

I did the usual self-help Google search of the "partial delta-6-desaturase enzyme block" and came upon this link:

http://www.level1diet.com/fish-vs-flax-oil.html

which discusses flax v fish oil. To quote:
"Furthermore, the D6D enzyme is very fragile. It is often blocked by other things people are eating or doing. Alcohol from wine and beer or whisky blocks it. Smoking and chewing tobacco products block it.
Eating lots of omega-6 polyunstaturated or saturated fats block it or use it up quickly. Stress blocks it. A long list of activities and dietary products will block D6D, even if people do make it and are not completely "deficient". If it is blocked this way, then these people are essentially deficient as far as its ability to convert flax oil into GLA or EPA nutrients."

The way I read it, my husband is unable therefore to absorb any benefits from flaxseed oil and should be staying with fish oil.

Is anyone able to shed any light on this?
Thank-you!

[George]

Hi

Yes you are right. D6 desaturase is the enzyme catalysing the conversion of alpha linolenic acid (from flaxseed oil) ultimately to the fish oil EPA, and linoleic acid to gamma linolenic acid. It requires vitamin B6, magnesium and zinc to work optimally, and is inhibited by a range of things including alcohol and saturated fat. If you have a deficiency of this enzyme, it would be worth taking fish oils directly in the doses recommended here, and I would also take gamma linolenic acid (evening primrose oil is a good source), around 5mls daily, as this is also a required essential fatty acid whose production will be limited by the enzyme deficiency. There is no harm in continuing to take flaxseed oil though; some of it will be converted to fish oil, and some will remain as alpha linolenic acid, which in its own right has very good structural properties for cell membranes (fluidity, pliability). Have a look at http://www.asthmaworld.org/asthma-OMEGA3.htm.

Hope this helps

Be well

George

Thank-you very much George for such a speedy reply. It is very reassuring to feel that there is "someone out there" who is happy (and keen) to help.

Through bloodtests at Biolab in London (recommended by a GP friend in the UK) my husband was not only found to have the delta-6-desaturase enzyme block but also to be deficient in zinc and B2 and to have quite high (42.1) serum mercury levels. He now takes 30mg of zinc when he gets up in the night (as it is apparently best taken during a 4 hour fast) plus Blackmores Mega B Complex which contains, among others, 50mg of B2. Unfortunately the Biolab tests did not test vitamin D but I am giving my husband 5000iU of D3 per day. This is all very new to us, having discovered your website and book just recently so we are slowly (both) converting to your diet. It is good to feel that we have the power to do something ourselves, instead of relying entirely on drugs (2 years of Tysabri, possibly about to switch to Copaxone). It is hard to comprehend that neither our Australian GP, nor the three neurologists my husband has seen to date, pointed us in your direction.

Rest assured we will be doing our best to "spread the word".