Don't Know Much About Lipidology

Fatty acids are complicated.  I cannot tell you much about them, but I can de-greekify the sentence a few of you asked about in my last post:

Low DHA levels are associated with low serotonin levels, and endogenous anandamide -- a cannabis-like substance -- is synthesized from arachidonic acid.

Okay.  DHA = docosahexaenoic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid.  I've been reading about DHA because it's hugely important in early neurodevelopment.  Infants lay down new neural tissue at an astonishing rate, and they need DHA as building material.  If they don't get it, they will build with other stuff, as documented by a researcher named Farquharson. He studied the brains of babies who had died of SIDS and found a striking difference between the breastfed babies and the formula-fed babies.  (I believe the study was from '92, before EFA-added infant formula.  I don't know if anyone has looked at what happens in the brains of babies fed formula with added algae and fungi.)

I don't know if DHA supplementation can raise serotonin levels; I haven't waded through the research on DHA in psych patients.  I do know that I was frustrated with the ineffectiveness and side effects of the SSRI I was taking for anxiety and decided in November to try fish oil instead.  Fish oil, or its potent placebo action, or a sudden spontaneous remission of this chronic problem, has kept my anxiety at an entirely manageable level.  I would have no qualms about trying my son on fish oil to see if it seemed to make a difference for him.

Moving on: "endogenous" = homegrown.  If, say, you have diabetes or hypothyroidism, you need exogenous insulin or thyroid hormone because you don't have an adequate endogenous supply. "Anandamide" = happy-making chemical.  It got its name from the Sanskrit word "ananda," which means bliss or delight.  So: your endogenous anandamides are substances that slot into your cannabinoid receptors and cause you to feel that all is groovy.  Like pot, only legal.

I know even less about arachidonic acid, an anandamide building block, than I do about DHA.  I don't know what foods are good sources; it seems that your body can make its own through a series of complicated maneuvers with other fatty acids.  If you are more clued in than me, please chime in. I had been thinking fish oil supplementation would provide AA (because why else would we say "happy as a clam"?) but I could be mistaken.

Sarah asked about flax oil vs. fish oil.  Flax oil is rich in alpha linolenic acid, which is good stuff.  Your body can convert ALA to DHA, but the conversion is inefficient.  I keep flax meal in my fridge for smoothies and muffins because the thought of a fish oil muffin gives me the shudders, but I don't buy flax oil capsules, personally.

Which leads me to: what to buy?  I got an email with that very question recently and I don't have a great answer.  You can spend beaucoup de money on highly purified pharmaceutical grade supplements.  Or you can go to Walgreen's and buy something cheaper.  I read labels in search of capsules made mostly from small ocean fish (salmon is the sixth ingredient on the bottle I have right now).  Big fish can pack a big wallop in terms of contaminant load.  I do not eat, and will not feed my children, freshwater fish because of my concerns about persistent organic pollutants like PCBs.  (I said weeks ago that I'd write a post about PCBs and I never did it, did I? Blogger's guilt strikes.)

Oh, I just found a Moxie post on EFA supplementation.  Go read it -- it's all kinds of practical.  But if you are ever writing a poem and casting about for a line of iambic tetrameter, remember this post, and the enDOGeNOUS aNANdaMIDES.