Also see:
Toxicity of Stored PUFA
PUFA Promote Stress Response; Saturated Fats Suppress Stress Response
Dietary PUFA Reflected in Human Subcutaneous Fat Tissue
Israeli Paradox: High Omega -6 Diet Promotes Disease
PUFA Accumulation & Aging
Unsaturated Fats and Longevity
Arachidonic Acid’s Role in Stress and Shock
Protective “Essential Fatty Acid Deficiency”
Anti-Inflammatory Omega -9 Mead Acid (Eicosatrienoic acid)
“Curing” a High Metabolic Rate with Unsaturated Fats
Fat Deficient Animals – Activity of Cytochrome Oxidase
Ray Peat, PhD Quotes on Therapeutic Effects of Niacinamide
Benefits of Aspirin
Ray Peat, PhD on Low Blood Sugar & Stress Reaction
Low Blood Sugar Basics
Medium Chain Fats, Ketones, and Brain Function
Medium Chain Fats from Saturated Fat – Weight Management Friendly
Quotes by Ray Peat, PhD:
“Saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids are selectively retained by fat cells (Speake, et al., 1997).”
“When we don’t eat for many hours, our glycogen stores decrease, and adrenaline secretion is increased, liberating more glucose as long as glycogen is available, but also liberating fatty acids from the fatty tissues. When the diet has chronically contained more polyunsaturated fats than can be oxidized immediately or detoxified by the liver, the fat stores will contain a disproportionate amount of them, since fat cells preferentially oxidize saturated fats for their own energy, and the greater water solubility of the PUFA causes them to be preferentially released into the bloodstream during stress.
In good health, especially in children, the stress hormones are produced only in the amount needed, because of negative feedback from the free saturated fatty acids, which inhibit the production of adrenalin and adrenal steroids, and eating protein and carbohydrate will quickly end the stress. But when the fat stores contain mainly PUFA, the free fatty acids in the serum will be mostly linoleic acid and arachidonic acid, and smaller amounts of other unsaturated fatty acids. These PUFA stimulate the stress hormones, ACTH, cortisol, adrenaline, glucagon, and prolactin, which increase lipolysis, producing more fatty acids in a vicious circle. In the relative absence of PUFA, the stress reaction is self limiting, but under the influence of PUFA, the stress response becomes self-amplifying.
When stress is very intense, as in trauma or sepsis, the reaction of liberating fatty acids can become dangerously counter-productive, producing the state of shock. In shock, the liberation of free fatty acids interferes with the use of glucose for energy and causes cells to take up water and calcium (depleting blood volume and reducing circulation) and to leak ATP, enzymes, and other cell contents (Boudreault and Grygorczyk, 2008; Wolfe, et al., 1983; Selzner, et al, 2004; van der Wijk, 2003), in something like a systemic inflammatory state (Fabiano, et al., 2008) often leading to death.”
“My argument here will be that some of our adaptive, protective regulatory processes are overridden by the excessive supply of unsaturated fats–supported by a few other toxins–in our diet, acting as a false-signal system, and that cholesterol, pregnenolone, and progesterone which are our main long-range defenses, are overcome by the effects of the unsaturated fats, and that the resulting cascade of ineffective and defective reactions (including various estrogen-stimulated processes) leads to lower and lower energy production, reduced function, and death. At certain times, especially childhood and old age, iron (which also has important regulatory roles) accumulates to the point that its signal functions may be inappropriate.”
Biochim Biophys Acta. 1997 Apr 21;1345(3):317-26.
The preferential mobilisation of C20 and C22 polyunsaturated fatty acids from the adipose tissue of the chick embryo: potential implications regarding the provision of essential fatty acids for neural development.
Speake BK, Cerolini S, Maldjian A, Noble RC.
The aim of this study was to determine the relative mobilisation of the different fatty acyl components of the triacylglycerol (TAG) of the chick embryo’s adipose tissue in the light of the specific requirements of the developing neural tissues of the embryo for C20-22 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Pieces of adipose tissue, obtained from embryos at various developmental stages, were incubated in vitro in Dulbecco’s Medium containing serum albumen. The fatty acid compositions of the initial tissue TAG and of the free fatty acid (FFA) mobilised from the tissue during 1 h of incubation were determined and compared. The composition of the FFA released into the medium under conditions of basal (i.e., unstimulated) lipolysis was markedly different in several respects from that of the TAG from which it originated. The polyunsaturated fatty acids, 20:4n-6, 20:5n-3, 22:5n-3 and 22:6n-3, were consistently found to be preferentially released into the medium, whereas the major fatty acyl constituents of the tissue, 16:0 and 18:1n-9, were selectively retained in the TAG. For example, at day 18 of development, the proportions (% w/w of fatty acids) of 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 released into the incubation medium were respectively 6.5 and 7.5 times higher than in the original tissue TAG. Glucagon stimulated the overall rate of mobilisation by approx. 2-fold and also partially suppressed the preferential mobilisation of C20-22 polyunsaturates. These results may be relevant to the elucidation of the means by which essential polyunsaturates are delivered from the yolk to the neural tissues of the embryo, with the implication of a mediatory role for the embryonic adipose tissue in this transfer.
