Abstract
Eicosanoids are major players in the pathogenesis of several common diseases, with either overproduction or imbalance (e.g. between thromboxanes and prostacyclins) often leading to worsening of disease symptoms. Both the total rate of eicosanoid production and the balance between eicosanoids with opposite effects are strongly dependent on dietary factors, such as the daily intakes of various eicosanoid precursor fatty acids, and also on the intakes of several antioxidant nutrients including selenium and sulphur amino acids. Even though the underlying biochemical mechanisms have been thoroughly studied for more than 30 years, neither the agricultural sector nor medical practitioners have shown much interest in making practical use of the abundant high-quality research data now available. In this article, we discuss some specific examples of the interactions between diet and drugs in the pathogenesis and therapy of various common diseases. We also discuss, using common pain conditions and cancer as specific examples, how a better integration between agricultural science, nutrition and pharmacology could lead to improved treatment for important diseases (with improved overall therapeutic effect at the same time as negative side effects and therapy costs can be strongly reduced). It is shown how an unnaturally high omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid concentration ratio in meat, offal and eggs (because the omega-6/omega-3 ratio of the animal diet is unnaturally high) directly leads to exacerbation of pain conditions, cardiovascular disease and probably most cancers. It should be technologically easy and fairly inexpensive to produce poultry and pork meat with much more long-chain omega-3 fatty acids and less arachidonic acid than now, at the same time as they could also have a similar selenium concentration as is common in marine fish. The health economic benefits of such products for society as a whole must be expected vastly to outweigh the direct costs for the farming sector.
Highlights
The world is faced with unprecedented challenges in the environmental sector, especially as a consequence of large anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, and because of unchecked deforestation and soil erosion affecting large geographical areas
Could geographical differences in micronutrient intake lead to geographical differences in the extent of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) conversion into eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), with this conversion being better in warm countries than in Canada and northern Europe? We have suggested as an alternative explanation that there might be large geographical variations, due to differences in soil chemistry, in the intake of some micronutrient that is needed for the metabolic conversion of 18C PUFAs into long-chain ones, with the average intake of the micronutrient concerned being much lower in Canada than in Crete [41]
If we take only into consideration the problems of pain and of pain therapy, it is not unreasonable that there might be a net economic gain for society as a whole, if all poultry and swine farmers were required by law to make only products with an omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio not higher than 2/1 and a Se concentration similar to what we find in marine fish (which would be expected to synergize with a reduction of the arachidonic acid (AA)/(EPA + docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) + DHA) ratio of the meat for checking the problem of eicosanoid overproduction in many disease situations)
Summary
The world is faced with unprecedented challenges in the environmental sector, especially as a consequence of large anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (including methane and N2O from agriculture), and because of unchecked deforestation and soil erosion affecting large geographical areas. For people especially in poor countries who for economic reasons can not afford to eat much animal food, it must be expected that endogenous synthesis of long-chain PUFAs from LA and ALA will normally dominate over dietary intakes of long-chain PUFAs as such It must be very important for the general health situation in these countries that the edible fats and oils eaten by less affluent people should have an optimal fatty acid composition in which the omega-6/ omega-3 ratio is not too high. To see how the present situation may be allowed to continue, if it shall be possible for the world to mobilize those economic and manpower resources that we need for simultaneously handling the serious challenges in the health sector (in affluent and poor countries alike) and averting unprecedented environmental disaster caused by ourselves
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