Omega 3 Fatty Acids in the Prevention, Treatment and Management of Obesity

Obesity is a medical condition caused by excess body fat accumulated to some extent that impacts personal health. The hallmark of obesity is attenuated metabolism and structural cell changes in the obese fat observed by reducing metabolic activity.

According to the BMI index, a person is considered overweight, if he/she has a BMI between 25 to 29.9 kg/m2. A BMI of 30 kg/m2 or more is an indication of obesity.

In other words, obesity is a progressive chronic disease characterized by abnormal fat accumulation in the body tissues that may impair health.

According to the statistics provided by the National Center for Health Statistics (2015-2016), in the US, approximately 39.8% of adults aged 20 and over were obese accompanied by another 31.8% overweight.

Visceral fat obesity is associated with 90% of patients with ischemic heart disease. In obese, accumulation of visceral fat is predominant in the intra-abdominal cavity.

Visceral fat is a layer of fat that surrounds the organs. Overexpression of visceral fat has been found to promote insulin resistance, diabetes, heart disease, and inflammation.


Similar to other chronic medical conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure, obesity has recently become a serious health problem.

Epidemiologically, obesity does not only have serious effects on physical and psychological health but also has a strongly negative impact on the patient's quality of life.

Today, the widespread obesity in the US population have caused a significant economic impact on the U.S. health care system, including direct and indirect costs.

Omega-3 fatty acids are phytochemicals in the class of lipids, found abundantly in deepsea fisk, dark-green leafy vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, etc.


The three main components of Omega-3 fatty acids are alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).

On finding a potential phytochemical for the treatment of diseases associated with obesity, researchers examined the Omega 3 fatty acid activity in the prevalence of overweight and obesity.

According to the results of the study,* Omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids elicit divergent effects on body fat gain through mechanisms associated with the risk of weight gain, including adipogenesis, browning of adipose tissue, lipid homeostasis, brain-gut-adipose tissue axis.

* Omega 3 fatty acids also modulated the immune response in the stimulation of the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines.

* Furthermore, the risk of obesity is increased if the level of omega-6 fatty acids and the omega-6/omega-3 ratio was increased in red blood cell (RBC) membrane phospholipids.

* However, the high omega-3 RBC membrane phospholipids were associated with the decreased risk of obesity.

Moreover, researchers said, " in addition to absolute amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acid intake, the omega-6/omega-3 ratio plays an important role in increasing the development of obesity via both AA eicosanoid metabolites and hyperactivity of the cannabinoid system, which can be reversed with increased intake of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). A balanced omega-6/omega-3 ratio is important for health and in the prevention and management of obesity".

Taken altogether, Omega-3 fatty acids may be considered a functional food for the prevention and treatment of obesity, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

Intake of Omega-3 fatty acids in the form of supplements should be taken with extreme care to prevent overdose acute liver toxicity.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) An Increase in the Omega-6/Omega-3 Fatty Acid Ratio Increases the Risk for Obesity by Simopoulos AP. (PubMed)