THERA BLEND TM OILS
Organic Source of Essential Fatty Acids (EFA's)

Ingredients
Flaxseed oil Borage oil  Soy oil   Sunflower oil  - Sesame oil  - Pumpkin oil  -           

PURPOSE OF THERA BLEND OILS
Thera Blend contains a number of different type of oils blended together to provide a high quality, comprehensive dietary source of essential fatty acids (EFAs).  The body cannot make EFAs and therefore they must be obtained from foods or supplements.  The essential functions for which the body requires adequate amounts of EFAs are 1) the production of biologically potent compounds known as eicosanoids and 2) the proper integrity of all cell membranes (1).   It is not surprising that mild EFA deficiencies may be a contributing cause to many chronic degenerative diseases since the eicosanoids (prostaglandins, thromboxanes, leukotrienes) which are produced from EFAs have so many varied actions in the body (2,3).
  Americans eating the standard American diet are often deficient in their intake of EFAs (4).   Other factors, mainly associated with industrialization of our society and food supply  also contribute to a relative deficiency of EFAs.  These factors include 1) flour milling technology which eliminates EFAs, 2) high consumption of highly refined fats such as margarine and supermarket oils which can block EFA use by the body, 3) increased ingestion of toxins in food, water and air 

which can deplete EFAs, 4) high intakes of alcohol and caffeine which can block the
body's use of EFAs, 5) high intake of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin which block the body's use of EFAs, 6) changing from eating meats of wild game to eating meats from grain-fed and caged raised animals (5). 

UNDERSTANDING FATS

Types
Biochemically fats are also called lipids.  Lipids make up a large category of compounds.  The criteria for a compound to be considered a lipid is simply that it is water insoluble.  The main type of lipid or fat in the diet is a triglyceride (TG).  A TG consists of a backbone molecule (glycerol) to which three fatty acids are bonded
(6).  It is the fatty acids which are the metabolically "active" portion of the TG.  The fatty acids are categorized as saturated (all the carbons of the hydrocarbon chain all fully bonded with hydrogens) or unsaturated (at least one or more carbons in the chain has a double bond to another carbon and therefore cannot be fully bonded to hydrogens).  If a fatty acid has only one double bond then it is considered monounsaturated (oleic acid found high in olive oil is a classic example).  If a fatty acid has two or more double bonds then it is considered polyunsaturated (PUFA).  Although the media has publicized that all saturated fatty acids are bad and all unsaturated fatty acids are good there is much more to consider when labeling a fat "good" or "bad".  Also it is extremely important to recognize that arbitrarily cutting down all fats can potentially be detrimental to health because some fat in our diet is absolutely ESSENTIAL.  Those fats in our diet which are considered essential (i.e. an EFA) are omega-6 fatty acids (e.g. linoleic acid & gamma linolenic acid) and omega-3 fatty acids (e.g. alpha linolenic acid & eicosapentanoic acid (EPA)) (7 ).  All omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids are PUFAs, but not all PUFAs are essential.  Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are so labeled because of where the first double bond is located in the long hydrocarbon chain.

Use/metabolism of essential fatty acids
The EFAs are used by the body to make very biologically active compounds, eicosanoids and to provide the proper structural integrity to all cell membranes
(3 ).  Most of the beneficial health effects of supplementing with EFAs has been explained based on what particular types of eicosanoids are produced from a particular EFA.  A schematic of the main metabolites of eicosanoids production is outlined below with some of the well known actions of the different eicosanoid compounds.

EICOSANOID PATHWAY
LINOLEIC ACID (omega-6)                                                       ALPHA-LINOLENIC ACID
                                                               (omega-3)

                                           (delta-6 desaturase enzyme)
     inhibited by: cholesterol
                                     trans fatty acids
                          alcohol


GAMMA LINOLENIC ACID
      (GLA - omega-6)

                                                         EICOSAPENTANOIC ACID
                                                                (EPA - omega-6)

DIHOMO GAMMA LINOLENIC
ACID (DHGLA- omega-6)        (inhibited by: EPA)
    
                              ARACHADONIC ACID             DOC0SAHEXANOIC ACID                                                (DHA-omega-3)


SERIES I EICOSANOIDS                 SERIES 2 EICOSANOIDS                          SERIES 3 EICOSANOIDS
actions: anti-inflammatory                   actions: pro-inflammatory                              actions: anti-atherogenic
                    atherogenic                        anti-inflammatory

(Please note that the listed actions of the different series of eicosanoids is a broad generalization. but is clinically useful.)


Besides the individual actions of the different eicosanoids (prostaglandins, leukotrienes, thromboxanes) for each of the different series, it is thought to be important for overall health to produce some amount of all three series (8).  In the standard American diet there is too much arachadonic acid (mainly from meat fat, favoring the production of the "bad" eicosanoids) compared to too little alpha linolenic.  Although the American diet tends to be high in linoleic acid (omega-6), much of the linoleic acid comes from processed foods (e.g. margarine and commercial oils) which may be damaged and therefore unusable by the body to make eicosanoids (see the section on quality of fats).  It also appears important to have a balance between omega-6 EFAs and omega-3 EFAs (9).  Omega-3 EFAs are very difficult to get in the diet and are the ones in which people are especially likely to be deficient.  The bottom line is that taking in adequate, balanced amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 EFAs can help ensure a balanced production of the many different eicosanoid compounds.

IMPORTANCE OF HIGH QUALITY ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS
The fact that EFAs are PUFAs means that they are very vulnerable to oxidative damage (10).  PUFAs can be damaged just with high heat exposure, but also with lower temperatures when combined with air and light exposure (11).  Commercially produced oils are pressed with large mechanical presses which expose the extracted oils to high temperatures (either added in or just from the friction of crushing the seeds) and light and air (12).  The possibility is extremely high that the EFAs contained in these commercially produced oils are oxidatively damaged.  These types of damaged fats are known as lipid peroxides.  Lipid peroxides are a type of free radical and can lead to tissue damage in the body (please see the monograph for Anti OX 18 for much more information on free radicals and health).  Furthermore, commercial oil producers will extract vitamin E (an antioxidant nature has put in plants and seeds with high amounts of PUFAs) and also lecithin (a type of lipid which can be beneficial in heart disease) before the oil reaches the supermarket shelves (13).  Even oils found in natural food stores which are labeled  "cold-pressed" are still exposed to high heat, light and air during processing.  Although there are no food oil labeling laws people in the oil food industry tend to use the label of cold-pressed when no external heat is added to extract the oil.  Yet, just the heat generated from large commercial presses is enough (when combined with light and air) to damage the vulnerable PUFAs.