Essential Fatty Acids
Filed under: Your Health, Dave Carpenter — Copyright©2006 Dave Carpenter @ 10:57 am

by Dave Carpenter, ND, C. Ac., CCI

Do you suffer from twitching muscles, sore muscles, muscle cramps, cold sores, fever blisters, canker sores, hives or itching? I’ve studied these problems for years and never felt like I really understood them well. I knew that calcium absorption had something to do with all of these and yet taking calcium, magnesium, vitamin D and Boron doesn’t seem to be the answer. The answer did come in a round about way from Dr. David Williams.

He said that generally people are getting plenty of calcium and vitamin D (I question the Vitamin D part here in the North) but are sorely lacking in vitamin F, which is name for three “essential fatty acids” which are found in flaxseed oil, safflower oil, black currant oil, evening primrose oil, and most vegetable oils and oils from nuts, seeds and whole grains. When this happens the vitamin D pulls the calcium into the bloodstream, but it never reaches the tissues, so they are starved of calcium. This triggers the above problems. Sure, cold sores are a result of the herpes virus, but the virus doesn’t seem to cause the sores until calcium levels are low, so if you have any of these problems it’s a likely indicator of low tissue calcium levels. Adding vitamin F to the diet will often start to alleviate the problem within hours.

Sun exposure can disrupt the calcium to vitamin D levels (D increases as a result of the exposure to the sun) which causes the extra vitamin D to hold the calcium in the bloodstream and keeps it from reaching the skin and other tissues. Often this will result in blisters or nodules in the skin. This won’t be a problem with sufficient levels of vitamin F.

If you have had your gallbladder removed or if you have problems with your gallbladder these problems increase substantially. Try adding some flaxseed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, evening primrose oil or black currant oil, avocado or coconut oil to your diet. If that doesn’t seem to help the problem then perhaps your body isn’t converting the linolenic acid or linoleic acid into the necessary arachidonic acid and letting you benefit from all three. If this is the case please let me know and I’ll help you get a specialized product called Cataplex F which should help. Also, try adding 800 IU of Vitamin D to your diet as well.