The Natural Medicine Guide to Bipolar Disorder: New Revised Edition by Stephanie Marohn

Author:Stephanie Marohn [Marohn, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781612830360
Publisher: Hampton Roads Publishing
Published: 2011-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

Essential Fatty Acid Imbalance

In Dr. Walsh's experience, essential fatty acid (EFA) imbalances play a much greater role in bipolar disorder than they do in either unipolar depression or schizophrenia. “That might be the differentiating factor between them,” he notes. “Of the 300 major fats in neuronal tissue and the myelin sheath, four of them make up more than 90 percent of all this fatty material at brain synapses and receptors. That has to be important.” The four fatty acids are EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), AA (arachidonic acid), and DGLA (dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid). The first two are omega-3 essential fatty acids, and the second two are omega-6s.

As others have observed, the standard American diet, with its generally poor nutrition and emphasis on junk food, tends to result in an overload of omega-6 and a deficit of omega-3 EFAs, notes Dr. Walsh. Both the low- and high-histamine categories of bipolar disorder fit this profile. The main EFA therapy for these people is omega-3 supplementation, specifically EPA and DHA. Fish oil contains both and is therefore a helpful form of supplement, but Dr. Walsh also uses products that are pure EPA and DHA. For bipolar, he does not use flax oil as a source of omega 3s because, being primarily EPA, it does not supply enough DHA.

With pyroluria (see section in this chapter), the problem is not omega-3 deficiency, but rather, low levels of omega 6, specifically, arachidonic acid. This is less common in bipolar disorder than the methyl factor. In these cases, the EFA supplement needed is primrose oil or borage oil. Dr. Walsh observes that people with bipolar disorder and this biochemistry have the typical skin problems associated with omega-6 deficiency, which are very dry skin, inability to tan, and vulnerability to sun poisoning.

With people who demonstrate the omega-3 deficiency, a fascinating fact is that DHA and EPA address the opposing poles of bipolar disorder. DHA works to calm the manic phase, and EPA helps to lift the depressive phase, says Dr. Walsh. Taken together, they act as a mood regulatory system and help prevent mood swings. Both are needed, which is a further explanation as to why fish oil, which contains both, produces results in treating bipolar disorder, while flax oil does not, as research shows.

Hypothetically, says Dr. Walsh, people who only experience mild hypomania rather than full-blown mania in their bipolar disorder and who want to avoid only the depressive phase could take EPA alone, but he typically recommends the combination of the two essential fatty acids.

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