EVENING PRIMROSE OIL AND OBESITY
Evening primrose oil does have an effect on obesity, but only when this is caused by a metabolic abnormality. Unfortunately, it does not work in other types of obesity.
The discovery that evening primrose oil can help some obese people lose weight was made quite by chance. During a trial on evening primrose oil for schizophrenia at Bootham Park Hospital in York it was discovered that several patients who were more than 10% above their ideal body weight lost weight while taking evening primrose oil. There had been no changes to their diet. The evening primrose oil had no effect on people who were within 10% of their ideal body weight. As a result of this chance finding, evening primrose oil began to be investigated as a treatment for metabolic causes of obesity.
Brown fat (adipose tissue)
This is one of the key factors which explains why some people lose weight and others don't. The body has a special tissue known as brown fat which is found mainly in the back of the neck and along the backbone. The brown colour is due to the high concentration of cellular energy-producing (fat-burning) units called mitochondria. The brown fat burns calories not to produce energy for body movement, but solely for heat.
One role of brown fat is stabilization of weight; another is adaptation to cold weather. When brown fat is working normally it burns up any excess calories. But when brown fat is not working normally those calories are laid down as fat.
Some obese people have underactive brown fat, and this may be a metabolic disorder.
Interestingly, the essential fatty acid content of body fat is inversely proportional to body weight. In other words, the higher the level of essential fatty acids in the body, the lower the body weight, and vice versa. A major study of over 600 men in Heidelberg, West Germany, found a strong inverse correlation between obesity, hypertension and serum cholesterol on the one hand, and the level of linoleic acid in adipose tissue on the other.
The gammalinolenic acid in evening primrose oil had a stimulating effect on brown fat tissue. Also, the prostaglandins which are the end-products of evening primrose oil metabolism possibly accelerate the mitochondrial activity in the brown fat.
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GENERAL HEALTH
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