Omega 3 reference articles / comments on humans:

Excerpt from "Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill" - Udo Erasmus, ISBN 0-920470-38-6

Nutritious Hemp Oil has been dubbed "Nature's Most Perfectly Balanced Oil" due to it's healthy essential fatty acid (EFA) composition of Linoleic (LA) and Linolenic LNA) acids in the perfect ratio 3:1 ratio required for long-term consumption. In addition, Hemp Oil contains the relatively rare Gamma-Linolenic (GLA) acid. These fatty acids are essential to human life and health, yet our bodies do not make them. EFAs must be obtained from the foods we eat. However, today's processed food lack the life giving properties that Hemp Oil can supplement on a daily basis. Deficiency in EFAs can result in a variety of ill health conditions.

Plant Based Fat Inhibits Cancer Cell Growth By Enhancing Cell's Signaling System, University of Buffalo Researchers Show-Buffalo, N.Y.

Nutrition researchers at the University of Buffalo have provided the first evidence that a minor plant based fat called B-sitosterol appears to play a role in inhibiting the growth of human prostate cancer cells. They found that the phytosterol B-sitosterol, a fat abundant in Hemp Oils, enhances an intracellular signaling system that tells cells not to divide. The study showed a 28 percent inhibition of prostate cancer cell growth after being exposed to B-sitosterol for 5 days in vitro.

Dr. Awad, Phd., head of UB's Nutrition Program will present these results at the Sixth International Conference of Anti-Cancer Research in Kallithea, Greece. Awad explained "That the phytosterol replaces some of the cell membrane's cholesterol, which changes the membrane lipid composition in such a way that signal transduction (secondary messenger activity) is stimulated, and that activation inhibits cell growth." "If cell proliferation can be stopped before it becomes uncontrolled, cancer can be contained. When we treated prostate cancer cells with phytosterols, cell proliferation was inhibited. We have found the same effect in vitro with breast and colon cancer cells".

This activity may help to explain why vegetable fats, such as Hemp Oils, in the diet reduce the risk of developing certain cancers, Dr. Awad said. The work of Dr. Awad and his colleagues is grounded in epidemiologic studies showing that prostate cancer is less common in Asian countries where diets are primarily vegetarian, and that rates increase when these people migrate to western societies where rates are higher and diets are primarily animal based.

The Journal of American Academy of Dermatology and the British Journal of Dermatology Recognize the benefits of GLA found in Hemp Oil

For thousands of years, the hemp plant has been used in elixirs and medicinal teas because of it's healing properties. Hemp Oil, is known to contain up to 5% of pure GLA, a much higher concentration than any other safe to use plant. Numerous studies have been conducted with Hemp oil, which ultimately demonstrate the oil's high level efficacy when used either orally or topically. Current research with oral supplements has shown hemp oil's ability to augment eicosanoid levels and thereby relieve chronic inflammation. In a variety of other studies on animals and humans skin disorders associated with essential fatty acid deficiencies proved to have a marked amelioration in both the skin's appearance and overall health when Hemp oil was included in the dietary regimen.

Since Hemp Oil contains the highest concentration of any safe oil available, it is becoming the most convenient and economical GLA source here in North America.

Source: Ann Louise Gittleman, MS, CNS
Ann Gittleman is one of the foremost nutritionists in the United States. The former Nutritional Director at the Pritikin Longevity Center, she currently consults with a broad spectrum of professional organizations and is the author of the best-selling books Eat Fat, Lose Weight, Super Nutrition for Women, Super nutrition for Menopause, The 40/30/30 phenomenon, and Why Am I always So Tired?

Hemp: Nature's Forgotten Nutraceutical - By Darrell L. Tanelian, MD, PhD Alive Journal December, 2002 Copyright 1995-2002 Alive Publishing Group, Inc.

That the hemp plant is used as food initially surprises and confuses most people. The public information system has largely restricted knowledge of hemp to its use in making rope and cloth from the fibre of the plant, and paper from the plant stalk. Yet both the oldest Chinese agricultural treatise, the Xia Xiao Zheng, written around 1600 BC, and other Chinese records discuss hemp as one of the major grain crops grown in ancient China.

The cultivation and use of hemp (Cannabis sativa) has also been documented by many other ancient civilizations, including India, Sumeria, Babylonia, Persia, Egypt, Europe, the Aztec and Mayan civilizations of South America, and native cultures in North America. Over thousands of years, hemp has followed humankind throughout the world--or vice versa. Grown legally in Canada since 1998, it is making a comeback as a highly sustainable crop that grows easily in the Canadian climate, providing both health and environmental benefits.

The strains of hemp used for food have been naturally selected to produce little of the psychoactive substance delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) found in marijuana. And since the most modern handling and shelling of the seed minimizes its contact with leaf resins, the shelled seed itself and the oil, nut butter and other foods prepared from it have THC concentrations as low as one part per million to non-detectible.

The shelled seed, or "hemp seed nut," is the most basic hemp seed product. Other major hemp food products are hemp seed nut butter (which resembles peanut and other nut butters), cold-pressed hemp seed oil and hemp seed flour. These can be consumed alone or used with, or instead of, other grains, seeds, nuts and oils in any appropriate recipe.

Hemp fats

While hemp seed is an excellent source of protein that also contains a variety of vitamins and minerals, its most important feature is that it provides both essential fatty acids (EFAs) needed in the human diet--linoleic omega-6 fatty acid) and alpha-linolenic acid (omega 3). These fats are "essential" because they cannot be manufactured in the body and so must be consumed as food. Hemp has an omega-6/omega-3 ratio of 3.38, which is closest to the optimum 4.0 average recommended by the World Health Organization for the human diet.

Hemp for heart health

EFAs are essential for the health of the heart. Numerous studies show that substituting healthy polyunsaturated fats such as hemp for saturated fats can reduce the risk of sudden cardiac arrest and fatal cardiac arrhythmia, as well as reduce blood cholesterol levels and decrease the cellular buildup in arteries associated with atherosclerosis. Hemp also contains phytosterols, which have been shown to reduce total blood cholesterol by an average of 10 per cent and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by an average of 13 per cent.

Hemp for brain health

Because EFAs make up a large portion of the brain, hemp is especially beneficial for brain health, particularly memory function. Membrane loss of EFAs has been found in such disorders as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Research has shown that a diet with a proper balance of omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids--such as in hemp oil--may help delay or reduce the neurological effects of these diseases and improve quality of life.

Hemp for skin health

The critical importance of EFAs for healthy skin makes hemp seed oil a highly effective skin care and cosmetic product. Its lipid constituents allow it to permeate through the skin and nourish skin cells directly. For this reason, hemp oil is beneficial for skin conditions such as eczema or psoriasis. For the health of skin and hair, nourishing and balancing hemp oil is now added to a multitude of soaps, shampoos, skin lotions, lip balms, conditioners and other natural skin-care products.

The Chinese and other great civilizations of the world valued this plant for its marvelous versatility. Let us rediscover its forgotten health benefits. If properly understood and accepted, hemp can resume its rightful role in nourishing the body and preventing disease.

Dr. Tanelian has held academic and professorial positions in neuroscience, neurology and biomedical engineering at Stanford University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He has written and published more than 100 peer-reviewed medical and scientific articles, and currently conducts research in clinical nutrition and clinical biochemistry as related to major disease states.

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