www.americanwellnessnetwork.com - The GLA Fat-fighting Connection

Home

Diet

Articles on Diet

The GLA Fat-fighting Connection

Although generations have used the evening primrose plant for its many medicinal and healing properties, the oil in the seeds—containing the powerful GLA—was making a splash in the weight loss arena. In fact, it was research conducted by David Horrobin, M.D. at the University of Montreal and M. A. Mir, M.D., a senior researcher and consultant physician at the Welsh National School of Medicine in Cardiff, Wales, that showed how the right kind of fat stimulates the body’s metabolic ability to burn fat. Their work demonstrated that evening primrose oil was most effective for those who were overweight by at least 10 percent. The key to this calorie-burning mechanism appears to be the way the GLA-rich evening primrose oil works via the prostaglandin pathways, a network of hormones that control virtually all body functions at the cellular level.

The GLA found in evening primrose oil mobilizes the metabolically active fat known as brown adipose tissue (BAT). This special form of fat, if available in sufficient amounts, can burn off extra calories and boost energy. BAT is a special insulating kind of fat found deep within the body that surrounds the vital organs such as the kidneys, heart and adrenal glands. It cushions the spinal column as well as the neck and major thoracic blood vessels.

The series 1 prostaglandins created from GLA are believed to regulate many aspects of metabolism. GLA-induced prostaglandins regulate BAT by acting as a catalyst to either turn it on to trigger calorie burning or turn it off to trigger calorie conservation. Prostaglandins are also connected to a metabolic process referred to as ATPase. ATPase is known as the sodium pump, a biochemical process necessary to keep the right amount of potassium inside cell walls and too much sodium out. GLA-rich substances such as evening primrose oil, by means of prostaglandin activity, control the sodium pump, which in turn revs up metabolism.

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Main Menu