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The GLA Fat-fighting Connection |
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totalhealth’s Special Report
Obesity, Weight Loss and Glucose Control
The GLA Fat-fighting Connection
by Ann Louise Gittleman, N.D., M.S.
 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.
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