Fat City

Fat City

Every choice you make about your diet and dietary supplements will have an impact on your health. A new study demonstrates why that’s especially true for patients with type 2 diabetes.

Happily, the news here is good: When type 2 diabetics receive sufficient amounts of one specific nutrient, they may reduce total fat mass and improve heart health. But this good news comes with a caution as well.

The great white way

In the December 2007 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, scientists from several research institutions in Paris, France, reported on a study in which they evaluated the effect of fish oil supplements on adiposity and insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetics.

Before we look at the study, you might be wondering: adiposity?

Amanda Ross, the Managing Editor of Dr. Jonathan V. Wright’s Nutrition & Healing newsletter, neatly defined the term in her Health e-Tips e-letter: “Adiposity literally means fattiness, and is often used interchangeably with the word obesity. There are two types of adipose cells, White Adipose tissue (WAT) and Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT). The body uses WAT to store energy for use in famines; BAT burns energy to maintain body temperature.

“Severe obesity occurs when the body begins storing too many WAT cells than it requires for survival. Some research suggests that only the reduction of fat cell numbers can cause permanent fat loss, and weight loss techniques that reduce the size of fat cells, but not their numbers, are doomed to be temporary.”

Coincidentally, the Paris study involves reduction of fat cell numbers AND reduction in the size of fat cells.

STUDY PROFILE

• Researchers recruited 27 women with type 2 diabetes
• Half the subjects took 3 grams of fish oil each day (delivering nearly 2 grams of omega 3 fatty acids), and half the subjects took a placebo
• After two months of intervention, tests revealed a significant drop in total fat mass and diminished diameter of subcutaneous adipocytes (fat cells just below the skin’s surface)
• Markers that reveal risk factors for fatty deposits in arteries were also lower in the fish oil group compared to placebo

In addition, the authors wrote: “A subset of inflammation-related genes was reduced in subcutaneous adipose tissue after the fish oil, but not the placebo, treatment.”

Watch those levels

The Paris researchers also noted that there was no significant change in insulin sensitivity between the two groups. But at a higher dosage of fish oil, blood sugar control might be an issue.

In the e-Alert “Just the Flax” (11/18/02), I told you about an Australian study in which 59 type 2 diabetics took four grams of fish oil each day for six weeks. As in the Paris study, the intervention had negligible effects on insulin levels, but blood sugar levels increased. I haven’t found any subsequent studies to confirm this potential danger, but to be on the safe side, diabetics should closely monitor their blood sugar for changes when using high doses of fish oil.

As always, talk to your doctor before adding any new supplements to your daily regimen.

And speaking of doctors, I’ll give HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., the final word today, with his recommendation to take a vitamin E supplement when using fish oil. Omega-3s are polyunsaturated fatty acids, and in the e-Alert “The Kids are Alright” (7/10/06), Dr. Spreen offered this observation in a discussion about omega-3: “Vitamin E counteracts free-radical formation from unsaturated oils (funny how all the hoopla about unsaturated fats seems to ignore that).”

Source:
“Treatment for 2 Mo With N-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Reduces Adiposity and Some Atherogenic Factors but Does Not Improve Insulin Sensitivity in Women with Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized Controlled Study” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 86, No. 6, December 2007