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(Circulation. 2005;111:2872-2874.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

Alpha-Linolenic Acid

A Gift From the Land?

William S. Harris, PhD

From Mid America Heart Institute of St. Luke’s Health System, Kansas City, Mo.

Correspondence to Dr William S. Harris, Co-Director, Lipid and Diabetes Research Center, Mid America Heart Institute of St. Luke’s Health System, 4320 Wornall Rd, Suite 128, Kansas City, MO 64111. E-mail wharris@saint-lukes.org

Key Words: Editorials • fatty acids • nutrition • epidemiology • diet

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Although the fish-derived, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA) may be considered "gifts from the sea" for cardiovascular health, the role of the land (or plant) -based n-3 FA -linolenic acid (ALA) has been less clear. ALA is the 18-carbon, 3-double bond (C18:3n-3) precursor to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; C20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; C22:6n-3), the latter 2 being the predominant n-3 FA in fish oils. ALA is found in certain plant oils, most notably flaxseed oil (where it constitutes 50% of total FA) and in canola oil (9%), unhydrogenated soybean (salad dressing) oil (7%), hydrogenated soybean oil (3%), and olive oil (1%). According to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) III data, consumption in the United States currently averages 1.3 g/d.

See p 2921

Could ALA substitute for EPA+DHA to reduce risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality? This question presumes that ALA can be bioconverted to the longer-chain n-3 FA, but the extent to which this occurs is unclear. Depending on the method used, estimates for the conversion to EPA run from 0.2% to 7% to 10%.¹ Further conversion to DHA is reported to be 0.05% in men and 10% in women. Ultimately, bioequivalence will need to be demonstrated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs), not in metabolic studies.

The latest epidemiological contribution to the ALA story is reported in this issue of Circulation. Djousse et al² continue to mine the fertile database of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Family Heart Study . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Dietary Linolenic Acid Is Inversely Associated With Calcified Atherosclerotic Plaque in the Coronary Arteries: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study

Luc Djoussé, Donna K. Arnett, J. Jeffrey Carr, John H. Eckfeldt, Paul N. Hopkins, Michael A. Province, and R. Curtis Ellison
Circulation 2005 111: 2921-2926. [Abstract] [Full Text]

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