Beautiful Skin

According to Dr. Herb Joiner-Bey, the human body desperately requires dietary fats – the proper fats – for ultimate skin beauty.  But too many women have cut out all fats – and that’s dangerous. 

Not surprisingly, up to seven percent of the population suffers from skin conditions or diseases such as eczema, which is characterized by chronic itchy, inflamed skin that is dry, red, and scaly.  Another two to four percent of people suffer from psoriasis, which is characterized by sharply bordered reddened plaques covered with overlapping silvery scales. 

The beauty-enhancing oils (essential fatty acids) from omega-3 fatty acids and other oils (such as borage and evening primrose) are absolutely critical to the vitality and youthfulness of your skin.  Yet, although the skin requires fats and oils, what it doesn’t need is excess amounts of saturated fats, partially hydrogenated vegetable oils or other types of highly processed fats used to flavor and texturize convenient fast foods.  Beautiful skin requires the proper fats in order to maintain optimal skin cell membrane fatty acids and the proper balance of local tissue hormones called prostaglandins.

Skin Requirements

Prostaglandins, which strongly influence skin health, are the body’s local chemical messengers, governing many processes, including inflammation.  They are not stored in the body, but must be constantly synthesized from essential fatty acids that are taken in from the diet and deposited in cell membranes.  The consequences of an EFA deficiency can be devastating to the skin.  When the body lacks EFAs, this deficit leads to an imbalance in prostaglandins and resulting skin problems such as dryness, itching, eczema, scaling, and thinning.  What’s more, nails may crack and hair will become discolored and thin. 

Psoriasis may be one of the skin’s indicators of systemic inflammation.  Research from the Department of Dermatology, School of Medicine, University of California, Davis, shows that flax may be particularly beneficial in cases of psoriasis.  Arachidonic acid, an omega 6 fatty acid found in cell membranes from omega 6 dietary sources, is turned into another pro-inflammatory chemical, leukotriene, which is known to accumulate in the lesions of psoriasis sufferers.  Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA), a major polyunsaturated fatty acid found in fish oil and that the body also produces from the raw materials in flax seed oil, as well as gamma-linolenic acid (from evening primrose or borage oils), are both potent inhibitors of leukotriene generation.  “It seems reasonable therefore that adequate dietary supplementation with eicosapentaenoic acid or gamma-linolenic acid may offer a novel and nontoxic approach to suppressing cutaneous inflammatory disorders,” notes University of California at Davis researcher Dr. V.A. Ziboh. 

Another reason for using flax seed oil is that under the influence of omega 3 oils, the body is far more likely to convert gamma-linolenic acid to favorable prostaglandins.  Meanwhile, flax seed oil is rich in alpha-linolenic acid, which is ultimately converted to less inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes.  Flax’s omega-3 fatty acids also inhibit the body’s production of inflammation-causing arachidonic acid, the raw material for these pr0-inflammatory compounds.  Arachidonic acid, together with saturated fat, is usually found in products made from grain-fed livestock animals.  Flax favorably inhibits the body’s conversion of arachidonic acid to pro-inflammatory prostaglandins.

Recommended Flax Seed Oil Intake

Take one to two tablespoons of flax seed oil daily.  Instead of butter or margarine on bread, try using flax as a spread for its pleasant, nutty taste.  Flax can also be spread on foods such as baked potatoes (after cooking, of course).  If using flax capsules, generally take six capsules three times daily with meals.  Flax may be combines with evening primrose oil for even better results when correcting inflammatory skin conditions.  In addition, two to four tablespoons daily of ground, organic flax seed will add more beneficial lignans to your diet.