Monthly Bluessss- When that month come (part 2)

Assalamualikum,

Welcome back and thank you for your patience; waiting this part two to publish. Sangat sibuk juga, prepare lab activity for nutrition untuk student FIST (Baru tahu semalam kena handle lab nutrition). Jangan ikut perangai ini ya anak-anak. Baiklah, previous post , we have discussed the physiology of menstrual pain (or scientifically what we called dysmenorrheoa (hoh... berbelit lidah). We also have listed few treatment that can be used (medically and home-based treatments).

Ok... As promised before, saya akan discussed berkenaan evening primrose oil dan borage oil in treating dysmenorrheoa. Have you ever seen evening primrose flower? Fuuhh.subhanallah, ia sangat cantik.

The flower is yellow. The oil is extracted from the SEED.










Ok, now the borage oil. Hardly people in Malaysia I believe heard about this plant. This is how the borage oil looks like:

Cantikkan? It has blue,white or indigo flowers. Similar to evening primrose, the oil is extracted from the seed. Numerous studies have found that either primrose or borage are high in GLA, essential fatty acid of omega 6. Borage have the HIGHEST content.

" GLA tu apa madam?"

"GLA itu singkatan daripada gamma linolenic acid, an omega 6- fatty acids yang terhasil drp linoleic acid yg terdapat dlm tumbuhan spt primrose and borage (in seed) and egg yolk. Ok, linoleic fatty acid tu mcm saya dah ajar is polyunsaturated fatty acid, also known essential fatty acids yg sgt diperlukan tubuh. omega-6 and omega 3 are examples of essential fatty acids"

"Madam, saya confuse, GLA is one of omega-6 kan. Apa kebaikannya daripada derivatives omega-6 yg lain?"

"There are several different types of omega-6 fatty acids. Most omega-6 fatty acids are consumed in the diet from vegetable oils as linoleic acid (LA).  

Jangan confuse ye dengan alpha -linolenic acid [ALA] (ALA ialah omega-3 fatty acid). 

Linoleic acid is converted to gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) in the 

body and then further broken down to arachidonic acid (AA). AA is found abundantly in meat.

Excess amounts of LA and AA are unhealthy because they promote inflammation leading to the diseases like heart disease, asthma, arthritis , depression and cancer.

However, GLA may actually reduce inflammation. Much of the GLA taken as a supplement is not converted to AA, but rather to a substance called dihomogamma-linolenic acid (DGLA).DGLA competes with AA and prevents the negative inflammatory effects that AA cause in the body. In addition, DGLA becomes part of prostaglandins that reduce inflammation.

Walaubagaimanapun, dinasihatkan untuk mendapatkan nutrien seperti zink, Vitamin C , Vit B3 dan Vitamin B6 untuk membantu penukaran GLA kepada DGLA rather than AA. Oleh itu, pemakanan seimbang adalah perlu di sini." 

"Oh... camtu ye madam. DGLA ni become parts of prostaglandin to reduce inflammatory. Tapi macammana GLA reduce the menstrual cramp symptom ye? Sebab sebvelum ni kita belajar the pain from the menses is due to prostaglandin?"

" Ha... bagus pun awk ingat fakta itu. Tu tandanya awk tak tidur dalam kelas saya, hoho... Baiklah, memang betul, research shown that pain during menstrual might be due to prostaglandin.  From my research, protaglandin ini ada 3 jenis : 

1. PGE1 and PGE3 (Good prostaglandin that promotes anti inflammation and reduce contraction )
2. PGE 2(bad prostaglandin that promotes inflammation and contraction---> Byk terhasil daripada AA)

"Jadi keyword di sini adalah : SEIMBANG. Anda kena pastikan jika anda amibil makanan yang kaya dengan omega-6, consume it moderately. Selain daripada itu, complementary from other nutrients such as magnesium, zinc, calcium citrate, vitamin E and C, B6 and B12 may help in reducing the symmptoms". Figure below show the production of Good and bad prostaglandin. 

Source: Glenville (2001)

Ok harapnya anda faham kenapa GLA itu perlu bukan sahaja untuk reduce mentrual cramp, but ia bertindak juga sebagai anti-inflammatory. Tetapi kena ingat, GLA adalah TIDAK SESUAI untuk: 

1. Wanita mengandung
2. Individual who suffer from seizures (sawan)
3. Sesetengah ubat juga memberi kesan jika dimakan bersama GLA: ceftazidime, chemotherapy, cyclosporine, NSAIDs  and Phenothiazines for schizophrenia

References: 

1. Dr Marilyn Glenville PhD. (2001) ‘The Natural Health Handbook For Women’, Piatkus Publishers Limited: London.
2. Ehrlich, S.D. (2012) ' Menstrual Pain"University of Maryland Medical Centre [online] (Available at: http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/menstrual-pain) 

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