August 05, 2024

 

We Feel the PAIN: 

Vegetable Oil Pain

BATON Diet

 

Vegetable oil heightens our perception of pain. We feel the pain. 

Omega-6 Syndrome or “Omega SICK Syndrome” What Athletes Call “A Pain” 

 

Many people do not like to exercise because they find it painful. Do athletes have higher tolerances for pain than the rest of us? Or is it that athletes eat different from the rest of us and thus control the super hormones associated with perception of pain? 

 

 

The true story of the fishermen and the gardener, emphasizes how excess intake of vegetable oils from soy oil and safflower oil (omega-6 PUFA Linoleic LA) can result in significant pain. The names of patients have been changed to protect their privacy. 

This story is interesting because most Western nutrition provides extreme excess quantities of omega-6 (linoleic fats) AKA – also known as -- polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) from vegetable oils including corn oil, soy oil, safflower, grape seed, cottonseed, and hemp oil. Vegetable oils are the primary source of omega-6 fats for most Americans. They represent a significant part of our calorie intake. (862, 808) 

Just behind Israel, people in the US eat the second highest amount of omega-6 fats in the world. We are the world’s experimental lab for high omega-6 fat (PUFA) diet, a diet that until recently was widely recommended to us for the last 50 plus years. (862, 808) 

Mike, who is a woman, and her husband David, and their son Michael, loved to fish, camp, and garden. 

Mike deserved to be written up in the Guinness Book of World Records. She had been being fed entirely with IV (intravenous) nutrition for 14 years because she could not eat. Fourteen years earlier Mike had suffered tangling of her intestines resulting in catastrophic strangulation of her intestines. Her intestines were entirely nonfunctional. Every night she hooked up to a pump that infused her liquid nutrition into a large vein located near her heart. Mike had never had her IV (intravenous) food line become infected in 14 years, a true world record. Most people getting IV food get their IV tubing line infected about 1 time per year requiring admission to the hospital to get IV antibiotics and perhaps replace their IV line with a new one. Mike had avoided the perils and dangers of central IV line infection. Mike and David were an amazing team when it came to taking care of her IV feeding line. 

Mike and her family were amazing in other ways also as we will see. Mike, David, and their son Michael would pack up her big IV food bags in a special refrigerator that plugged into the cigarette lighter in their Suburban and head out fishing for the weekend. David has pictures of Mike fishing during the day, and at night hooked up to her IV food bag and pump by the river while watching their mini TV. When she was home, for 14 years, Mike walked 2 miles a day on her treadmill and was an avid gardener. 

 

Vegetable oil pain 

That is when the phone call came from Mike. “I’m really tired and I can only walk 1 mile on my treadmill and I ache all over.” 

A call to her doctor who was the head of the gastroenterology department at a large teaching hospital confirmed suspicions. He felt Mike was beginning to develop intolerance to the omega-6 vegetable oil (soy oil and safflower oil) in her IV nutrition. For the 14 years Mike had taken IV nutrition, only 2 kinds of IV injectable fats were available for IV nutrition in the US, soy oil and safflower oil. Both are vegetable oils or omega-6 (polyunsaturated PUFA) (linoleic fats). For 14 years Mike’s only source of fat in her diet was omega-6 vegetable oil provided by her IV (intravenous) feeding. 

Her doctor confirmed that in patients whose only source of fat was IV omega-6 vegetable oil, the aching sometimes increased to become pain requiring morphine to make it possible for the person to withstand the pain associated with their vegetable oil IV nutrition fat source. Some people can get by with IV fat being given only 1 to 3 times a week to reduce the side effects and pain of the IV vegetable oils. Her doctor switched her from soy to safflower oil and reduced her IV fats to 3 nights per week. 

Her doctor tried all the above adjustments in her vegetable oils in her IV for Mike. However, Mike’s pain increased and soon she complained of only being able to go ½ mile on her treadmill, aching, and further tiredness. She said she had to quit gardening. 

We began researching the possibility of obtaining IV olive oil (omega-9 monounsaturated) fat from Europe for Mike. We started the long process of required paperwork with the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) for an individual IND (Investigational New Drug) application based on compassionate need for Mike and requested expedited processing of the application. 

 

“Thick Blood” and tendency to form extra unwanted blood clots 

Another concern with excess omega-6 vegetable oil intake is the tendency to form excess unwanted blood clots that increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Mike routinely took Coumadin (warfarin), a strong “blood thinner” drug, to prevent blood clots because over time, her platelets had become “clumpy and sticky”. Her blood would clot in a shorter time than normal unless she took her Coumadin to “thin” her blood. 

Meanwhile, while we waited for the IV olive oil application to be approved, Mike called to report that she felt like she was “walking on broken glass” and the max she could do was a quarter mile in pain while walking on her treadmill. She required morphine at night to infuse her IV vegetable oil (omega-6 fat) on the nights that fat was included in the IV. 

One day, David, her husband called in desperation and said “I married a girl that was a 10, now she is a 4 or 5 and please do something to rush the FDA application. We are tired of infusing this ‘motor oil’; Mike really hurts.” Five months after her first complaints, Mike’s pain increased further and Mike became “bed to chair”. All she could do was move from her bed to her recliner. David had to do all her IV hook up and care. 

The FDA came through and we placed a STAT (rush) overnight shipping order with the European company to ship IV olive oil (monounsaturated fat) for Mike. 

Overnight her new olive oil IV was delivered, mixed in her IV nutrition at the pharmacy, and David 

hooked it up for infusion. IV olive oil contains omega-9 MUFA (monounsaturated fat) and a different amount of vitamin K than the American (omega-6 vegetable oil) products so we expected to have to adjust Mike’s Coumadin (warfarin) blood thinner dose. 

It happened quickly: in less than two weeks we had to stop all Coumadin (warfarin) as her blood clotting time had returned to normal. Excess omega-6 fat in the diet is associated with “sticky clumpy platelets” that may aggregate and form unwanted blood clots. Omega-6 imbalance is linked to increased heart disease and heart attacks. Drugs like Plavix, aspirin, Coumadin (warfarin), Pradaxa, Xarelto, Apixiban, Effient, and ticlopidine, are used to help prevent unwanted blood clots from forming. 

After two weeks, Mike called and said she was feeling better. She never required morphine with the IV olive oil. After one month, she said she was going to make her first attempt on the treadmill because her feet were much better. 

In two months, David called to report Mike had gone out in her garden and dug a trench the length of the entire front yard. He was so gracious and grateful. In 4 months, Mike and David were back to fishing and camping with Michael. 

 

If you want to limit the amount of pain you experience during training and competition, limit the amount of omega-6 oils (soy oil, corn oil, safflower oil, cottonseed oil, hemp oil) in your nutrition.

 

We only need to eat just what is contained in our fresh vegetables and nuts like Brazil, sunflower, or pine nuts to get enough essential omega-6 fats. Instead, it is safe to emphasize omega-9 fats of the olive oil family and natural saturated fats in our nutrition plan. Adults may eat 5 to 10 tablespoons or more per day of omega-9 fats from the olive oil family. Omega-9 fats are safe to eat in large quantities and athletes know omega-9 fats are a preferred fuel (energy) source for muscles. We may eat olive oil, nuts, and avocados which contain mostly fresh omega-9 fat. Avocados also contain a small amount of saturated fat and small amounts of omega-6 natural fats. We may also eat natural grass fed animal sources of saturated fats in generous quantities of 2 to 10 tablespoons or more per day for an adult. Coconut oil is also a safe saturated fat. 

 

 

 

 

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