Spectrum | Information on Inflammatory Bowel Disease

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Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Read on for detailed information about how various oils may alleviate the effects of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Flaxseed Oil
Given the inflammatory basis of Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, and the observed correlation between Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) activity and plasma levels of the inflammatory compound LT-B4 (1), it is reasonable to hypothesize that a reduction of inflammatory compound production could be beneficial to IBD patients. Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), the main fatty acid ingredient in flaxseed oil, is the essential fatty acid precursor to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which is in turn a potential competitive inhibitor of the production of inflammatory compounds. Thus ALA supplementation could theoretically be useful in the treatment of IBD patients. Indeed, this hypothesis has been somewhat validated in rodent models of IBD, where ALA supplementation has shown a number of positive effects, including reduced plasma levels of LT-B4, reduced ulcerative damage to the colon, and reduced evidence of lipid peroxidation (1, 2).

Human-subject studies of ALA/flaxseed oil have been limited to observational studies. One of these examined the levels of fatty acids in biopsied intestinal tissue from patients with Crohn’s Disease compared with samples from healthy controls. This study found a reduction in ALA concentration, and an increase in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) concentration, in inflamed and non-inflamed bowel tissue of Crohn’s Disease patients (3). Although it is possible to hypothesize that a reduction in ALA in intestinal tissue could be remedied by ALA supplementation, it is far from clear whether this is actually the case as there is no evidence that the observed decreases in ALA are part of the development of Crohn’s disease, nor that they are even causally related to Crohn’s symptomatology.

A second observational study (4) found that pediatric Crohn’s Disease patients with active disease had lower concentrations of plasma ALA than did patients with inactive disease. Moreover, there was a correlation among the active disease patients between ALA concentration and general nutritional status, but not in the patients with inactive disease; this suggests that Crohn’s-related malnourishment may cause a reduction of the availability of ALA(4).

The information presented here is for educational purposes only and is not intended as curative or prescriptive advice.

Bibliography
1.Inui K, Fukuta Y, Ikeda A, Kameda H, Kokuba Y, Sato M. The effect of alpha-linolenic acid-rich emulsion on fatty acid metabolism and leukotriene generation of the colon in a rat model with inflammatory bowel disease. Ann Nutr Metab 1996;40(3):175-82.
2.Shoda R, Matsueda K, Yamato S, Umeda N. Therapeutic efficacy of N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid in experimental Crohn's disease. J Gastroenterol 1995;30 Suppl 8:98-101.
3.Buhner S, Nagel E, Korber J, Vogelsang H, Linn T, Pichlmayr R. Ileal and colonic fatty acid profiles in patients with active Crohn's disease. Gut 1994;35(10):1424-8.
4.Trebble TM, Wootton SA, May A, Erlewyn-Lajeunesse MD, Chakraborty A, Mullee MA, Stroud MA, Beattie RM. Essential fatty acid status in paediatric Crohn's disease: relationship with disease activity and nutritional status. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2003 Aug 15;18(4):433-42.