Inflammation impairs frontal lobe brain function

One of the great advantages of the Paleolithic diet when compared to the SAD (Standard American Diet) is the normal balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. While both are important for health, the ratio of the two should be in balance with roughly equal amounts of O-3 and O-6. As Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS writes -

Now if you go back and look at the diet of all the hunter-gatherer societies, the “natural” diet of Paleolithic man, and the basic diet of any civilization that lived off the land, eating unprocessed and unrefined foods, you find an interesting relationship between the consumption of the two types of fatty acids: It was always in balance. 

Now consider the SAD diet: the ratio of O-3/O-6 is 1/15! And that is a conservative estimate. The inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids are much higher than the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids. As Artemis P. Simopoulus of the Center for Genetics, Nutrition, and Health in Washington DC notes - 

A very high omega-6/omega-3 ratio, as is found in today’s Western diet, promotes the pathogenesis of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, osteoporosis, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. 

In addition to contributing to the development of these diseases, evidence is building that inflammation also affects brain function. In the March 30, 2010 issue of Neurology, H Wersching and colleagues detail their research on the effects of inflammation on higher-level thinking called executive function, specifically on planning, decision-making and self-control. The researchers measured high-sensitivity-C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, in 447 persons (average age of 63 years) without a history of stroke. High-field MRI scans of the brain were obtained in 321 of these. Sophisticated measures of brain integrity were performed including "fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences for assessment of white matter hyperintensities, automated quantification of brain parenchyma volumes, and diffusion tensor imaging for calculation of global and regional white matter integrity, quantified by fractional anisotropy (FA)."

The subjects with high C-reactive protein, thus inflammation, had evidence of "cerebral microstructural disintegration" primarily affecting the "frontal pathways and corresponding executive function", clear evidence that inflammation disrupts frontal brain processes. 

Time for more vegetables.

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