The Power of GLA

Author: Robert Atkins, M.D.
Source: Dr. Atkins’ Vita-Nutrient Solution

The Power of GLA

Diabetic Complications

Science has established rather conclusively that GLA halts the otherwise inevitable advance of nerve damage caused by diabetes. GLA helps the nerves to heal. As one study of 111 patients showed, people with either form of diabetes, Type I or Type II, can benefit, using a dose as small as 480 mg of GLA per day.¹ Other research suggests that the fatty acid may even prevent the nerve deterioration from starting up.²

Some kind of abnormality in fatty acid metabolism is very likely involved in the development of diabetic complications and maybe even the development of diabetes itself. People who have the disease seem unable to make GLA from dietary fats and therefore may suffer from an insufficiency of PGE₁, (Prostaglandin E₁, a beneficial hormone-like compound ). Coincidentally enough, this substance can potentiate the work of insulin and exerts insulinlike actions of its own. Therefore diabetics need all the PGE₁ that GLA can help them make.

References
1. Keen, H., et al., Diabetes Care, 1993; 16: 8-15.
2. Jamal, G., Diabetic Medicine, 1994; 11(2): 145-49.