Reviewing the Vitamin F Situation

Vitamin F, the food essential also known as the unsaturated fatty acid complex, is today becoming an object of interest because of the discovery that heart disease and the high blood cholesterol syndrome are in part caused by vitamin F deficiency, and that it is the only known antidote for the toxic effects of the synthetic fats so widely sold as “hydrogenated oils” vegetable shortenings etc. (They are NOT vegetable; this is like the early objection of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley against the name “corn syrup” for the synthetic glucose made from corn starch–after you wreck a wholesome raw material by converting it chemically into something else it should not be permitted to masquerade under its original natural name, or the name of the source material, which is used as an aid in breaking down normal prejudices against counterfeits and imitations–glucose in Germany is made from sawdust, but the label “wood syrup” would not help sell it. As Dr. Wiley said the corn sugar in the sap of the corn plant is sucrose, not glucose, and does not contribute to diabetes, as Lukens & Dohan later found the synthetic glucose did, confirming the fears of Dr. Wiley, who predicted the danger of its use in place of natural sugars.)

Here is a chronological review of the Vitamin F story:

1907–Arachidonic acid discovered in liver, kidney and heart (Hartley).

1923–Otto Meyerhof reports discovery that vitamin F acts as catalyst of oxygen transfers in the glutathione cycle, later found by Szent-Gyorgi to also be a part of the vitamin C-oxygen-metabolism cycle. Glutathione being a basic controller of cell division, it links vitamin F and oxygen metabolism to cancer. (All cell oxidation reactions appear to be under this control.) (Chemical Dynamics of Life Phenomena, Lippincott, 1924).

1924–Identified in brain by Wesson.

1925–Identified in subcutaneous fat of man by Eckstein.

1925–Identified in ovary by Cartland & Hart.

1932–First shown to be essential in animal nutrition. (Burr & Burr)

1934–Confirmation of requirement of F in reproduction by Evans et al.

1934–Clinical effects of vitamin F announced by Vitamin Products Co. (Vit. News, June, 1934).

1. Promotion of calcium diffusion into the tissues from the blood stream, synergizing with vitamin D which promotes the assimilation of nutritional calcium into the blood.
2. An antidote for vitamin D–later it was discovered that the toxicity of D was due to the excessive blood calcium it promoted.
3. A factor in deficiency anemias. Today we know that F2, the form in which F exists in the liver, is of benefit in stubborn anemia where all other remedies fail.

1935–Discovery that natural forms of vitamin F far better than refined.

1935–Clinical value of vitamin F in prostate hypertrophy announced by Vitamin Products Co. (Vit. News, Aug. 1935).

1936–Biochemical reasons set forth in Vitamin Products Co. Vitamin News to indicate that arteriosclerosis and coronary disease could result from a deficiency of Vitamin F (June 1936).

1941–Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research published a report on the clinical action of Vitamin F (Report No. 1).

Vitamin F was shown to relieve prostate hypertrophy quite consistently, putting this condition tentatively into the class of a deficiency disease. It was shown to raise blood phosphorus, lower blood calcium, and greatly augment blood iodine, no doubt by enhancing the secretion of thyroid hormone, which in the deficiency of vitamin F seemed to be toxic to the subject. Thyroxin, as an oxidation catalyst, certainly, in view of Meyerhof’s finding, would require vitamin F as a synergist, and act as a poison without it. An explanation is here available, for the first time, as to why thyroid hormones have such a variable effect in different patients.

1948–Vitamin Products Co. introduces first mammalian source (liver) vitamin F2, a phospholipid with arachidonic acid as its fatty acid component. Probably synthesized in the liver, and useful in all probability for patients whose liver functions have become impaired, as Dr. Aviles later postulates when he infers that vegetable forms of vitamin F are often ineffective, but animal forms perform normally. (See 1953 note below). Clinically, F2 was found effective to promote appetite and weight gain in underweight adults, in children with poor appetite, and as a valuable antianemic principle where liver damage was present.

1949–The Annual Review of Biochemistry quotes the comment that it may be a possibility that vitamin F may, by this oxidative reaction, have a “protective function against carcinogenic compounds” (Page 422).

1953–Prof. Humberto Aviles announces his conclusions:

1. Vitamin F as arachidonic acid is clinically anticarcinogenic.
2. The vegetable precursors of vitamin F (linoleic and linolenic acid) are not converted into vitamin F in the victim of cancer, who must be supplied with arachidonic acid.
3. Vitamin F is available in potent amounts in the fat of cold blooded animals (snake oils etc.).
4. Chronic constipation precedes this loss of ability to convert the precursors into vitamin F.
5. Vitamin F administration prevents radiation damage to tissues.
6. Vitamin F was found useful in treating nausea of pregnancy and chronic abortion, and to relieve pain in cancer.

(From Discovery of the Anticancerous Properties of the F Vitamin, by Humberto Aviles, Biochemistry of Cancer Dept., Guadalajara, Jal., Mex. 16 page reprint free on request.) (The Vitamin Products Co. makes no claim that vitamin F has specific curative properties in cancer, suggests only its possible value as an adjuvant to conventional methods of treatment).

1954–Vitamin Products Co. announces that its vitamin F restores missing second sounds in Endocardiographic recordings, often within ten minutes after ingestion (Vitamin News, Page 190) (Demonstrating the calcium diffusing effect in heart muscle).

1954–Vitamin F Complex demonstrated to be of clinical value in liver disease (Chronic hepatitis, pre-cirrhosis and cirrhosis).

1956–Announcement of blood cholesterol lowering effect of vitamin F in unrefined vegetable oil, an effect that opposed the cholesterol increasing effect of synthetic (hydrogenated) fats. Definite showing made that the high incidence of cardiovascular disease (and probably cancer) where refined and synthetic foods are much used is a consequence of the use of fats that have lost their vitamin F (Science News Letter, April 28, 1956).

(Note: The possible carcinogenic effect of a high blood cholesterol was discussed in 1923 in T. B. Robertson’s book The Chemical Basis of Growth and Senescence, Lippincott, page 280, cancer victims having a 66% greater cholesterol content of their fat than normal).

1956–Manhattan’s famed nutritionist, Dr. Norman Jollife, reports unsaturated fatty acid deficiency (vitamin F Complex) responsible for civilized man’s high incidence of heart disease. He states that the hydrogenation of natural oils is responsible, that blood cholesterol is normally kept down by our dietary intake of natural vegetable oils. Since we have been using the hydrogenated fats–because they are more convenient than perishable oils–during the last 30 years, we must blame this change in diet for the high coronary disease rate in the group under 65 years, not blame tobacco, obesity, stress, or indolence for this high death rate peculiar to users of civilized food, not found in Eskimos or African Bantus, representing extremes in diet, the Eskimo subsisting on animal food high in fat, the Bantu on a high vegetable ratio (Time, Nov. 12, 1956, page 59).

1957–The San Francisco Chronicle (Feb. 14) reports the research of Dr. Hugh M. Sinclair of Oxford University on Vitamin F. He attributes the modern rise in duodenal ulcer, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, ulcerative colitis, and certain types of arthritis, allergy, bronchial asthma, and skin disease to the nutritional deficiency of the Vitamin F Complex. This deficiency was to be attributed to modern food processing methods, the vitamin being destroyed by flour bleach chemicals, by cooking and frying, destroyed by the hydrogenation of vegetable oils, destroyed when natural oils are hardened into oleomargarine. He says that test animals on such deficient diets develop a general weakening of vital tissues. “Membranes within and around the cells do not form properly, and the ‘ground substance’ between the cells is damaged. Experimental animals kept on this deficient diet are thus not afflicted with any specific disease, but they are walking invitations for disaster”…”If they are given cholesterol (as found in animal fats) the cholesterol goes into insoluble forms and is deposited like rust on the artery walls. If the animals are given an excessive amount of ordinary animal fat, they develop duodenal ulcers. If they get a mild dose of ultraviolet light, they develop a severe skin disease which spreads like wildfire, and which closely resembles the human disease known as lupus erythematosus. If they are insulted with a very small amount of cancer-producing chemical–too small to affect normal animals–they may quickly develop cancers.” (Note by Editor–A very good confirmation of the following reports in Vitamin News:

1. Antagonist and antidote for Vitamin D–Vitamin News, July 15, 1934.
2. Noted for effect on skin–Vitamin News, July 15, 1934.
3. Predicted to be useful in arthritis–Vitamin News, July 15, 1934.
4. Vitamin F deficiency shown to be a cause of angina pectoris and coronary disease–Vitamin News, March 30, 1940.
5. Missing heart sounds reported to reappear by use of vitamin F–Vitamin News, page 190).

Summary: Vitamin F complex deficiency now appears to be one of the most important considerations in today’s diet. Lost in hydrogenating natural oils and processing of cereals, we develop chronic diseases from high blood cholesterol and other biochemical changes clinically categorized as cardiovascular disease, coronary disease, liver disease, kidney disease, disturbance in calcium metabolism, disturbance in thyroid function, nutritional castration, duodenal ulcers, leukemia, cancer, multiple sclerosis, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, allergy, bronchial asthma, skin disease, missing heart sounds, constipation, nausea of pregnancy, chronic abortion, arteriosclerosis.