ABSTRACT
A study was conducted of seven healthy women living in a metabolic suite, to learn how the dietary fat and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid content affect immune status. A comprehensive review showed how dietary sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and trace elements influence arachidonic acid metabolism and eicosanoid production. Cleland et al. measured the arachidonic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid content of neutrophil membranes from healthy men assigned to a high- or low-linoleate diet followed by the same diet supplemented with fish oil. The effect of dietary fish-oil supplementation on the antigen-induced cutaneous late-phase response was studied in 16 atopic subjects. A prospective double-blind crossover study assessed the effects of a low-fat diet supplemented with fish oil in patients with active systemic lupus erythematosus. The report of Kjeldsen-Kragh et al. on a controlled trial of fasting and a vegetarian diet as therapy in rheumatoid arthritis generated active comment from readers.
