'Very' interesting article about DHA myelin and the sole survivor

[Guest guest]

W.Va. miner's treatment with DHA excites Martek

'A big deal for us,' says Columbia maker of one version of the omega-

3 supplement

Mar 31, 2006

By Tricia Bishop

Sun reporter

Originally published March 31, 2006

On a morning news show broadcast across the country yesterday, Dr.

n E. Bailes told the story of how a West Virginia miner's life

was saved. And no one was more interested in his choice of words

than the staff at Columbia's Martek Biosciences.

Employees gathered before the television, tuned into CNN's American

Morning, and hoped that three little letters would again spill from

Bailes' lips. They didn't have to wait long.

" We began [treating him with] DHA, which is an essential fatty acid

to rebuild the myelin, the white [brain] matter, which was lost. And

his brain scans kept showing a progressive improvement, " Bailes,

chairman of the neurosurgery department at West Virginia University,

said, according to a CNN transcript.

And Martek - which happens to make a commercialized, vegetarian

version of the substance DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid - rejoiced.

" This is obviously a big deal for us, " said Cassie France-, a

spokeswoman for Martek, which advocates its DHA as a supplement for

brain health. The benefits are " something that we've known about for

a long time. It finally seems to be coming to the forefront. "

Bailes was describing the first steps his team took in treating

Randal McCloy Jr., who was the sole survivor rescued from the Sago

Mine after an explosion Jan. 2 killed 12 of his co-workers.

Yesterday, after three months of rehabilitation and treatment,

McCloy was able to go home.

Doctors had initially addressed his liver and heart failure and his

collapsed lung when he was brought in after 41 hours buried in the

mine, using technical medical means. But when it came time to treat

McCloy's brain, they also turned to DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid

typically found in fish.

Martek is hoping attention from McCloy's case, even though it didn't

involve Martek's products, could help DHA gain greater recognition

and acceptance. Staff spent the day yesterday calling media outlets,

including CNN, offering informational packets about DHA and

arranging for a doctor to go on camera to talk about its benefits.

To this point, Martek's DHA, which is derived from algae, has made

its way into chicken feed for high-DHA eggs and Odwalla Soymilk,

which is owned by the Coca-Cola Co. Three-quarters of the country's

baby formula manufacturers put it in their products. A Baltimore

couple makes a power bar for pregnant women with it. And last year,

Kellogg Co. signed a 15-year deal with Martek to begin adding DHA to

its goods, although no products have made it to market.

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health and released

last year showed DHA could help prevent heart disease in children

with high cholesterol. And 2005 dietary guidelines from the U.S.

Department of Agriculture claimed DHA may also help prevent

cardiovascular disease.

Brain component

" There are many important functional roles for DHA in the brain, "

said Norman Salem Jr., chief of the Laboratory of Membrane

Biochemistry and Biophysics at the National Institutes of Health.

DHA is naturally a major structural component of the brain, and

Salem has studied its effect on animals, co-writing a paper recently

that concluded the substance might lessen Alzheimer's-related

dementia.

But he's not completely sold on a correlation between McCloy's

recovery and his doctor's dispensation of DHA.

" We don't really know that this is going to be beneficial for these

patients, but we think it's a safe treatment, and it might help, "

Salem said. " There's a reasonable rationale for " trying it.

In a telephone interview yesterday, Bailes, the West Virginia doctor

who treated McCloy, was careful to qualify his belief in DHA.

" I'm not advocating it as a panacea, but I would say that I strongly

believe that the role of essential fatty acids, including DHA, in

some brain diseases and insults - in this case, carbon monoxide -

has been underappreciated, and I think hopefully it played a

significant role in Mr. McCloy's recovery, which ... far exceeded

our expectations, " Bailes said.

Doctors knew McCloy's gray matter had not been damaged in the

accident, but that he had inhaled a significant amount of carbon

monoxide, which injures the brain's white matter, responsible for

communication between regions of the brain.

'Had to be rebuilt'

" There is no medication to reverse it and so our rationale was it

had to be rebuilt. And what better way than with an essential fatty

acid that is one of the main ingredients that it is made from in the

first place? " said Bailes, who had become interested in DHA for

effects it may have as an anti-inflammatory agent or in treating

spinal disorders.

When McCloy was initially examined, there was no metabolic activity

in the white matter that was injured. After treatment with DHA,

there was, Bailes said. He could think of nothing else to explain it.

" I certainly don't know. I can't prove it. I don't know for sure, "

Bailes said. " I certainly felt it was safe. When we got him, he was

in such dire straits, we had to try innovative treatment. "

McCloy is considered the longest-known survivor ever of such carbon

monoxide exposure.

Effects of the correlation on Martek's business are not so easy to

predict. Company representatives said they saw an opportunity to

educate the public and media on DHA's benefits, but by the end of

business yesterday, they weren't sure of their success. Some e-

mailing with a CNN correspondent had gone on, they said, and someone

from ABC-TV's Nightline did a preliminary interview with a doctor

the company recommended, but little else had happened.

'It's helpful'

" I think it's helpful, but it's not exactly a celebrity

endorsement, " Gordon, an assistant professor of marketing in

the graduate division of business and management at the s

Hopkins University, said of the DHA-miner connection.

Gordon did say doctors may be more likely to take the news to heart

and work with DHA or study its effects based on McCloy's

experiences. But, he added, " I wouldn't go out and open a second

plant to produce it if I were Martek. "

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