Thanks to the work of scientists like Professor R.H.S. Thompson, Professor Roy Swank and Professor Hugh Sinclair, who observed the link between saturated fat and multiple sclerosis, doctors working in the field of multiple sclerosis thought it was worth investigating polyunsaturated fats further.
The first big trial involving linoleic acid and MS was conducted in 1973 by Dr J.H.D. Millar of Belfast and Dr K.J. Zilkha of the National Hospital in London, and others. They found that when linoleic acid, in the form of sunflower seed oil, was given to patients with MS, it reduced the frequency and severity of relapses.
After this trial, sunflower seed oil in various forms became all the rage with MS patients. They drank it neat, they took it in emulsions, they mixed it with orange juice. Many of them didn’t like it.
At this time, evening primrose oil capsules were being manufactured by one company only, Bio-Oil Research Ltd, of Cheshire. It was Bio-Oil’s director, John Williams, who was the first to see the potential of evening primrose oil, originally for heart disease. But when the results of the sunflower seed oil trial were published in the British Medical Journal, John Williams had a brainwave. If sunflower seed oil helped a little, then surely evening primrose oil, being that much more biologically active, might help even more.
At around the same time, Professor E.J. Field was doing some very important research work on essential fatty acids and MS. He started this research while Director of the Medical Research Council’s Demyelinating Disease Unit in Newcastle, and later carried on with the research at Newcastle University. Professor Field tested evening primrose oil on the red blood cells of people with MS. The results of these blood tests proved that the gammalinolenic acid (GLA) in evening primrose oil was much better than linoleic acid in correcting the defects found in the blood of MS patients.
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