Friday, October 22, 2010

The Dark Side of the Fish Oil component, DHA

This news release contains some very worrying information ...

"We found that mice developed deadly, late-stage colon cancer when given high doses of fish oil," she said. "More importantly, with the increased inflammation, it only took four weeks for the tumors to develop."


The results do not surprise me because I have long known that DHA can induce inflammation and in this study inflammation was very present in the gut tissue of the organisms. So for the last few years I have been warning people about the dangers of high fish oil intake, though I suspect most thought I was balmy for making such warnings. But hey, I actually read stuff! 


In relation to fish oil a large Australian study recently found no benefit for babes or mums who were taking DHA during pregnancy. No improvement in babe health and no reduction in post partum depression. What I don't understand is the empahsis on DHA, the emphasis should be on EPA because of its direct modulation of the prostaglandin pathways. 


I realise this is all very frustrating for health conscious people and can offer no easy solutions. The methodology I use to examine biomedical data is time and memory consuming, it takes a lot of work and a lot of memorisation. That is easy for me because I have time on my hands and a bloody good memory. For most people it simply is not possible to read the relevant literature and discern good health advice, especially in a world where there are so many "health experts" offering easy solutions! 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

another interesting post. thanks. i suspect that when careers are built on single avenues of research - the ability to remain impartial is lost. also, media headline grabs (and inferior journalistism skills) don't help. you may already be familiar with the following site:

http://www.dhaomega3.org/

will be intriguing to see what is made of this latest, as you say 'worrying information'.

cheers.

Anonymous said...

oops - my inferior typing skills - 'journalism skills'.

Anonymous said...

time for a re-write!

http://www.dhaomega3.org/FAQ/Have-there-been-any-studies-on-the-potential-for-DHAEPA-supplementation-to-reduce-the-risk-of-the-recurrence-of-colon-cancer

Anonymous said...

this may not be telling you anything you don't already know.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/8269/1/

i recall enjoying dale atrens debunking some nutritional myths!

John said...

Hey Anon,

I read that Atlantic article only last week. I sent it off to a few friends and suggested perhaps the author was over stating the case. A friend of mine in the USA stated there was no over-stating, the use of statistics in biomedicine is something of a disaster area. Not good!

Tummy tuck said...

Really this fact. Fish oil may be very beneficial at many ways. You have really good knowledge about its. I am really happy to know about it.