Showing posts with label metastasis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metastasis. Show all posts

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!