Omega-3 Oils

1. Omega-3 Oils Slash Prostate Cancer Risk
The omega-3 fatty acids found in oily fish could slash the risk of developing prostate cancer almost in half. The fish oil also reversed the deadly effect of a gene known to increase the risk of developing an aggressive inherited form of prostate cancer.
Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco compared the diets of 466 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and 478 healthy men. Those who ate “dark” oily fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel, one to three times a month had a 36 percent reduced risk of developing prostate cancer. Those who ate the fish more than once a week slashed their risk by 57 percent. Scientists found similar results for eating shellfish, which also contains omega-3 oils.
The omega-3 oils also influenced a variant of the COX-2 gene, an inherited gene that encourages inflammation and is linked to a 500 percent increased risk for an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Eating a diet rich in oily fish wiped out the negative effects of the gene and eliminated the increased risk.
“The COX-2 increased risk of disease was essentially reversed by increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake by half a gram per day,” said study leader John Witte, Ph.D. professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California at San Francisco. “If you want to think of the overall inverse association in terms of fish, where omega-3 fatty acids are commonly derived, the strongest effect was seen from eating dark fish such as salmon one or more times per week.”
Scientists believe that omega-3 oils reduce the risk of prostate cancer by combating inflammation, which influences cancer risk