Anybody who has ever heard Chris Woollams speak will know that he always asks the audience to put their hands up if they took a fish oil supplement that day. It is because he wants the rest of the audience (usually two-thirds) to realise that fish oils are a true superfood.
In Cancer Watch it seems that every month there is a study showing that omega-3 prevents cancer, or reduces polyps in colon cancer, or reduces inflammation or does something else like increases longevity.
In one of the largest ever studies (35,016 post-menopausal women between the ages of 50 and 76 who were taking part in the 10-year Vitamins and Lifestyle (VITAL) study) researchers from the
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle have found that
regularly taking a fish oil supplement may lower the risk of breast cancer by approximately a third.
"This study is one of the largest studies that have come out showing that there may be a role for fish oil in the prevention of cancer, specifically breast cancer," said Lorenzo Cohen, of the
M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas-Houston.All of the women lived in Washington state and had no history of breast cancer. After an average of six years, the researchers found that women who regularly took a fish oil supplement were 32 percent less likely to develop invasive ductal breast cancer than women who did not take the supplements.
ED: We have regularly commented on ductal breast cancer after a UCLA Professor stood up at the American Breast Cancer Conference and said that DCIS was, most usually not breast cancer but calcium deposits in the breast ducts and in 80 per cent of cases never led to breast cancer! We opined then (5 years ago) that this could be why fish oils and vitamin D could be so effective in preventing breast cancer they both have a significant effect on reducing excessive blood calcium levels (cows dairy consumption increases them and is known to increase breast cancer risk). Magnesium, deficient in at least 40 per cent of the population, will also take calcium from the blood stream into the bones.
Long-chain Omega-3 is known to play a role in reducing inflammatory localised hormones around cells, by reducing the Cox-2 enzyme levels. Fish oils may also contain vitamin A and vitamin D both of which have a cancer preventative ability, according to research.
Interestingly, the consumption of oily fish did not prompt the same research effects, possibly because fish oil supplements are of a much higher concentration.
One of the biggest issues with fish oils is possible contamination, for example with heavy metals like Mercury. If you are looking for a clean fish oil we know Natural Selection chooses only Mercury-free sources.
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