Sorry, Charlie!
“Fish Oil Probably Doesn’t Fight Cancer”
Now, there’s a misleading headline if ever I saw one - do they mean that fish oil is too chicken to put up its dukes against a cowardly band of sneering, narcissistic cancer cells? Is fish oil destined to join its comrade laetrile on the ash heap of ineffective cancer treatments?
No, that ain’t it. No one is saying fish oil is a flop as chemotherapy against cancer. Read on:
Researchers examined data from 38 studies that tracked patients for up to 30 years, and said most showed there is no cancer protection from omega-3 fatty acids. The reviewed studies examined the effects of fish oil - in both pill form and as food - on 11 kinds of cancer, mostly tumors of the breast, colon, lung or prostate.
We have all heard that ingesting fish oil can prevent sudden death, lower triglyceride levels, open up rusty pipes, grow hair on a billiard ball and promote inter-galactic peace. Now comes this story that, much to the disappointment of the investigators I’m sure, suggests omega-3 fatty acids don’t reduce the risk of getting cancer. Does this study of 700,000 patients (wait a second - 700,000 patients? Does anyone think that there might be some problems with standardization of variables here?) mean that we’ve proven any definitive conclusions about eating fish oil? Listen to what “chronic disease researcher” Julie Buring, from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston has concluded about this report:
“It doesn’t tell us it’s unlikely or likely,” Buring said. “What is supported is that right now we don’t know.”
Oh, so we don’t know! Now, how do we know we don’t know what we thought we knowed?
The review is unlikely to be the last word on the issue. Diet is known to play a role in cancer and the researchers evaluated observational studies, which provide mostly circumstantial evidence.
That’s putting it mildly. Not only do dietary prevention studies have to prove that subjects ingested the proper protective foodstuff (fish oil capsules, or Saumon sur un lit d’epinards?), in the proper amount (determined by whom?), for a meaningful length of time (one can of tuna a year is unlikely to guarantee 100 candles on your birthday cake), they must also show that the beneficial health effect is a direct result of the ingested substance, not the fact that all 700,000 of your mackeral-munching minions just happened to be non-smoking fitness buffs.
So we don’t know if fish oil is truly a waste of time in the battle to prevent getting cancer, but having taken the capsules once (on a health kick, of course) I can vaguely recall a unique side effect of this product. My memory seems to have failed me, but perhaps if I ask for divine effluvium to guide me, afflatus will inspire me to pass remembrances of zephyrs past along to you, the gentle reader. Semper ubi sub ubi ubique!
UPDATE: In response to a request, here is a link to the actual article, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
