July 30, 2013 — Here's yet another fishy health story: "Scientific research" from the US appears to show that fish oil significantly increases men’s risk of prostate cancer.
In some cases, it increases the risk of high-grade prostate cancer — the form most likely to metastasise (spread) and kill — by a whopping 70% or more.
Men have only to eat the oily fish, such as salmon, tuna and mackerel, a few times a week, rather than pop pills containing the oils, to run the risk.
Those are frightening claims, especially when they emanate from a source as usually respectable and reliable as the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle, Washington, and are published in the prestigious, peer-reviewed Journal of the National Cancer Institute in July.
The researchers say the risk is highest with mega doses of the oils in the body, that cause high levels of long chain omega-3 fatty acids, including EPA and DHA, to build up.
Dr Alan Kristal, associate head of the Cancer Prevention Programme at Fred Hutchinson, who participated in the research is quoted as saying: "We’ve shown once again that use of nutritional supplements may be harmful."
In a Forbes magazine report he says it would take just three to four servings of fish a week to "get into the highest exposure category in our study, or a standard omega-3 supplement (probably every other or even every third day would be enough)".
Read the full story from BDlive