I’ve been contacted by a number of individuals who are
alarmed at or confused by recent headlines proclaiming, "Study Confirms Fish
Oils May Raise Prostate Cancer Risk”.
The study is virtually worthless, but it is receiving a great deal of
publicity from sources opposed to the use of nutritional supplementation.

Why do I consider the study meaningless? Because it says absolutely nothing about the
relationship of fish oils to prostate cancer.
What it does say is that those claiming to have discovered a link don’t
understand the limits of their own research.

The investigators simply compared the level of omega-3 fatty
acids in the blood of men known to have prostate cancer with those of a group
of men who did not have prostate cancer.
They made no attempt to determine whether the men with prostate cancer
had been supplementing fish oil for a day, a week, a month, or a decade before
the blood was drawn.

Having worked for over four decades with people in varying
states of health I can attest to the fact that the sicker a person becomes the
more likely he or she will decide to take one or more nutritional
supplements. Because the benefits of
omega-3 oils are well-documented, fish oils are one of the first supplements
sick people turn to in an attempt to improve their health.

I don’t need to conduct a study to discover that people with
a cancer diagnosis are more likely to be taking nutritional supplements than
people who have not been told that they have cancer. I don’t need to do a scientific analysis to
know that the more advanced the disease process becomes the more likely a
person is to begin supplementation.

This is all that the research showed – men who know they
have prostate cancer are more likely to supplement fish oils (and other
nutrients) than men who do not. That
does not mean that the fish oil supplements caused their cancer, no matter how
hard the media tries to make it so.

Ironically, a well-documented article detailing the
mechanisms by which omega-3 oils help prevent prostate cancer was published in
May. Since it wasn’t controversial, it
didn’t make the evening news or get multiple Internet posts. It’s available without charge at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3676993/
if you care to check it out for yourself.

Since omega-3s are known to prevent prostate cancer don’t
wait until it’s diagnosed to begin giving your body the support it needs. Your long-term health may depend upon
it.