| Eating a rich omega-3 diet that includes foods | | | | acids had a reduced risk of disease... even those |
| containing essential fatty acids such as salmon and | | | | who had the genetic variant Cox-2. |
| others, seems to reduce the risk of an | | | | This amounted to eating one or more servings of |
| aggressive form of prostate cancer according to | | | | fatty fish each week. |
| research appearing in the April 2009 issue of | | | | "The increase in risk associated with having the |
| Clinical Cancer Research. | | | | Cox-2 variant was essentially reversed in men |
| This association was most pronounced among | | | | who ate fish one or more times a week," says |
| men with a genetic predisposition to an aggressive | | | | Witte. |
| form of this type of cancer. | | | | In a 2007 study, omega-3 researcher Jorge |
| Men who ate one or more servings of fatty fish | | | | Chavarro, PhD from Harvard Medical School and |
| per week had a 63% lower risk for being | | | | colleagues found a 41% reduction in risks of |
| diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer than | | | | prostate cancer for men who ate more omega-3 |
| men who never ate this type of fish. | | | | rich food than those with lower intake. |
| This isn't the first research to find that men who | | | | The Harvard team also found that men who ate |
| ate this type of healthy fatty fish had a | | | | fatty fish before getting a prostate cancer |
| decreased risk for the this most dangerous, | | | | diagnosis, and continued to do so afterward, were |
| deadly forms of cancer. | | | | less likely to lose their lives to this disease. |
| Still more clinical trials are needed to see which | | | | Omega-3 has been shown to be particularly |
| foods high in omega-3 fatty acids reduce the risk | | | | protective against the more aggressive prostate |
| of aggressive prostate cancer. | | | | cancers. |
| "There is a lot of evidence that omega-3 fatty | | | | Even now, many questions remain. |
| acids protect against heart disease and other | | | | No one is sure if the effect of the omega-3 in the |
| diseases by targeting inflammation - and that may | | | | fish works only on the aggressive form of cancer. |
| be what is going on here," John S. Witte, PhD | | | | Experts are starting to wonder if prostate cancer |
| explains. He and researchers from the University | | | | may be better divided into aggressive forms and |
| of California, San Francisco studied 466 men with | | | | more local, benign cancers. |
| aggressive prostate cancer; 478 men without the | | | | While more work is being done, your best bet if |
| disease. | | | | prostate cancer is an issue, or even if it isn't, is to |
| The subjects filled out questionnaires on foods | | | | consider a diet rich in omega-3s, possibly even |
| they ate, and had a genetic analysis performed so | | | | using omega-3 supplements, to help reduce the |
| that the team could identify variants of the Cox-2 | | | | risks. |
| gene, which ups the chance of developing | | | | Some of the foods you might consider including in |
| prostate cancer. | | | | a rich omega-3 diet (besides salmon) are halibut, |
| What the analysis uncovered was that men who | | | | sardines, shrimp, clams, catfish, cod, albacore, |
| ate little or no fatty fish and also had the Cox-2 | | | | trout and herring as well foods like walnuts, oils |
| variant were 5 times more likely to develop | | | | like flaxseed and canola and delicious veggies like |
| prostate cancer that was advanced. | | | | spinach. |
| The men who had eaten lots of omega-3 fatty | | | | |