You see that bottle of fish oil in the picture? That came out of my "medicine" cabinet and I just ran up to my husband and prohibited him from taking it anymore. You may be thinking to yourself, but I thought taking fish oil supplements was good for you. Yeah, so did we. That's why my hubby bought the supplements, but today I read about a study that confirms the findings of an earlier 2011 study that men who consume fish oil omega-3 fatty acids are at a 71 percent higher risk for high-grade prostate cancer!
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What?! Prostate cancer! No, thank you.
The research in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute was conducted by the same team of researchers that found a link between prostate cancer and Omega-3s.
The scientists still don't understand why Omega-3s increase the risk of prostate cancer, but their research shows that it may be involved in the growth of tumors.
Now, the study does not make a distinction in how the Omega-3s get into a man's body, be it via two servings of salmon a week or supplements, but seeing as I don't want my husband to have even a 5 percent increase in his risk for high-grade prostate cancer, he will not continue to take them. The risks seem to far outweigh any potential health benefits.
It really bums me out when you think you are doing something that is good for your health only to find out that you may be doing yourself harm. In an ideal world, I wouldn't bother with supplements because I would get all the nutrients I need from my awesome diet, but my world is not ideal and my diet is less than awesome. Time to start working on improving both.
Image via Claudya Martinez
