As always the case, many of my patients would ask about the goodness or advantages of their food or vitamin supplements. Many of them are led to taking these through friends' recommendations, media advertisements and lo and behold, even through their GPs (general practitioners)! some of these errant doctors even sell those vitamins at their clinics. My training has persuaded me to regard this as unethical. Anyway this is beside the point.
I always tell my patients that for as long as they are healthy, not suffering from terminal diseases, and have good appetite they should stick to taking a balanced diet suggested by the food pyramid. It is better to take natural foods as the body is physiologically familiar with them. Fresh fruits and vegetables contain vitamins that the body needs. Supplements may contain other chemical contaminants and artificial food stabilisers like colouring and taste at the point of processing and production.
One of the supplements highly touted to be advantageous to people suffering from heart or cardiovascular disease is omega-3 fish oil. Many of my patients take these capsules and I had earlier not much information on the long-term effects and have therefore remained rather neutral on my advice.
But the latest research findings on the link between omega-3 fish oil and risk of prostate cancer, which confer with an earlier finding in 2011 is rather worrying. Prostate cancer especially the high grade classification is usually fatal. As suggested by the researchers here more studies need to be undertaken to determine the specific mechanisms linking this finding in prostate cancer patients with high level of blood omega-3 fatty acids, I would suggest to my elderly male patients who don't have cardiovascular disease indicators such high triglycerides level to stop taking this supplement for the time being.
Apparently it doesn't matter from which sources you take this omega-3 oil, dietary intake or supplement, you have to be aware that a high level of this fat may not be good to your prostate. I suppose omega fish oil capsule taken daily would have exposed your system to a more sustained high level of it.
It is important to note that unless a properly planned research is done we might not know the effects of any medications/supplements on our body. Some of these scientific research are triggered by cluster observations of people coming down with a certain condition and a search for links is made and findings are required to be reproducible by other groups using similar methodology and later peer-reviewed and published in reputable medical journals.
Anyway, omega-3 oil may be beneficial for the heart and its "required" blood level may have been established but then people are different in their response to their metabolism and certain factors like enzymes may affect the level in different individuals. Hence what is fine to a patient may not be so in another.
What about women taking this omega-3 fatty acid supplement? There is some suggestion here that might be beneficial for breast cancer but there is no focussed research but only a meta-analysis of 21 studies the individual methodology of which are important to look at before they can be accepted.
I always tell my patients that for as long as they are healthy, not suffering from terminal diseases, and have good appetite they should stick to taking a balanced diet suggested by the food pyramid. It is better to take natural foods as the body is physiologically familiar with them. Fresh fruits and vegetables contain vitamins that the body needs. Supplements may contain other chemical contaminants and artificial food stabilisers like colouring and taste at the point of processing and production.
One of the supplements highly touted to be advantageous to people suffering from heart or cardiovascular disease is omega-3 fish oil. Many of my patients take these capsules and I had earlier not much information on the long-term effects and have therefore remained rather neutral on my advice.
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| Omega-3 Fish oil capsules - Net Image |
Apparently it doesn't matter from which sources you take this omega-3 oil, dietary intake or supplement, you have to be aware that a high level of this fat may not be good to your prostate. I suppose omega fish oil capsule taken daily would have exposed your system to a more sustained high level of it.
It is important to note that unless a properly planned research is done we might not know the effects of any medications/supplements on our body. Some of these scientific research are triggered by cluster observations of people coming down with a certain condition and a search for links is made and findings are required to be reproducible by other groups using similar methodology and later peer-reviewed and published in reputable medical journals.
Anyway, omega-3 oil may be beneficial for the heart and its "required" blood level may have been established but then people are different in their response to their metabolism and certain factors like enzymes may affect the level in different individuals. Hence what is fine to a patient may not be so in another.
What about women taking this omega-3 fatty acid supplement? There is some suggestion here that might be beneficial for breast cancer but there is no focussed research but only a meta-analysis of 21 studies the individual methodology of which are important to look at before they can be accepted.
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