• Home
  • Melanie Brown
    • Female Fertility
    • Male Fertility
    • Pregnancy
  • Recipes
    • Recommended Experts
    • About Anna
    • About Kate
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
    • Press
  • Your Consultation & FAQs
  • Contact & Rates
Menu

Melanie Brown Nutrition

3-5 Duke Street
London, England, W1U 3ED
(44) 7968 369 076

Your Custom Text Here

Melanie Brown Nutrition

  • Home
  • Melanie Brown
  • Fertility
    • Female Fertility
    • Male Fertility
    • Pregnancy
  • Recipes
  • Recommended Experts
    • Recommended Experts
    • About Anna
    • About Kate
  • Media
    • Blog
    • Podcasts
    • Press
  • Your Consultation & FAQs
  • Contact & Rates

Fish Oil & Prostate Cancer: A Red Herring?

August 1, 2013 Melanie Brown
Melanie-Brown-Nutrition-Fish-Oil-Prostate-Cancer-A-Red-Herring.jpg

The recent headlines confidently claiming that omega-3 ‘causes’ prostate cancer have caused a bit of confusion for sure. I suggest omega-3 regularly for my clients for its anti-inflammatory and blood thinning properties, especially if they can’t or won’t eat fish, which in itself provides such a wealth of nutrients, as well as omega-3.

It’s not the study which is baffling: it’s the rush to reach a conclusion using a study which wasn’t designed for the purpose (it’s an observational study into selenium and vitamin E and cancer not a gold-standard, randomised controlled trial into omega-3 and prostate cancer), which did not investigate the diets of the men involved, which runs completely contrary to epidemiological evidence AND previous studies suggesting the polar opposite, for example Dietary omega-3 fatty acids, cyclooxygenase-2 genetic variation, and aggressive prostate cancer risk.

Although the researchers have not themselves claimed that omega-3 causes prostate cancer, the news has been sensationalised in the press, and may as well suggest that even eating fish fingers may give you prostate cancer!

It is impossible to draw a firm conclusion as to cause and effect with an observational study. There is an association or a correlation but this then leads to further trials which can establish, or not, a more robust link.  The most striking feature of this study is the fact that no dietary analysis was included, so the source of the omega-3 fats was not determined.  Were the participants taking supplements, eating lots of fish, or both?  Or neither?  Did they start doing so upon diagnosis of prostate cancer in an attempt to eat more ‘healthily?  Eating a low saturated fat diet is recommended for the prevention and management of prostate cancer and low fat diets enhance blood levels of omega-3.  Moreover, the differences between the omega-3 blood levels of cancer and non-cancer were very small and both fell into the healthy normal range.

Epidemiologically this conclusion opposes the evidence. As someone said you would expect fish-eating countries like Japan and Scandinavia to have rocketing levels of prostate cancer and this simply isn’t the case. The Mediterranean, the Nordic and the Japanese diets, all high in fish are believed to be the healthiest in the world. Could it be that these diets are also rich in anti-oxidants in vegetables and fruit, and these anti-oxidants protect the highly reactive omega-3 oils from oxidative damage? There is a world of difference in healthiness between eating fried fish and chips and fish and fresh vegetables. It would have been interesting to see what the overall blood anti-oxidant levels  of the participants were, and of course to know for certain if they were taking supplements and if so, what and how much, in addition to dietary analysis.

I am always careful to suggest that my clients use a pharmaceutical grade fish skin (rather than liver) oil from a sustainable source of small fish, and they take it with either a multivitamin containing antioxidants or following a meal containing fruit or vegetables.  I take fish oil for my skin and my joints; I don’t particularly like oily fish. I recommend it to my fertility clients because it is good for sperm and anti-inflammatory. For the moment a strategy of risk management may need to be employed until more studies have been done.   If you have a family history of prostate cancer just eat fish. But the evidence for complete avoidance of omega-3 just doesn’t stack up in my opinion.

In Fertility, Nutrition
← Men, please, please do your bit; a heartfelt plea.Wonderful Watercress →

FOLLOW ME...

INSTAGRAM

@melaniebrownnutritionist

 
View fullsize One of my favourite days when the sun and London really shine! Taste of London in Regent’s Park.
There are so many stands showing fabulous creative little food companies. The atmosphere is brilliant and very restorative and well, just fun! 

It
View fullsize Summer salad for lunch and colour is key.
This is watercress, red cabbage, tomato, carrot, and avocado. Fresh and delicious. 

#mediterraneandiet #summerlunch #healthylunch #healthylunchideas
View fullsize If you are trying to become pregnant, stop your ozempic/mounjaro/wegovy two months before stopping your contraception. And use a barrier contraception as well as or instead of the Pill as the drugs can affect the effectiveness of the Pill.

This is b
View fullsize Look after your delicate bits! 

Tampons contain phthalates, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), PFAS, and heavy metals like lead, and some are even fragranced. 

These chemicals disrupt the delicate eco system of the vaginal microbiome and are easily
View fullsize I’m back with the fabulous boys! 

We shall be talking about how nutrition and lifestyle affects male fertility, what’s fact and what’s fiction.

Open to everyone.
Zoom 8pm, Wednesday 4th June. Your camera on or off, you can eat you
View fullsize
View fullsize My next reading and it will be so good! Reminders and new things too. 

#inflammation
View fullsize Mushroom and purple sprouting pasta. 
Both so fabulously good for you!
With red onion, garlic, crème fraiche, lemon juice, a little veg or chicken stock and some porcini mushroom powder from Waitrose. 
Took 12 minutes to cook.
I love an all in
View fullsize Tomorrow Sunday at 9am I shall be talking to the inspirational Emma Belle of @tfmrmamas as part of TFMR Awareness Day.
Here is the link to the day
https://www.tfmrawarenessday.com/2025
Please join us.
View fullsize This study reported in the Guardian (easy to find online) is fascinating because it really does show a definitive relationship at last between diet and endometriosis, which has been controversial. 

I am not a gluten free die-hard but I do take my en
View fullsize My mum always posts me cuttings from the newspaper, this one is from the i paper I think but I just couldn’t download a link for you. But thank you @drkatelister for such a great article! 

So this is it, and you get the general gist - men are
View fullsize Jonathan Ramsay, our own King of Balls as he is affectionately known😂 is talking about male fertility to Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard on ITV This Morning from 10am this coming Monday.
Not to be missed!
View fullsize I knew nothing about the Mexican artist Frieda Kahlo apart from her mono-brow until I went to her beautiful house, and what a story - of so much pain, creativity and love. And the reason I am posting this is because she tried so hard to have a baby -
View fullsize It had to be done! I found broccoli for breakfast in Mexico City. And carrot, and cauliflower with some olive oil. I have really missed my veg. Oh joy ! ❤️🥦
My husband was aghast and there were a few pitying glances coming my way.
But I’m happ
View fullsize I had the best day learning some Mexican cooking with the  fabulous chef Gerardo Aldeco @lacocinaoax - look at that gorgeous kitchen! 

We made a chicken mole with so many amazing ingredients - prunes, raisins, chillies, chocolate, chicken stock, cum
View fullsize Day one in Mexico and this was a cheap and cheerful airport hotel before we head off on our adventure. 
Refried black beans, green pepper and onion that I stole from the sausage dish, plantain - first time and I’m converted, and papaya. It was
View fullsize It’s time to stop fat shaming women. In fact don’t fat shame anyone. But do recognise that obesity also affects male fertility as well. In fact male obesity can also influence a woman’s chances of having pre-eclampsia in pregnancy.
View fullsize In today’s FT weekend magazine. I’m off to buy it and I’ll post more later. 

#sperm #spermdonation #spermquality #spermdonors
View fullsize I absolutely love butter and margarines are never an option. Neither are ‘spreadable’ butters which contain other oils. But organic butter is best as the environmental chemicals that a cow is exposed to are fat soluble, so they end up in
 

Female Fertility • Male Fertility • Pregnancy Nutrition • Blog

 
 
Contact

© 2024 Melanie Brown Nutrition. All rights reserved. PRIVACY POLICY

Photography by Emma Croman. Logo by Pia Knight. Website by Tania Smith