Omega 3 Contents Omega 3... 1 Omega 3 Introduction... 1 ALA - Alpha-linolenic acid... 2 EPA - Eicosapentaenoic acid... 2 DHA - Docosahexaenoic acid... 2 Omega 6 fatty acids... 2 Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Inflammation... 4 Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Cancer... 4 Omega 3 Introduction Omega 3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats or PUFA s. There are 3 types of Omega 3 fatty acids found in the body ALA, DHA and EPA. It is important to understand the relationships between ALA, DHA and EPA because the inflammatory system and the immune system rely on these nutrients to function properly and without sufficient ALA, DHA and EPA one of these system may not function correctly. As you have seen in the basic section the immune system is essential in the fight against cancer and inflammatory system is essential against the development, growth and the spread of cancer so as a cancer fighter, you need to ensure not only that you understand these but also have sufficient quantities of these in the body to support a healthy immune and inflammatory system.
ALA cannot be produced by the body and these three nutrients ALA, DHA and EPA are essential for a healthy metabolism. 1 Metabolism is the sum of all chemical reactions that occur in the body and not just related to weight loss. So all the new cells that need to be produced, all the energy we make all the hormones and enzymes we make are all part of our metabolism and that is why it s essential to have a healthy metabolism in cancer care. You need to make immune cells to help fight the cancer and you need to replace the dead cancer cells with healthy new cells. ALA - Alpha-linolenic acid The body uses ALA to produce energy. A lot of the energy we need to live, laugh and enjoy life comes from ALA. ALA can also be used as the building blocks for EPA and DHA. 2 DHA and EPA are essential for a healthy immune, inflammatory and cardiovascular, nervous systems and the brain. So it is essential to have enough ALA to produce enough EPA and DHA for these systems unless we obtain EPA and DHA from our diets. EPA - Eicosapentaenoic acid EPA allows the body to manufacture prostaglandins. These are the chemicals that are essential in the inflammatory process. The most important prostaglandins have an antiinflammatory effect on the body. As you have seen in the introductory sections, inflammation forms a key part of the cancer cycle so it is essential to ensure you either get enough EPA from dietary sources or that you consume enough ALA to allow the body to manufacture sufficient EPA. DHA - Docosahexaenoic acid The nervous system and the brain both require large amounts of DHA to function correctly. That is why some people refer to salmon and fish as brain food. In fact DHA can make up as much as 30% of the fat that makes up the brain. Omega 6 fatty acids The amount of DHA and EPA we can produce depends on a number of factors including what other foods we eat. Omega 6 fatty acids reduce the amount of ALA that the body converts to EPA and DHA. Unfortunately our diets are extremely high in Omega 6 and extremely low in Omega 3. A healthy ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 is between 2:1 and 4:1. It is estimated that the average western diet is somewhere between 8:1 to 20:1 with the average being closer to 20:1. So we are eating double to ten times the amount 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/omega-3_fatty_acid 2 http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrient&dbid=84
of omega 6 s than is deemed healthy. This means the body cannot produce the EPA and DHA that we need. Vitamins and DHA, EPA production You also need sufficient quantities of vitamin B3, B6, C, magnesium and zinc if the body has to manufacture its own EPA and DHA. A lack of any of the above nutrients will mean your body does not have the necessary building blocks to produce DHA and EPA. Dietary sources of Omega 3 s, DHA and EPA You can now see why it s important to supplement the body with omega 3 s containing both ALA, DHA and EPA. You can get sufficient from an omega 3 supplement containing these nutrients or you can get enough from your diet. There is however a problem with getting enough omega 3 from dietary sources. You see, animals get omega 3 s from eating grass or eating natural seaweeds and other natural diets. That is why beef fed on grass and pastures are high in omega 3 s but beef farmed on other sources contain very little omega 3. The same goes for salmon. Wild salmon are high in omega 3 because their diets are high in natural omega 3 s from the natural diet. Farmed salmon do not have sufficient omega 3 in their diet and are therefore not a good source of omega 3. One more note about dietary sources of omega 3 contained in nuts. There are a variety of nuts and seeds that are high sources of omega 3. If you choose these nuts or seeds as your source of omega 3, then you need to realize that the body cannot really get the goodness from the nuts and seeds if you eat them whole because they are generally too small to grind with your teeth. It is therefore important to grind the seeds or break them apart thoroughly before you eat them. Good dietary sources of ALA and Omega 3 s include flaxseeds, walnuts, sardines, salmon, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, mustard seeds, shrimp, winter squash, broccoli, cod, collard greens, spinach, kale, lettuce, green beans, turnips, bok choi. Now that you understand more about ALA, DHA and EPA and their roles in energy and the immune and inflammatory system, it seems obvious that omega 3 has some antiinflammatory characteristics and also therefore some anti-cancer characteristics. A review of Omega 3 Fatty Acids http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/herb/omega-3
Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Inflammation Now that you understand that EPA is an essential ingredient in the manufacture of antiinflammatory prostaglandins, it seems logical that some studies indicate omega 3 supplementation had anti-inflammatory effects. Where someone is deficient in omega 3 or eating too much omega 6 then supplementation of Omega 3 will obviously alleviate the inflammation caused by the lack of Omega 3. Omega 3 fatty acids are well known for the ability to fight and reduce inflammation. There is copious research on the benefits of Omega 3 s to help reduce inflammation. 3 For more information and the studies on Omega 3 Fatty acids on inflammation and the immune system and cancer, read the Omega 3 PDF. Omega 3 Fatty Acids and Cancer Omega 3 may have the benefit of improving chemotherapy and other cancer therapies but there are studies to the contrary too so it s important to discuss the supplement with your cancer care specialist. Studies that show benefit for chemo and cancer include: Increased benefit of chemotherapy in lung cancer. 4 Reduced recurrence of renal cancer. 5 Reduces risk of colon cancer. 6 Here are some other studies involving Omega 3 s ability to fight cancer: Patients with lung cancer did better on chemotherapy when they took 2.2g of fish oil per day - Nutritional intervention with fish oil provides a benefit over standard of care for weight and skeletal muscle mass in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer receiving chemotherapy. Nutritional intervention with 2.2 g of fish oil per day appears to provide a benefit over SOC, resulting in the maintenance of weight and muscle mass during chemotherapy. 7 Patients with colorectal cancer were able to tolerate chemotherapy better with EPA supplementation - An eicosapentanoic acid (EPA)-enriched oral supplement improved tolerability of chemotherapy in patients with advanced colorectal cancer. Potential usefulness of an EPA-enriched nutritional supplement on chemotherapy tolerability in cancer patients without overt malnutrition. Only patients in the supplemented group significantly increased their weight after the 3 http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/omega3-fatty-acids 4 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21360698 5 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16985229 6 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7958682 7 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21360698
intervention. They also had better scores in important domains of HRQOL, compared to controls. Although not statistically significant, the supplemented group did not experience interruptions in their chemotherapy treatment compared to the control group, with more interruptions due to toxicity. 8 EPA helped to prevent colonic neoplasia - Eicosapentaenoic acid free fatty acid prevents and suppresses colonic neoplasia in colitis-associated colorectal cancer acting on Notch signaling and gut microbiota. Inflammatory bowel diseases are associated with increased risk of developing colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC). Epidemiological data show that the consumption of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFAs) decreases the risk of sporadic colorectal cancer (CRC). Importantly, recent data have shown that eicosapentaenoic acid-free fatty acid (EPA-FFA) reduces polyp formation and growth in models of familial adenomatous polyposis. Taken together, our data suggest that EPA-FFA is an excellent candidate for CRC chemoprevention in CAC. 9 In a phase II clinical trial on men with prostate cancer omega 3 fatty acids helped to prevent the progression of the cancer - Prostatic and Dietary Omega- 3 Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer Progression during Active Surveillance. The association between omega-3 (ω-3) fatty acids and prostate cancer has been widely studied. However, little is known about the impact of prostate tissue fatty acid content on prostate cancer progression. We present the initial observations from baseline data of a phase II clinical trial conducted in a cohort of 48 untreated men affected with low-risk prostate cancer, managed under active surveillance. We found that eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) was associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer progression when measured directly in the prostate tissue. Thus, this initial interim study analysis suggests that prostate tissue ω-3 fatty acids, especially EPA, may be protective against prostate cancer progression in men with low-risk prostate cancer. 10 In a lab, researchers showed that omega 3 can cause gastric cancer cells to commit suicide - Omega-3 PUFAs induce apoptosis of gastric cancer cells via ADORA1. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (Omega-3 PUFAs), including docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), have been suggested to have anti-cancer effects by epidemiological and clinical studies. However, their underlying anti-cancer mechanisms are still unclear. In this study, we examined the influence of two Omega-3 PUFAs (DHA and EPA) on the proliferation and apoptosis of gastric cancer (GC) cells. our results suggest that 8 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21336429 9 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24676631 10 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24824038
the anti-cancer effect of Omega-3 PUFAs on gastric cancer is at least partly dependent on activating the ADORA1-mediated apoptosis pathway. 11 DHA has the ability to poison and this kill human cancer cells in a lab - Docosahexaenoic acid-induced apoptosis is mediated by activation of mitogenactivated protein kinases in human cancer cells. The role of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω3-pufas) in cancer prevention has been demonstrated; however, the exact molecular mechanisms underlying the anticancer activity of ω3-pufas are not fully understood. Here, we investigated the relationship between the anticancer action of a specific ω3-pufa docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and the conventional mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) including extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), c-jun N- terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 whose dysregulation has been implicated in human cancers. Together, these results indicate that DHA-induced MAPKs activation is dependent on its capacity to provoke mitochondrial ROS generation, and accounts for its cytotoxic effect in human cancer cells. 12 Warnings and Side Effects Taking up to 3g of fish oil per day is deemed safe. If you are thinking of taking Omega 3 or fish oil supplements, then consult your cancer care professionals to make sure the supplement does not interact with your drugs. 13 Omega 3 may lower blood pressure so those on blood pressure medication should be vigilant about the medication they are taking if they take omega 3 supplements. 11 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24896321 12 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24993937 13 http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/supplement/omega3-fatty-acids