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Prof. David Ma has discovered that marine-based omega-3s are eight times more effective at inhibiting tumour development and growth.
"This study is the first to compare the cancer-fighting potency of plant- versus marine-derived omega-3s on breast tumour development," said the professor in the Department of Human Health and Nutritional Sciences. "There is evidence that both omega-3s from plants and marine sources are protective against cancer and we wanted to determine which form is more effective."
[...] Published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, the study involved feeding the different types of omega-3s to mice with a highly aggressive form of human breast cancer called HER-2. HER-2 affects 25per cent of women and has a poor prognosis.
[...] Ma found overall exposure to marine-based omega-3s reduced the size of the tumours by 60 to 70 per cent and the number of tumours by 30 per cent.
However, higher doses of the plant-based fatty acid were required to deliver the same impact as the marine-based omega-3s.
Source: https://news.uoguelph.ca/2018/01/choose-omega-3s-fish-flax-cancer-prevention-study-finds/
Journal Reference: Jiajie Liu, Salma A. Abdelmagid, Christopher J. Pinelli, Jennifer M. Monk, Danyelle M. Liddle, Lyn M. Hillyer, Barbora Hucik, Anjali Silva, Sanjeena Subedi, Geoffrey A. Wood, Lindsay E. Robinson, William J. Muller, David W.L. Ma. Marine fish oil is more potent than plant based n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the prevention of mammary tumours. The Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.jnutbio.2017.12.011
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 01 2018, @09:49PM
Is this really about where the omega-3 acids come from, or which one they are?
I know of 3 major dietary omega-3 acids: alpha-linoleic acid (the one in flaxseed) and docosohexaenoic acid eicosapentaenoic acid, which are the usual "fish oil" omega-3s. The thing about ALA is it has to be upconverted to DHA or EPA by the body, which process is very inefficient.
But don't the fish bioaccumulate these things from eating algae or things that eat algae anyway? This implies that the ultimate source of DHA and EPA is still plant-based, not some magical fish elixir. I'm sure we can get marine algae farmed on an industrial scale, and someone upthread mentioned he's vegan and takes a vegan omega-3 supplement made this way.
So is there something magical about getting your O-3s from fish I'm missing here, or is the headline misleading?
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