Omega-6 >>> Cancer

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

From Dr. Mirkin:

" Fewer Omega-6's May Reduce Cancer Risk

May 25, 2008

Researchers at UCLA show that reducing intake of corn oils helps to

prevent prostate cancer in mice (Cancer Research, April 15, 2008).

Corn oil and other vegetable oils are extremely rich sources of

omega-6 fatty acids.

Fats are classified by their chemical structure into omega-3s, omega-

6s, and omega-9s. Omega-6s cause your body to produce prostaglandins

that turn on your immunity to cause inflammation, while omega-3s

turn down your immunity to reduce inflammation.

Your immunity is supposed to be good for you. When a germ enters

your body, your immunity produces white blood cells and proteins

called antibodies that attack and kill the germ. After that germ is

gone, your immunity is supposed to stop making so many immune cells

and proteins. If it remains active, your immunity attacks your own

body to damage tissue and increase risk for heart attacks, certain

cancers, and diabetes; it can also worsen existing diseases such as

some types of dementia, asthma or psoriasis.

For more than 2 million years, humans have eaten diets that have a

ratio of omega-6s to omega-3s of about two to one. However, over the

last 100 years, humans have added extracted vegetable oils to other

foods that they eat and increased the ratio to 12 to one and perhaps

as high as 20 to one. This increase in the ratio of omega-6s to

omega-3s is a cause of inflammation. The increase in omega-6's has

come primarily from vegetable oils that are added to baked, fried

and other prepared foods. Omega-3s oils are relatively unstable so

they are not found in most prepared foods.

Good food sources of omega-3's include seafood and beans, whole

grains, nuts and other seeds. We do not know if changing the ratio

of omega-6s to omega-3s will help to prevent cancers in humans, but

several studies show that they appear to both prevent and slow

cancers in animals. "