[Tom]

Dear Susie,

Our resident "fathead" is RB. He is into some heavy duty research of the relationships of fatty acids and breast cancer. I will attempt to be as brief as possible in explaining this, and RB can follow if I have missed anything. Here goes:

Three essential groups of fatty acids are most often discussed. They are Omega-3, Omega-6, and Omega-9. Current research suggests that the ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 plays an important role in general health, and in particular, to the beginnings of malignancies. Over the years, Americans in particular, have evolved a diet that has a growing amount of Omega-6 compared to Omega-3. This is believed to be one of the reasons that cancers have seemingly become so prevalent. Therefore, it is important that one changes diet/supplementation in order to provide a better balance of Omega-6 to Omega-3. At the very least, one should have a 1 to 1 ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6. The higher the ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6, the better. Simply put, always strive to INCREASE Omega-3, and DECREASE Omega-6. Omega-3 would include a substance known as EPA and DHA (Google those), found mainly in cold-water fish oils. Omega-6 would include linoleic acid, found in flaxseed oil and other vegetable oils such as safflower oil. Red meat also contains Omega-6 fatty acids.


One reason that you should reduce Omega-6 intake, is that it is a promoter of some of the body's natural inflammatory responses, which have been associated with new cancers, and the metastasis of existing cancers.


Omega-9, which is the main ingredient of olive oil, is beneficial to your health because of it's effects on reducing cardiovascular disease, and it's ability to keep Herceptin working beyond the period after which HER2+ breast cancers develop resistance to it.


The very short explanation would be:


Omega-3 is good for you


Omega-6 is generally bad for you


Omega-9 is good for you


That's my story and I'm sticking to it. I patiently await the appropriate editing by RB. Stay logged on and hopefully RB will magically appear within mere moments to clarify any mistakes I made. Come on RB. Don't make a fool out of me...I'm counting on you.