The importance of omega three and six intake to breast cancer

Dietary fats ESSENTIAL READING
This is a complex subject. From everything I have read dietary fat balance is fundamental in breast cancer.

I attach a link of a very good article which will help you understand the mechanisms involved.

http://www.benbest.com/health/essfat.html

Then look up NCBI on your search engine and then search for breast cancer and omega three, breat cancer and omega 6 and breast cancer and CLA. These are trial results and it difficult to understand the technicalities - so I suggest you intiially stick to the conclusions, but it want take long to see which way the wind is blowing.

If you are worried how they may interact with treatment use the same search site and look up you treatment plus omega three etc.

The above for me stresses the importance of balancing your omega three and six intakes, and particulary including fish oil (which is not the same as cod liver oil it does not taste so bad or repeat) in your diet. The oils we now regard as healthy corn, soy, sunflower etc are high in omega six and are often identified above (above the bodies basic requirement) as percusors of breast cancer.

A trial was done taking biopsies of breast fat tissue at the same time as lump excision and relating the results to omega three consumption. The women in the top third of omega three for fiish oil had a 69% lower risk than the lowest third (and generlly had much lower risk profiles)

Dont take my word for it go and check for yourself.


R B

Here is one to start with - go to the last few lines to start.

1: Eur J Cancer Prev. 2005 Jun;14(3):263-70. Related Articles, Links


Exogenous supplementation with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3) synergistically enhances taxane cytotoxicity and downregulates Her-2/neu (c-erbB-2) oncogene expression in human breast cancer cells.

Menendez JA, Lupu R, Colomer R.

Department of Medicine, Breast Cancer Translational Research Laboratory, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute, Evanston, Illinois 60201, USA. jmenendez@enh.org

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3) and other omega-3 and omega-6 PUFAs have raised interest as novel anticancer agents by exerting selective cytotoxic effects on human cancer cells without affecting normal tissues. Here, we examined the in vitro relationship between exogenous supplementation with DHA and breast cancer chemosensitivity to taxanes. We measured cell viability in the highly metastatic human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 exposed sequentially to DHA followed by paclitaxel (Taxol) or docetaxel (Taxotere). As DHA by itself showed cytotoxic effects, possible synergistic interactions between DHA and taxanes were assessed, employing the combination index (CI) method and the isobologram analysis. Both methods showed a strong synergism (CI approximately 0.5; P<0.005) between DHA and taxanes in MDA-MB-231 cells. When the increase in taxanes efficacy was measured by dividing the IC50 values (50% inhibitory concentrations) obtained when the cells were exposed to taxanes alone by those after DHA pre-exposure, we found that DHA enhanced the cytotoxic activity of taxanes against MDA-MB-231 cells in a dose-dependent manner (up to 13- and 5-fold increase in Taxol and Taxotere efficacy, respectively). Importantly, sequential exposure to DHA followed by taxanes also yielded strong synergism in Her-2/neu (c-erbB-2)-overexpressing and taxanes-resistant SK-Br3 and BT-474 breast cancer cells. Moreover, exogenous supplementation with DHA significantly decreased the expression of Her-2/neu-codified p185(Her-2/neu) oncoprotein (up to 78% reduction in BT-474 cells). Our results provide experimental support to the hypothesis that omega-3 PUFAs can be used as modulators of tumor cell chemosensitivity and provide the rationale for in vivo preclinical investigation. In addition, this is the first study demonstrating that omega-3 PUFA DHA downregulates Her-2/neu oncogene expression in human breast cancer cells.

PMID: 15901996 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]



GLA is more complex, as is part of a chain starting with linoleic acid.

[CherylS]

How much fish oil should we take?

A difficult question.

1. Strenghts of products vary.

2. Look at the quantities of EPA and DHA.

3. If you look up toxicity and fish oil on the web people appear to be taking from 1 to 15 g with out any serious side effects.

4. 3 and 4 grams for three months are referred to in reports of other medicinal trials. Bottled may be cheaper - at 800mg of each per teaspoon that would be about five a day. Mecury - I would expect most reputable brands are checked but ask. I saw an article suggesting that the fear was overstated.

5. It is important to look at your other fat sources and particularly omega sixes.

6. Omega three appers to have some preference, but can be possibly pushed aside if omega six is very high.

7. Common ground seems to be aim for a balance of 1;1, but others argue for 1;2 etc.

8. I have not checked this but presumably if previous omega six consumption has been high the body will have reserves.

I am sorry I cannot give you any definate answers. research information is limited. Individuals are different. I am afraid you will have to do a little research and make up your own mind.

I hope this helps.

RB

Please find below two, more articles that may help clarify how it all fits together.

http://repositories.cdlib.org/cgi/vi...tionnoteworthy

Lisa Shapiro (1999) "Effects of Omega-6 and Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
on Breast Cancer ", Nutrition Noteworthy: Vol. 2: Article 6.

http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/tripping.html

I started knowing nothing about the subject, and continue to struggle but am begining to get a hint of ghost of an image of how it all fits, and understand how HUGE and complex and delicate and multiple option the mechanisms are. It is also apparent how much the scientific community do not know, and how "crude" drugs targeting is in terms of the whole (as yet far from fully understood) mechanism at the present time. The huge benifits of scientific advance cannot be denied, and should be loudly applauded, but in terms of comparison with progress in the electronics industry cancer cures are proabably closer to Graham Alexander Bell than todays microchips.

All of this emphasises the possible importance of making full use of natures very sophisticated chemistry "kit" in the battle. Finding significant dietary causes / inhibitors and eliminating / including them is likely to be very much easier than a comprehensive engineered cure in the short (years) term. They are more extensive that you would think. Walnuts have more antioxidants than pommegranites. Cabbage and cauliflower have been researched among many others. Button mushrooms feature. Suggestions of 70% risk reductions for omega three, linseeds, are not to be lightly ignored. Many benifits seem to be lost in heavy cooking - a juicer or liquidising is well worth cheking out.

See the last but one paragraph of the Lisa Shapiro article. In a trial a "dramatic" change in the balance of fats in breast tissue (omega three six) was acheived in three months (but it takes three years in adipose tissue).

I hope the above is of use. If you have the luxury of time to try and understand the outline of the eicosanoid pathways, I think it will repay you by allowing you to make informed decisions, and beome evident how important it si to general health - heart, circulation, arthritis, mental etc.

If your head feels like it is full of spaggetti trying to get to grips with this don't worry so did mine and it still does.

RB

PS Fish oil has been reported as helping to burn brown fat (and possible help regulate weight) so if your lower back is warmer that is possibly why.

The Ben Best link is such a good one on omega three and six I hop you will forgive me for pushing it back up the list.


RB

[debi]

Have any of you looked at the difference between Fish Oil Omega 3's and Flax Seed Oil Omega 3's.
debi

Debi this is a good starting point

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/70/3/560S

Also use the search button above to search on flax and flaxseed. Flax seed has high omega three about 50% - it also is a good source of soluble and insoluble fibre - it also is argued to help block the ER recpetors - you will find it discussed here.

The omega three alpha-linolenic (C-18:3) some times spelt in other ways is turned by the body into DHA and EPA among other things.

Fish oil contains DHA and EPA and so save the body the trouble, or helps if the body is not making it properly.

I hope this helps. It is a huge subject with thousand of trials. From reading trials it is evident that there are very many unanswered questions, but most of the sign posts there are do point in more or less the same direction and for all the huge gaps there are a lot of sign posts - and that is balance your omega threes and sixes and eat some oil fish and or take fish oil.

Try reading the Zone Inflamation diet book - Cracking the Metabolic Code - Dr Gaynors prevention program.

Omega three and six are powerful factors in the body, particularly when complicated by treatment so you should talk to your advisors before making magor changes - print out bits that interest you and take them allong so they can see where you are coming from - some of this is relatively new research that is coming out and doctors are very busy people with a huge amout to keep up with.

Many people take both.

RB