Fish Oil Protects Cancer Patients against Muscle Wasting from Chemotherapy Regimen Effects

A new study suggests that cancer patients who are undergoing chemotherapy treatment may be able to save their muscle.

Typically, one of the unfortunate side effects of chemotherapy regimen is the loss of muscle. This muscle loss actually increases mortality rate as the patient’s body becomes weaker.

Up till now, no known way has been identified to effectively counter the malnutrition caused by chemo.

The cancer patients using the fish oils were compared against patients undergoing the same chemo regimen without use of these omega-3 rich oils.

“Fish oil may prevent loss of weight and muscle by interfering with some of the pathways that are altered in advanced cancer,” study author Dr. Vera Mazurak, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, said in a news release. “This holds great promise, because currently there is no effective treatment for cancer-related malnutrition.”

The study was small, involving just 40 lung cancer patients, and some caution is expressed against cancer patients from just high dosing on fish oils by a dietitian cited in the article until further studies are conducted.

Source:

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/hsn/fishoilseemstohelpcancerpatientspreservemuscle

My-Omega-3′s Comments:

Very promising if not sobering study. Cancer has overtaken heart disease as the number one leading cause of death in the United States.

First, as pointed out, the study was small. And also, not all cancers are the same. Would the results have shown equal promise if the cancer patients were suffering other types of cancers? Hopefully further research will confirm the promise of using fish oils in preventing muscle wasting from other types of common cancers.

What’s also interesting to note is that the cancer patients studied who used fish oil lost no weight on average during the study period, even despite the chemotherapy treatment.

Lastly, we like how one researcher mentioned that there are wider possible benefits here. For example, elderly people who tend to become frail due to natural muscle loss as they age, may potentially be a good target group in supplementing with fish oil to help them preserve more muscle in their later years, irrespective of any cancer diagnoses.

We personally believe that the vast majority of people, especially in the Western world, are deficient in omega-3 fatty acids and if there’s one supplement people should strongly consider adding to their daily health regimen, it’s a high quality fish oil product.