Dear Innate Choice customers:
Recently the public media has been widely distributing a news story relating to the alleged link between high blood levels of Omega-3 and the risk of prostate cancer. This story seems to be getting some traction and we are aware that some of you are facing questions in your clinical practices. Our first response is to remind you that we base all of our decisions on the BODY of EVIDENCE related to any issue; not on singular studies. So there is no need to panic. In fact this is a great opportunity to be the health LEADER that your community needs and wants.
Remember to ask the right questions. Here are some that we are already asking:
- Was this “study” designed as an interventional study to determine cause and effect; or is it merely an observational study that demonstrates correlation? Dr. Chestnut’s favorite example of correlation is that drowning victims have often consumed ice cream prior to drowning. Does this mean eating ice cream causes drowning, or increases the risk of drowning? Of course not. It merely means that people often eat ice cream at the beach. We may find the same factors at play here, such as:
- Were the study subjects also taking multi-vitamins? The people most likely to adhere to taking a daily fish-oil supplement are also the ones most likely to be taking a daily multi-vitamin. Unless they have been trained by you, these people will not know that almost all multi-vitamins on the market contain SYNTHETIC vitamins, which have been demonstrated to increase the risk of cancer.
- Does the study indicate the SOURCE of the Omega-3s? The media says it’s “marine source” but they don’t indicate if it’s actual fish consumption or if it’s from supplements. The reason we recommend supplementing with a product derived from small fish and tested by a third-party for purity is that our oceans are becoming increasingly polluted, and large fish such as salmon and tuna contain high levels of toxins such as mercury and PCBs – known carcinogens.
- Ask yourself if you have ever heard of high levels of prostate cancer (or any other cancer for that matter) in populations that lived naturally and consumed very high levels of Omega-3s (such as North American Inuit or Australian Aboriginals).
Be confident that we are gathering the information necessary to answer these questions, including the ORIGINAL ARTICLE which appears to have been published just last week. Dr. Chestnut, who is out of the office for a couple of days, will be providing an honest RESEARCH-BASED critique later this week.
Thank you to everyone who alerted us about this topic.
