Cancer patients should avoid taking fish oil supplements. According to a study fish oil supplements is reducing the chemotherapy’s effect.
Fish oil contains fatty acid which is reducing effectiveness of the therapy and this fatty acid is found in all the six fish oil supplements examined by the researchers.
Dr. Emile Voest, the study’s lead author from the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam said people undergoing chemotherapy should avoid fish supplements and discuss with the doctor to provide with a different supplement.
“I’m always discussing it with my patients, please have an open relationship with me and tell me what you’re taking,” he said.
Omega-3 fatty acid is consumed through fish oil by fifth of Americans having cancer.
The fatty acids will finally help repairing the cancer cells by themselves faster after chemotherapy.
Earlier studies found that small amount of two fatty acids will reduce the effect of chemotherapy.
So his team looked to find if the two acids are contained in fish oil and they detected one of the fatty acid.
The Dutch Cancer Society and the Dutch National Working Group for Oncologic Dieticians has recommended people to avoid the intake of fish oils during the treatment.
“It’s an intriguing observation, which warrants further investigation,” said Dr. Powel Brown, chairman of the Department of Clinical Cancer Prevention at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston who wasn’t involved in the study.
He added, “In general, when giving chemotherapy, we discourage the use of additional supplements, it’s very well known that some supplements affect the metabolism of chemotherapy.”
