To fish or not to fish. That is the q... - Advanced Prostate...

Advanced Prostate Cancer

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To fish or not to fish. That is the question.

19 Replies

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/273...

19 Replies
Magnus1964 profile image
Magnus1964

Somehow I feel like this study is flawed. The base subject group is small, and given time lapse I don't think any real conclusion can be made.

I am a pescatarian so it doesn't matter to me. I love fish.

pjoshea13 profile image
pjoshea13

An old study found that mortality from almost all cancers was lowest in pescatarians (fish eaters who are otherwise vegan). Of course, many prefer fish that is low in fat. I mostly get omega-3 from canned sardines & Alaskan salmon. And the occasional Scottish kipper. I wish I could find fresh herring.

-Patrick

in reply to pjoshea13

I get fresh Herring from Whole Foods. (In MI. )

pjoshea13 profile image
pjoshea13 in reply to

Wow! I will check my local Whole Foods store (in NC).

cigafred profile image
cigafred in reply to pjoshea13

Fresh herring at Valli in the Chicago 'burbs.

blms profile image
blms

Yes, always great! But, NO farm raised fish only wild fish. And cod is better than halibut for us.

Spyder54 profile image
Spyder54

RSH1. Appreciate your analytical mind, and research drive. Please keep them coming. My wife and I went plant based (not “Vegan”) approx 8 mos ago. When we crave protein, and beans have lost their appeal for the week, fish is our go to. Somehow studies go out the window, and intuition and common sense take over. Most of the “Blue Zones” on the planet are fish heavy on their diet. Mercury and Fish at the top of the food chain is REAL.

Currumpaw profile image
Currumpaw

Hey RSH!!

A couple years ago I went through a long back and forth about fish oil and aggressive prostate cancers. There was a flawed, sensationalized, study in 2013 that gained favor for "copy numbers" in the media.

In the back and forth I found a study conducted in one of the Scandinavian countries using interviews about diet going back for decades. It was rather thorough. It was found that those men who ate fish regardless of the amount had no incidence of elevated prostate cancers but quite the opposite having decreased numbers--UNLESS--are you ready? Men that ate smoked fish as a large part of their diet had higher rates of prostate cancers than expected.

Maybe the smoked sardines, kippers and salmon might be a bad choice!

That study should come up with a bit searching if anyone is interested.

If anyone is supplementing with fish oil use only the best and store it carefully. Like the IT people say, "Garbage in, garbage out"! That is especially true about fish oils. I'd advise oil rather than capsules but do as you wish.

Currumpaw

in reply to Currumpaw

I never thought about the smoked fish! Makes perfect sense and might explain the different study results.

Thanks.

in reply to Currumpaw

Thanks again

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl....

Currumpaw profile image
Currumpaw in reply to

RSH1!

Thank you! Those who aren't vegans should read this study.

I have the same thoughts on beef. Free range, organic, grass fed--be careful of that "grass fed" designation. How long was the live stock fed grass? The last 30 days of it's life? Was it free roaming in a herd doing cattle things? Those cattle have muscle and conjugated linoleic acid rather than omega 6's! A shoulder steak has low fat. Humanely slaughtered? Fowl the same.

Once the meats are processed, smoked, canned, packaged and an expiration date in the future printed on the can or package and so on things change.

Currumpaw

monte1111 profile image
monte1111

I've been a Presbyterian for many years.

SeosamhM profile image
SeosamhM in reply to monte1111

Oh, man...I needed that today. A+.

monte1111 profile image
monte1111 in reply to SeosamhM

It's roller coaster weather. Glad we're both still walking and talking. Careful, j-o-h-n is probably slithering around here somewhere.

MateoBeach profile image
MateoBeach

Busy cutting bait. I like fish and already have prostate cancer. So the debate is moot for me. (Though I did enjoy my pork carnitas tacos tonight with my wife and my dog.)

in reply to MateoBeach

The article was about incidence AND progression "A search of OVID MEDLINE, Pre-MEDLINE, Embase, and the Allied and Complementary Medicine Database (AMED) was completed for human interventional or observational data assessing the safety and efficacy of fish-derived omega-3 fatty acids in the incidence and progression of PrCa."

It mentions progression many times.

I have found 3 U.S. RCTs that are applicable. Two have null findings. One has a positive finding. Weak evidence at best (I rank the data, as I'm sure most of us do, and my ranking is a 1 on a scale of -5 to 5 with higher numbers better and 0 a neutral rank. Overall with PubMed, my doctors, and a few other data sources, my ranking improves a little to 2.21 but this is not even close to placing it in the top 50).

Regardless of the low ranking, I like salmon, the cardiac studies and health studies are much more supportive. More prostate cancer patients die of cardiac issues than of cancer. Advanced prostate cancer patients are a different story but cardiac problems are still big. So I will have my fish once or twice a week.

MateoBeach profile image
MateoBeach in reply to

🐟🐟 Me too

miscdenver profile image
miscdenver

Arachidonic acid is believed to be one of major contributors to PCa and other cancers:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/919...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/183...

Then, here is information on foods, especially fish variety, that are high or low in this content:

wholefoodcatalog.info/nutri...

Choline is another ingredient that PCa, and other cancer cells, have affinity for (hence Choline based radioactive PET/CT scan materials):

researchgate.net/publicatio...

Foods with most Choline content:

foodtips.org/choline-foods/

When these two lists are compiled for foods to avoid aspect, not much is left other than a pescatarian menu based on some select fish.

in reply to miscdenver

Meat is bad. Fish is bad. Soy is bad. Dairy is bad. Fructose is bad. Glucose is bad. Carbs are bad. I haven't read a negative about fiber. Research on glucose and sugar tells me to banish it from my diet. That leaves protein and fat. Protein is supposedly bad. So that leaves fat. I don't want to eat 100% fat and fat is supposedly bad. So that leaves.... alcohol. So, the lesson that I take from this is that, in college, I was into sports, drinking, and girls (not necessarily in that order). I didn't have cancer. So bring back the drinking! Bummer though because now I don't like booze. Oh well, perhaps I can develop a biological nuclear power plant and use it to fuel me. Built-in radiation therapy too :)

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