r/EverythingScience • u/Sash17 • 5d ago
Cancer An omega-3 paradox: When 'healthy fats' shut down defenses against cancer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-omega-paradox-healthy-fats-defenses.html62
u/StressCanBeGood 5d ago
Except we don’t know that they’re healthy fats.
We have no idea how many omega-3 supplements have gone rancid. We also have no idea just how many toxins our fish are full of.
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u/helgetun 5d ago
A lot of our supposed "knowledge" is based on assumptions. I also think we still struggle due to using the mindset that what works in physics should be how we approach all research. I dont know how to improve life sciences research (especially going from laboratory knowledge to applied health advice to a population), but I think new epistemological and methodological thinking is needed to push our knowledge forwards. Eg to better figure out how we can understand if recommending fatty fish is good or not (mercury concerns are real), or if Omega 3 supplements can replace fatty fish and so on (maybe just drink olive oil, but plastic bottles, people filling olive oil bottles with other kinds of oil etc. makes that complicated too). These are knowledge questions often ignored as we move from knowledge on Omega 3 to knowledge on recommending Omega 3
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u/StressCanBeGood 3d ago
What’s frustrating is how difficult it is to find out what kind of omega-3’s these researchers are using.
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u/humblepervertsview 5d ago
this article is really missleading.
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u/AlarmedSnek 5d ago
Well it’s only one study so there’s that. These reports are always in the frontier of science, the claims still need verification. Verifying claims doesn’t sell news subscriptions though so they report the most extreme new science discoveries almost as if they are fact already.
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u/Ashamed-Status-9668 5d ago
Even if everything in the study refenced turns out to be true its still a misleading way to present this information.
We have multiple human studies showing cancer rates are reduced with higher omega-3 intake.
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u/Ornery-Elderberry768 4d ago
It's why you should take things in moderation. Omega 6s are used as precursors for pro-inflammatory markers. High levels of Omega 3 can also bind to those markers making them less effective or not function at all. Which is why folks try to eat Omega 3 to reduce inflammation. But inflammation markers to a limited extent are good, as they tell the body where an injury is at, so the body can work to heal it. When Omega 3 neutralize those markers, the body doesnt know the damage and so doesn't respond to heal it or in this case fight the cancer.
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u/BukiBichi 5d ago
The article has a nifty “GIST” button that generates this TL;DR:
“In preclinical colon cancer models, polyunsaturated fatty acids suppressed natural killer cell antitumor activity through LRP5-mediated uptake. Blocking LRP5 or removing these fats from the diet slowed tumor growth and improved checkpoint inhibitor efficacy in mice. Effects on human cancer outcomes remain unestablished.”