Fish Oil Study: Can Omega-3s Give You Cancer?

Fish oil supplements have long been lauded to be heart-healthy as the oils--found in salmon, trout and tuna--are associated with a lower risk of heart disease. But a new fish oil study has found that Omega-3s may do more damage than since the fatty acid has been associated with an elevated risk of prostate cancer.

The new study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found that individuals with high concentrations of marine-derived omega-3s in their blood had a higher risk of developing prostate cancer (43% higher risk, to be exact) than their peers with lower levels.

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Before, you run off to eliminate omega-3s from your diet and the diet of your loved ones, know that the study is not saying that omega-3s are bad. Instead, it highlights that the fatty acids are more complex than previously thought and more research needs to be done.

"We have this tendency to talk about good foods and bad foods, good nutrients and bad nutrients," says Doctor Theodore Brasky, a research assistant professor at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center and the study's head author, to CNN.

The findings of this study are particularly troublesome for men, as the cancer is most common in men and most statistics reveal that men will develop prostate cancer during their lifetime if they live long enough. It has been estimated that a quarter of a million Americans are diagnosed with this form of cancer.

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As such, Brasky recommends that men with a family history of prostate cancer discuss with their doctor whether fish oil supplements are safe. Why? Because supplements contain 30 percent to 60 percent of serving of fish.

"The problem comes when you take components of a diet and put it in a pill," says Andrew Vickers, a statistician specializing in prostate cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.