Fish Oil Dangers

But fish oil has also some side effects and dangers. American doctors from the University of Michigan have established, that it may promote the development of severe colitis and even colon cancer!

Doctors believe that people, especially those with chronic bowel disease, should limit their intake of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), one of the main components of the fatty acid Omega-3, which is present in fish oil, says AMI-TASS scientific agency.

Laboratory experiments have shown that mice that received high doses of fish oil, got the deadly form of colon cancer at later stages. Moreover, the increase of internal inflammation of the disease took only four weeks to form a tumor.

The severity and progression of aggressive forms of cancer was seen not only in mice consuming high-dose of DHA acid, but also in rodents with low doses, if they were prone to inflammation of the intestine. Results were surprising for oncologists. They were sure previously that DHA acid in fish oil has opposite anti-inflammatory properties. Clinicians do not recommend to ruke out fish oil from diet, but we need to reduce the dose if the person receives sufficient amount of DHA from the usual products.

Fish oil side effects
The quality of the fish oil consumed is extremely important, and now it shouldn’t be quite so confusing or difficult to ensure that the highest quality is obtained. Even if the highest quality fish oil supplement is ensured, however, there are still possible side effects to consuming these supplements that one should be aware of. Generally, doses of 3 mg or fewer of fish oil supplements per day produce little to no side effects. However, fish oil does have a slight blood thinning effect - an effect that helps to explain why it is so beneficial for heart health, and an effect that is not necessarily bad in and of itself. This blood thinning effect can increase the risks of bleeding, easy bruising and nose bleeds though. This is especially important to consider if you are taking other blood thinning herbs or medication, because concurrent use of blood thinning medications or herbs may increase the risks of bleeding. The fact that fish oil causes blood thinning and thus increases the risk of bleeding, the use of fish oil supplements should be stopped prior to surgery and it is extremely important that you tell your doctor if you are taking fish oil supplements so your doctor can advise you as to the proper procedure that should be taken in preparation for surgery.