A physician wrote in about my recent article about the dangers of fish oil and I responded to him here. He said:
“omega 3 have been shown to be quite beneficial to reduce inflammation as well as many other benefits. Your positions may sell materials through shock value, but at the cost of misrepresenting the scientific evidence.”
And so I thought I’d take this opportunity to help you and I figure this out.
As you know, there are always studies that say “X is good” and studies that show “X is bad.”
The key to reaching a sound conclusion about X is to have an underlying explanatory theory that is born out by biochemistry and experimentation, PLUS evaluating the way the studies are done.
Studies are often done and written up such that the intro and the conclusion contradict the results, in order to be politically correct.
Plus the studies that get funded and done and published must ensue to the party line.
The publications are littered with politically correct conclusions that killed countless patients and eventually were found to be wrong.
Almost all medical opinion today will be found to be wrong or harmful
For example, many years ago, studies they said that estrogen replacement therapy was a good idea. Then they found out that it causes horrible problems including cancer.
They said that eggs were bad for you. Now they know eggs are good for you.
They said that saturated fats were bad and that vegetable seed oils were better. Now they know that this was a HUGE error.
Vegetable oils, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are causing disease and obesity — and medical doctors and studies STILL advise they are better
Take a look at this chart I made that shows how obesity (higher body mass index) is correlated with increases in vegetable oils and fish oils, called PUFAs or polyunsaturated fatty acids.
PUFAs include soy oil, corn oil, most bottled dressings, most prepared foods, etc.:
Fish oils and vegetable oils are PUFAs, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and they cause major metabolic problems in the human body. As you can see, they correlate with obesity.
Yet I’m constantly attacked for telling the truth.
There were countless studies “proving” these fallacious claims about eggs, saturated fat, and now polyunsaturated fats including fish oil. Regarding omega 3 specifically, I used to take fish oil myself.
I would give it to my dogs. But both dogs died of cancer. Which may be related.
Fish oil is highly unstable.
It peroxidizes and is very difficult for the body to deal with.
For instance, this study showed high levels of lipid peroxide in women who had consumed fish oil regularly:
There are many studies showing how fish oil puts a huge free radical load onto the body — called lipid peroxides
There is no argument here.
Fish oil and ALL vegetable oil, PUFAs, almost instantly “go rancid” in the human body — what is called lipid peroxidation.
Free radicals.
And there is really no good evidence for fish oil lowering all-cause mortality.
I have several good studies that tried to show that it did but failed. Perhaps it’s because of lipid peroxidation?
Another game researchers play is to substitute some “end point” with all-cause mortality.
For example, if drug Y lowers cholesterol, they will promote drug Y. But if they track drug Y over 20 years, they find that more people die sooner, who take drug Y.
That’s because drug Y was harmful.
Lowering cholesterol was a side effect of bad things drug Y was doing in the body.
This game is played with ALL high blood pressure medications and ALL diabetes medication.
The drug companies don’t show that people live longer.
They just show that blood pressure went down, or blood sugar went down.
Which as it turns out, is not enough to restore health.
I try to see through that game and show you the facts.
Fish oil may cause some arbitrary end point to look better, but in the end, it’s all-cause mortality that really counts.
Yes, fish oil does have short term anti-inflammatory qualities, but longer term is very destructive. It does NOT make people live longer or better. Probably because it causes so many free radicals.
I’m not saying that it’s bad to eat fish.
I eat fish all the time.
But I no longer think fish oil is healthy and the long term studies show I am right.