Fish oil tablets contain 2 essential fatty acids called DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), which are otherwise known as omega 3 essential fatty acids. Over the last 40 years many studies have established the benefits of Omega3 fats to many areas of our health including our heart health. Studies have also shown a link between fish oil and breast cancer prevention and fish oil and prostate cancer prevention. However there are now studies which also show that increasing your intake of fish oil may help to prevent bowel cancer.

A study in Scotland on the benefits of increasing your intake of Omega3 fats found that more DHA and EPA in your diet can help to reduce your risk of colorectal cancer by up to around 40 percent. The study specifically noted that increasing intakes of DHA and EPA achieved this result, but that increasing the intake of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), a plant-based Omega 3 fat, did not produce the same result.

The researchers found clear evidence that those with the highest intake of fish had a lower risk of bowel cancer and that those with a lower intake of fish had a higher risk of colon cancer.

Another study in the Netherlands combined the results of 14 studies on omega 3 and bowel cancer and found that the overall results showed that there was a lower risk of bowel cancer for those with the highest intake of fish and that it was possible to estimate the risk reduction according to the number of fish meals eaten, including that one meal of fish per week produced an estimated 4 percent reduction in the risk of colon cancer, meaning that 2 fish meals per week produced an estimated reduction in the risk of bowel cancer of around 8 percent.

The average levels of fish intake of people in the US is way below that which would achieve these significant results in helping to prevent bowel cancer.

Of course it’s not true to say that eating more fish will prevent colorectal cancer, but it is probably fair to state that increasing your intake of omega 3 essential fatty acids found in fish oil can be an important part of an overall diet to prevent cancer, and can attract a range of other health benefits, including reducing the risk of death from heart related problems, substantially.

The next question is how to achieve these benefits. In the US we don’t generally eat a lot of fish. Fish is extremely expensive and it is only certain types of fish that have high levels of DHA and EPA. Combine that with the fact that most of the fish we eat is contaminated to a degree with mercury and other nasty toxins, and that the FDA advise discretion when eating fish for this reason, and it is fair to say that increasing our intake of fish substantially and weekly will be too expensive and can have other problems.

However there are excellent fishoil tablets available which overcome these problems. Fish oil tablets are small capsules containing omega 3 fatty acids and the best fish oil tablets are completely contamination free and are much more cost-effective to be taken daily than increasing your intake of fish.

However not all all fish oil supplements are as good as others, and you need to be careful comparing one with another because there are wide variations in the amounts of the active ingredients found in the different brands. You cannot directly compare the price of fish oil tablets alone.

It seems clear from the research that increasing your intake of omega 3 fatty acids is a big part of staying healthy, including in helping to prevent bowel cancer. And as we are all eating too little fish we should all be considering daily supplementation with fish oil tablets.

I take omega 3 supplements every day. To find out which ones visit my website.