Have A Healthy Chemotherapy With Fish Oil

By Suparna Chakaraborthy

Tuesday, March 1, 2011, 11:41

Chemotherapy is a cancer treatment which is used to kill the cancer cells. The chemotherapy medication through the bloodstream checks the cancer cell growth which multiply rapidly to spread the disease. Thus, this treatment checks the cancer symptoms. The problem occurs when the therapy also affects the growth of the healthy cells like blood, hair, gastrointestinal tract etc, thus, being one of the major reason for chemotherapy weight loss. The other reasons of weight loss is the side effects of feeling of nausea, diarrhea, constipation and sometimes it may even lead to anorexia. Weight loss also occurs due to inability to digest and absorb food nutrients. This treatment affects the muscle weight of a person.

According to a recent research, fish oil which is a rich source of Omega3 Fatty Acid, can be a good supplement to enhance muscle growth in the body at the time of chemotherapy. Fish oil consumption along with chemotherapy can help to maintain weight and also prevent the damage of healthy fat tissues, thus, preventing chemotherapy weight loss. Vera Mazurak, PhD, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, made an experiment to check whether fish oil can prevent chemotherapy weight loss and it's effect on muscle and fat tissues.

16 patients took were given a regular dose of fish oil and 24 patients were not. They were under the chemotherapy for 10 weeks in which there weight was checked regularly. After 10 weeks, it was noticed that patients who did not take fish oil gained 2.3 kilo weight and patients who took fish oil maintained their muscle weight. Thus, proving that fish oil prevents chemotherapy weight loss. The doctors thus, concluded that two grams of fish oil can prevent chemotherapy weight loss to a great extent.

"Fish oil may prevent loss of weight and muscle by interfering with some of the pathways that are altered in advanced cancer. This holds great promise because currently there is no effective treatment for cancer-related malnutrition," said Dr. Mazurak.