New discovery - Fish oil fights weight loss caused by chemotherapy
The study was published online by the American Cancer Society
A new analysis of the researchers showed that the diet supplemented with fish oil, can prevent weight loss and muscle tone that occurs commonly in patients with cancer, undergoing chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy can cause loss of muscle mass and weight, this leads to more fatigue, decreased quality of life, inability to obtain the necessary treatment, to shorten survival.
The researchers found that the diet supplemented with fish oil (contains omega-3 fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid) may help patients maintain or increase muscle tone.
Vera Mazurak, head of research at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, he led his team with the task of examining some patients suffering from lung cancer, to verify the effectiveness of fish oil for the maintenance of weight, muscle mass and adipose tissue, comparing the data with the results obtained with standard therapy.
The study involved sixteen patients tested with a daily dose of 2.2 grams of fish oil (eicosapentaenoic acid) and twenty-four other patients in traditional therapy.
The period of study of patients lasted ten weeks, until the completion of the first phase of chemotherapy treatment. Muscle mass and fat of the patients were periodically measured with computed tomography images. The analysis of the blood and the body weight, recorded at the beginning of the study, following have been checked during the phases of the cycle of chemotherapy.
In detail:
- Patients treated without fish oil, have lost an average of 2.3 kilograms of body weight;
- Patients undergoing treatment with fish oil, have kept the weight;
- Patients with a higher concentration of eicosapentaenoic acid in the blood, increased muscle mass;
- The Sixty-nine percent of patients in the group treated with fish oil, increased or maintained muscle mass, in comparison, only twenty-nine percent of the patients included in the standard-therapy group, maintained muscle mass. In general, patients in this group have lost 1 pound of muscle mass. In total, no difference in fat mass was observed in both groups.
In conclusion, the authors of the study said:
"In the standard treatment during chemotherapy, the daily nutritional supplementation with two grams of fish oil provides a benefit to patients, allowing them to maintain weight and muscle mass."
Vera Mazurak, head of research, said:
"Fish oil, interfering in stages altered in advanced cancer, can prevent the loss of weight and muscle mass. This represents a great hope because there is currently no effective treatment to manage the loss of weight due to cancer.
The fish oil is safe, non-toxic, essentially devoid of side effects. It may be helpful to patients with other forms of cancer and other chronic diseases associated with malnutrition, as well as the elderly, those at risk of loss of muscle mass. "
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