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Page 1 of 2  In the wildly funny 1973 movie “Sleeper,” Woody Allen’s character awakens 200 years in the future after being frozen by cryostasis to discover many things have changed in life and for him, a nerdy owner of a Greenwich Village health food store.
For one thing, scientists proved in those years that chocolate cake and deep-fried fatty foods were actually good for you and the “health food” that Allen sold was actually something to avoid.
I always think of “Sleeper” when I come across articles that say such-and-such may help do such-and-such to your body. Then again, we may wake up 200 years in the future and find it may not.
More prowess?
Allen’s slapstick comedy came to mind the other day when I stumbled across this: “Omega-3s May Help Slow Prostate Cancer Growth.” Having written a gadzillion articles for Nubella on omega-3’s alleged prowess at protecting your heart and brain, I found the press release pretty interesting because it entered a new realm with which I’m familiar.
And, the study involved findings that could benefit men who are genetically prone to develop prostate cancer – like me. My grandfather died of prostate cancer.
Of course, the findings came from a study with lab mice. At Wake Forest University’s medical school in Winston-Salem, N.C., the critters dined on diets high in omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil, salmon, sardines and other fish. A special gene
In the rodents with a genetic defect that caused prostate cancer, the omega-3 fatty acids reduced the growth of tumors, slowed the progression of the disease, and increased survival. The mice didn’t have a “tumor suppressor gene” that stymied prostate cancer from forming – and such a gene is absent in about 70 percent of the spreading cancers in human.
Similar studies with humans have suggested that eating fish or fish oil may reduce the incidence of prostate cancer, but the big flaw in nearly all of the projects were people’s difficulty in reporting accurately the foods they ate.
So the jury is still out on whether omega-3 can actually fight prostate cancer.
Meanwhile, cancer experts at Wake Forest say their findings suggest that if you have good genes, it may not matter too much what you eat. But your diet can tip the balance if you have the gene that makes you susceptible to prostate cancer.
Now they tell me.
In fact, the scientists say, it’s possible that eating diets high omega-3 could delay tumor development or progression long enough for men to live out their natural lifespans with prostate cancer. Of course, the scientists add that they must now test their theories in humans, not lab mice, before making any recommendations for people. Rats!
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