There are a couple of factual issues in this article. First, the study did not find that omega-3s induced colitis, the mice were intentionally induced with colitis (a highly inflammatory bowel condition) and THEN given fish oils to see what the effect was in mice that already had the condition. If you have colitis, you are going to be under special care of a doctor and should not be taking high doses of anything the doctor doesn't ok. Auburn asked how much is a "high dose," which is another issue. These mice consumed the human equivalent of 10-30 capsules of fish oil per day...on top of having baseline omega-3 blood levels that were already three times higher than the Japanese (who eat more seafood than any other group).
The study is valuable for colitis patients and doctors treating them, but until more research is done the results should not be extrapolated to the general population.
Full Disclosure: I work for an association that tries to educate consumers and doctors about omega-3s.
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There are a couple of factual issues in this article. First, the study did not find that omega-3s induced colitis, the mice were intentionally induced with colitis (a highly inflammatory bowel condition) and THEN given fish oils to see what the effect was in mice that already had the condition. If you have colitis, you are going to be under special care of a doctor and should not be taking high doses of anything the doctor doesn't ok. Auburn asked how much is a "high dose," which is another issue. These mice consumed the human equivalent of 10-30 capsules of fish oil per day...on top of having baseline omega-3 blood levels that were already three times higher than the Japanese (who eat more seafood than any other group).
The study is valuable for colitis patients and doctors treating them, but until more research is done the results should not be extrapolated to the general population.
Full Disclosure: I work for an association that tries to educate consumers and doctors about omega-3s.
January 21, 2011 - 10:11amThis Comment
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