Fatty Fish Lowers Kidney Cancer Risk

Ivanhoe Newswire
Wednesday, September 20, 2006; 12:00 AM

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Eating fatty fish, such as herring, mackerel, salmon and sardines could be extremely important for women's health.

One study from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, reveals women who ate one or more servings of fatty fish each week compared to those who ate no fish had a 44-percent decreased risk of developing renal cell carcinoma (RCC) -- a common type of kidney cancer.

Moreover, women who said they consistently ate fatty fish for a long period had an even lower risk.

Past studies have looked at overall fish consumption related to kidney cancer, but have not distinguished between lean and fatty fish. These differences are important, being that fatty fish offers health benefits not found in lean fish.

In the past, doctors noted certain acids in fatty fish slow the progression of cancer. Additionally, low serum vitamin D levels have been linked to the development of kidney cancer, and significantly more vitamin D is found in fatty fish than lean fish.

Lean fish includes cod and tuna.

?Our results support the hypothesis that frequent consumption of fatty fish may lower the risk of RCC [kidney cancer] possibly due to increased intake of fish oil rich in eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaneoic acid as well as vitamin D,? study authors report.

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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2006;296:1371-1376