Immortality, Cancer, Omega-3: Fishy Facts About Death And Ways To Postpone It

Don't get me wrong. As much as we'd love to boast one, this isn't an article about an immortality elixir. That would be wrong, because immortality is actually a lethal disease. It is called cancer.

The phenomenon of biological immortality is actually well-established in a number of sea-faring organisms, from hardy water bears to a species of jelly-fish. There is no discernible senescence whatsoever, so barring from catastrophic trauma they'll live happily ever after. So what is stopping the scientists from extracting a serum or some such and inject it in humans?

Cancer, that is. It is an irony of life that the only immortal human cell is a cancerous one. It can reproduce indefinitely because it's lost a suicidal mechanism prevalent in normal cells. Without apoptosis, a single cancer cell can, and often does duplicate itself forever until the human host dies. There are a number of ways to tackle the disease, but most of them involving excising, burning or poisoning the affected tissue. But that might change soon.

According to the Smithsonian, fish almost never get cancer unless they have been living in heavily polluted waters. Granted, we can't really accuse fish of things as we do in human cancer patients: they don't smoke, drink, eat junk food, or even put on sun lotions. But we all know people who's struck by cancer despite leading a sober and clean life. Fish don't. Do they know something we don't when it comes to reining in traitorous cells?

Research is still on-going, but at least one thing is clear: certain fish by-products do lower the risk of cancer in humans. 35,000 volunteers participating in a joint study by the University of Washington and the University of California demonstrated as such when they found their risk of breast cancer lowered by a third compared to a control group. All the first group did was pop some omega-3 fish oil pills on a regular basis. Other studies are being actively pursued in prostate and colon cancer cases, but there's no telling where the benefits of omega-3 ends.

Errors can be introduced into a cell's genetic programming in many ways - anything from stray radiation to a chemical disturbance might knock things up a bit. The immune system would set things right most of the time, by exterminating all the misfits. But sometimes the system might be busy responding to major threats - by effecting inflammation - or it might just break down and start inflaming things for no reason at all (e.g. in rheumatism). This is why inflammation is now seen as a potential trigger for cancer.

And that is why DHA and EPA, the principal constituents of fish oils, are capable of cancer prevention to a degree. They form a very effective anti-inflammatory deterrent in the bloodstream, which promotes cardiovascular health in addition to the effects described above.

Go on, have a bit of fish oil. It's a pity it doesn't cure cancer or makes you immortal, but then you can't have both.

By: Charles Bernstein

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