The April 2009 issue of Clinical Cancer Research will hold some exciting and hopeful news for men with prostate cancer or who have a history of prostate cancer in their family. University of California researchers and professors have teamed up to reveal some potentially life changing news for men who are at a high risk for prostate cancer: even if you have a genetic tendency toward developing prostate cancer (called a cox-2 genetic predisposition to the disease), eating a healthy diet with a substantial amount of omega 3 fatty acids in your daily food intake can dramatically decrease your odds of developing this illness1. Even though the actual study will not be released until April of 2009, the U.S. News and World Report released a summary of the results of the study and spoke with several of the researchers involved in the trials.

It turns out that omega 3 fatty acids, essential nutrients that your body cannot function without but must ingest in their fully compound form in order to benefit from, are critical to preventing prostate cancer whether you have a genetic tendency toward the health issue or not. This has been suspected for many years because omega 3 fatty acids, which are commonly found in salmon oil, are anti-inflammatory agents, which can help keep cells from "going bad" and turning into cancer cells when they are under stress from a variety of external and internal factors.

However, the news that omega 3 fatty acid can actually substantially decrease the odds of a man who is predisposed to prostate cancer of getting the disease is very exciting since previously knowing that one was predisposed to the disease generally simply meant one had to be extremely vigilant and hope to catch the problem before it became serious once it had occurred.

There have been various vitamin supplements that were endorsed and tested by researchers through the years. Unfortunately, many vitamins do not work as well as preventatives when they are taken in supplement form. Fortunately, omega 3 fatty acids, when taken as a natural supplement, can be absorbed into the body effectively.

However, it is important to make sure that your omega 3 fatty acid source contains omega 3's that are properly structured so that your body can use them. For example, many types of flax seed oil actually contain omega 3 fatty acids that are completely useless to your body. Sticking with a fish oil - particularly a salmon oil - appears to be the best bet when it comes to getting the most out of your omega 3 fatty acids.