I think context is important when making statements like that.
Arachidonic Acid does not cause prostate issues, which one could be lead to believe by the way the post was phrased.
However, I believe what you're likely referring to is that the Arachidonic Acid pathway in the body, may contribute to accelerating the growth of various cancers in people that already have cancer (including prostate cancer). This is true with many different pathways in the body, and bottom line is that no one with any type of cancer should use supplements without first consulting their physician.
Arachidonic Acid (ARA) is a very popular supplement here on Anabolic Minds and has been for many years.
If you follow my posts or look back on my post history, you'll see that it isn't one that I talk about much or one that I can take myself because I have an autoimmune condition and my inflammation markers run super high to begin with. Odds are my ARA levels in my bloodwork run higher than a normal person's would when they were supplementing with ARA - which is definitely not a good thing, and why I don't use ARA personally.
Which leads me to my other point here - I never told him to take Arachidonic Acid to begin with.
One of the supplements that he mentioned already has Arachidonic Acid in it and I simply pointed out something to him so that he (and others reading) can know what to look for when reading supplement facts in order to know exactly how much they are getting. People very often get confused by looking at the labeling on ARA supplements.
Here's a walk through on that:
- For example, on the one that he mentioned, the supplement facts shows - Arachidonic Acid 10% - 1,000 mg.
- Many people read that and think that there is 1,000 mg. of actual ARA when there is really only 100 mg. of actual ARA.
- The significance of that is that the common dosage of Arachidonic Acid used by weight training individuals is 1,000 mg., but that is of actual Arachidonic Acid.
- Arachidonic Acid in regular capsule form is 10% active ARA, so one would have to consume 10,000 mg. of Arachidonic Acid 10% to get the actual dose of 1,000 mg. active ARA.
- Which is why I pointed out that most people that know what they are looking for choose to use a 40% Arachidonic Acid, which is an oil form so it would be in a softgel, like X-Gels.
- X-Gels contains 625 mg. per softgel of 40% Arachidonic Acid for 250 mg. actual ARA per softgel.
I explain things like this on here in order to help people - it's one's own personal decision whether to supplement with Arachidonic Acid, but if someone wants to, its important for them to understand how to properly read the labels and get what they're paying for and not be accidentally taking a tenth of the dosage that they think they are.