Fish oil

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Using Fish Oil for Joint Pain

Posted by jointpain11 on December 4, 2013
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fish oilThey are a lot of people in this world who believe that fish oil supplements can help reduce joint pain. In this article, I’m going to explore the various reasons why this can or cannot happen.

At the outset, let me say that a lot of people would swear by this supplement which means that they most probably are effective, at least for those people. Maybe it’s the placebo effect, but even if that is correct, as long as it works, who cares right?

Let’s look at some facts now. Omega-3 fish oil is quite beneficial for a person’s health. Irrespective of whether it helps alleviate joint pain or not, it definitely benefits your overall well being.

You should understand that your joints may be paining because of a number of things including osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis which are the most common causes. There have been a lot of studies conducted on the advantages of using fish oil supplements for joint pain and I am going to discuss a few of them here:-

  1. The first study I’m going to discuss lasted for 12 weeks and involved giving volunteers three grams of DHA & EPA fish oil every day throughout the study. Every volunteer found an improvement in their joint movement and a lot of them were also able to stop taking their prescription drugs.
  2. Another study involving 250 volunteers was just as promising. Here too, the main focus was on EPA & DHA both of which can be found in fish oil. Here too, all the participants reported that their joint pain had reduced over the length of the study and many of them didn’t need their prescription pills anymore.

My own research has led me to believe that the main reason why omega-3 fish oil is so effective is because it causes our bodies to create a substance known for causing inflammation. This could also be an excellent explanation for why fish oil is more effective in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis than in the treatment of osteoarthritis, which basically is a disease which breaks down cartilage.

But till date, there are a lot of people that still have their doubts when it comes to using fish oil to relieve joint pain. The main reason for this could be because the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) hasn’t endorsed fish oil for treating arthritis as yet. Still there is a lot of evidence to prove that omega-3 fish oils can greatly reduce joint pain especially in cases where the pain is due to inflammation.

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