I want to tell you about a letter I recently received…
Anne B. from Pennsylvania was going through what many women her age experience — brief periods of brain fog and forgetfulness.
So she started taking omega-3s to help her overcome her “senior moments.” Within a few months, Anne’s memory began to improve.
But what happened after just a few short weeks took her completely by surprise…
The painful arthritis Anne had in her hands and fingers disappeared completely! Arthritis that she had lived with for years — and came to expect as a “normal part of growing older” was gone.
What really shocked her was that she’d been taking fish oil for over a year.
The difference for Anne came when she threw away her fish oil and took a special kind of omega-3. But more on that in a minute.
I get letters like Anne’s every week. Patients who tell me that they can finally throw away their pharmacy store fish oils and dangerous pain-relieving drugs because they no longer need them.
Now, over-the-counter (OTC) pain pills like Tylenol are fine to take when you have an occasional headache or fever.
The problem is most doctors — as well as all those TV commercials — suggest taking it every few hours to keep arthritis pain at bay.
And by now, you probably know that every dose of acetaminophen puts a tiny, toxic burden on your liver. And this liver damage can happen even when you take Tylenol for just a few weeks at the recommended dosage.
But there’s more to this OTC than liver damage. In fact, Tylenol has been linked to a whole range of dangerous conditions, including:
- Broken bones: A study published in the journal Bone found that the odds of getting a fracture were 56% higher for people who use acetaminophen compared with folks who don’t.1
- Sex hormone disruption: Recent research found that even a moderate dose of acetaminophen caused levels of a type of sex hormone in women to nosedive. These lowered levels equal about 35 years of natural aging!2 While the effect can be reversed after a few days of not taking the pill, constant use will continue to age you.
- High blood pressure: A study from Harvard tracked the use of painkillers in 16,031 health-care professionals over four years. Those who took Tylenol six or seven days a week had a 34% greater risk of high blood pressure compared to those who didn’t.3
But here’s the real kicker… No dose of Tylenol is going to ease your arthritis pain — no matter what your doctor tells you.
And a team of researchers from the University of Bern, in Switzerland, has just proved it. They gathered data from 74 randomized trials of 58,500 patients. And what they published in the journal Lancet is that acetaminophen has no impact on osteoarthritis pain, no matter how often you take it.4
That’s why I tell my patients — and readers like Anne — to relieve their pain by eliminating the inflammation that causes it.
You see, arthritis — like a lot of today’s chronic ailments — is an inflammatory condition. In this case, it’s your joints that are impacted. The constant aches and pains are caused by the breakdown of cartilage.
I help my patients cool arthritis pain and inflammation with the same supplement Anne took to improve her memory — omega-3 fatty acid.
Several studies back up this oil’s inflammation-fighting properties.
Evidence of omega-3’s ability to fight joint pain was published in the journal Osteoarthritis and Cartilage. Researchers found that feeding arthritic animals a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids cut the occurrence of arthritis by 50% compared to a standard guinea pig diet.5
And a more recent human trial of 202 people compared omega-3 fatty acids with a placebo. They then evaluated pain levels and cartilage volumes at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months. By the end of the study, the omega group had greater improvement in pain and function scores.6
Take the Right Kind of Omega-3 Oil to Extinguish Pain-Causing Inflammation
There are two important kinds of omega-3s to prevent arthritis pain, DHA and EPA. I tell my patients to get at least 600 mg of DHA and 400 mg of EPA every day.
But unlike most health experts, I don’t recommend you take fish oil. Most fish oil supplements come from polluted waters that contain chemicals like PCBs and heavy metals like mercury.
I recommend you get your omega-3s from krill and calamari oil — like the one that helped Anne. They’re more concentrated than regular fish oil. And your body absorbs them better.
- Take this tiny animal oil. Krill are shrimp-like animals that don’t live long enough to absorb large amounts of toxins — so they don’t get contaminated by the ocean’s pollutants. And their omega-3s are stored in phospholipid form instead of triglyceride. This helps it pass through cell membranes better and explains why it’s so potent in your brain function.
- And combine it with calamari. Calamari, or squid, has one of the highest concentrations of DHA of any food. But make sure your calamari oil comes from squid that live off the coast of South America in the pure waters of the South Pacific (illex argentinus).
Make sure you take your omega-3 oil with meals so these fats can be digested properly.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS
References
1. Williams LJ, et. al. “Paracetamol (acetaminophen) use, fracture and bone mineral density.” Bone. 2011;48(6):1277-1281.
2. Kristensen DM, et. al. “Intrauterine exposure to mild analgesics is a risk factor for development of male reproductive disorders in human and rat.” Hum Reprod. 2011;26(1):235-244.
3. “Acetaminophen may boost blood pressure.” Harvard Health Letter. February 2011. Accessed May 8, 2018.
4. Da Costa BR, et al. “Effectiveness of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of pain in knee and hip osteoarthritis: A network meta-analysis.” Lancet. 2017;390(10090):e21-e33.
5. Knott L, et al. “Regulation of osteoarthritis by omega-3 (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids in a naturally occurring model of disease.” Ostearth Cart. 2011;19 (9):1150-1157.
6. Hill CL, et al. “Fish oil in knee osteoarthritis: A randomised clinical trial of low dose versus high dose.” Ann Rheum Dis. 2016;75(1):23-29.