Greetings, it's Eric Bakker, the naturopath from New Zealand, let's talk about Omega-3
and arthritis.
There's ample scientific documentation now that validates the use of Omega-3 supplementation
with all forms of arthritis, whether it's gouty arthritis, whether it's rheumatoid arthritis,
whether it's osteoarthritis, knee arthritis, neck arthritis, it doesn't matter.
You're going to benefit from taking Omega-3.
Let me explain.
Supplementing with fish oil - a bit of technical stuff coming out now - is going to inhibit
the inflammatory cytokines, okay?
So these are basically or chemicals that the immune system makes.
Now these pathways I'm talking about are also affected by pharmaceutical drugs, so big pharma
targets the same thing that Omega-3 has been doing for a long time anyway, so TNF, or tumor
necrosis factor alpha, and interleukin 1, as well as the pro-inflammatory and pro aggregatory
quassinoids, thromboxane 2 and prostaglandin E2.
Now in English, what that means is, it also helps to stop all sorts of weird blood pathways
and mechanisms going on, particularly the ones that induce you towards a pain state,
so it's going to stop swelling, it's going to stop redness it's going to reduce pain
and inflammation.
That's what Omega is going to do.
Taking Omega-3 on a daily basis allows a body to have access to long chain fatty acids EPA,
DHA, particularly the EPA, which suppress low grade inflammation linked with many diseases.
So studies have also shown in the Lancet, the British medical journal, has shown that
there's no real benefit from taking very high doses with osteoarthritis, so 2000 to 3000
milligrams a day is more than adequate for osteoarthritis.
With rheumatoid arthritis, you'll need to go higher because it's auto-immune based.
You need to step the dosage up.
All right.
So a major study with 52 references was published in June, 2020 in the Mediterranean Journal
Of Rheumatology, entitled The Effects of Omega-3 On Rheumatoid Arthritis and concluded that
Omega-3 supplements act as precursors to lipid mediators of inflammation and attenuate modulate
the auto-immune inflammatory response, so basically, it reduces pain, all right?
So rheumatoid arthritis is a condition that's not going to go away.
It's going to stay, but you can reduce the pain with it.
Another trick I use with people with RA, rheumatoid arthritis, is recommending they step their
ginger intake up and also their intake of turmeric.
Turmeric and ginger both work on the inflammatory pathways as well.
I've got a lady with the most crippling rheumatoid arthritis who lives on an island off the coast
of New Zealand who takes every day, one teaspoon of ginger powder and every day, one teaspoon
of turmeric powder, and you know what's happened?
Unbelievable.
She's been doing it now for a few years and this lady could barely do anything with her
hands and the differences now are astounding.
I told her to dramatically step her intake of fatty fish up.
They catch a lot of fish on the island.
She takes fish oil supplements, eats fish daily and takes ginger and turmeric, and the
doctor hates it because she's feeling a lot better.
No need to take drugs.
But guess what?
It took one to two years.
It doesn't happen overnight.
It takes time to get better from chronic diseases.
All right.
I've certainly seen and witnessed several patients reporting improvements, including
some very significant improvements in pain reduction and improved mobility of their hands,
neck and back after taking high doses of Omega-3 religiously for one to two years.
Some will notice improvements very rapidly within a few months, but in my opinion, it
takes 12 to 18 months before major improvements are noticed, all right, and we're talking
up to 6,000 milligrams of EPA, DHA per day.
But RA is a bad condition, all right?
So if the person's got no results from taking Omega-3 after say six or 12 months, I would
start to be seriously looking at including digestive enzymes into the equation, looking
at gallbladder problems or liver problems.
There could be a fatty liver problem, there could be some sly drinking going on there,
who knows, but the liver needs sorting out, but generally the stomach, pancreas and gallbladder,
if you give the person enzymes, they can uptake the fat better.
They break them down and they absorb the fat better that way and they'll get a better outcome.
All right.
Thanks for tuning in.