It's no news to many people that omega-3 fatty acids reduce or eliminate pain of some sources. After all, as the authors of a new study write, 40%-to-60% of U.S. citizens use nutritional supplements. Many of those citizens use omega-3 fatty acids. They do so because they know through experience that the supplements work well for them.

As a clinician, I believe the remaining 60%-to-40% of U.S. citizens would be wise to take up the beneficial lifestyle practice of taking supplements, including omega-3 fatty acids. But some physicians—being inadvertently pernicious rather than malicious—advise patients against taking supplements. To their detriment, too many patients listen to the doctors. And by doing so, they forfeit the potential benefits of supplements.

The new study on omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids is important confirmation of the potential pain-relieving effects of the fatty acids as supplements. The researchers conducted a "meta-analysis" of 17 randomized, controlled studies. (In doing a "meta-analysis," researchers use statistical tests to combine the results of two or more studies. This enables the researchers to see the combined results of the studies. The word "meta" may come from the term "meta cone" used by ancient Romans. Meta cones were a series of posts stationed at the end of each strip of a race track. They signaled the runners that they were approaching a turn in the track.)

In the 17 studies that the researchers included in the meta-analysis, other researchers had tested the pain-relieving effects of omega-3 fatty acids. They  tested three groups of patients: a group with rheumatoid arthritis, another with painful menstruation (dysmenorrhea), and a third with inflammatory bowel disease.

The researchers who did the meta-analysis reported that omega-3 fatty acids did indeed effectively reduce pain. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, for example, had four pain-relieving benefits: using omega-3 fatty acids for 3-to-4 months reduced (1) the intensity of their joint pain, (2) their minutes of morning stiffness, (3) the number of tender or painful joints, and (4) their use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), such as ibuprofen.

The researchers’ overall conclusion was positive: "The results suggest that omega-3 [fatty acids] are an attractive adjunctive treatment for joint pain associated with rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and dysmenorrhea."

My impression is that most doctors today are fully aware of the power of many nutritional supplements. The supplements do indeed make us healthier. However, I’m occasionally shocked to hear a family member say that some physicians asked him or her: "Why are you wasting your money on those supplements? They may be what’s causing the symptoms you’re here complaining about. Get off them."

Overwhelming science favoring nutritional supplements shows these physicians to be swimming in the medieval backwaters of pseudoscience. Their anti-supplement advice to patients is an invitation for the patients to submerge themselves, like the doctors, in the stagnant wastewater of ignorance. I think such doctors are a danger to patients’ health and well-being, and a humanitarian gesture will be for you—as I unhesitatingly do—to inform them of their potential harm to their patients.

Those of us at the Lowe Clinic and Research Center are committed to providing you with scientifically-based educational information. If scientific evidence on an issue is lacking, we may give you our impression or opinion on the issue. When we do, we’ll be forthright about it. We won’t pretend that our advice is based on science—as many anti-supplement physicians do—because that would be to engage in those physicians’ practice of pseudoscience.

The study I describe above, however, is an example of potentially useful science-derived information. We hope the information will be encouraging to you and help make your life a healthier and happier one.