Osteoarthritis is "heart disease" of our joints

At first glance, the title of this blog may seem like a preposterous notion; however, it is a fact. Years ago, osteoarthritis (OA) was misperceived to be a wear-and-tear condition of joints, a myth that is still perpetuated today…however, we now know that OA is actually a chronic inflammatory state within joint tissues. Years ago, we also misperceived that heart disease was simply a buildup of cholesterol and other substances on top of the wall of an artery…now we know that heart disease is actually a chronic inflammatory state in the within the artery wall.

Osteoarthritis is a chronic inflammatory condition of our joints that is chemically identical, on practical level, to heart disease. This has been known for a long time. For all practical purposes, the chemistry of osteoarthritis and atherosclerotic heart disease is identical. The view we should take is as follows: osteoarthritis is “heart disease” of the joints and heart disease is “osteoarthritis” of arteries. The difficulty that most have when considering this fact is that, to the naked eye, joints and arteries are very different structures.

Read the full blog here: Osteoarthritis should be viewed as "heart disease" of the joints

Can Fish Oil Cause Inflammation?

I recently wrote an article for magazine, which discussed chronic inflammation in relation to autism. Part of the pro-inflammatory state involves an excess of omega-6 fatty acids. So, part of the DeFlaming approach involved taking some omega-3 fish oil.

It is important to understand the right supplementation method of taking Fish Oil. A 1000 mg capsule of fish oil does not mean you are getting 1000 mg of omega-3 fatty acids. For example a 1200 mg capsule of the Anabolic Labs fish oil product contains 600 mg of omega-3 fatty acids. You always want to make sure you are going by the omega-3 content, not the total oil amount.

The typical recommendation for fish oil supplementation is to get 1000-3000 mg of omega-3 per day. For perspective, there is 9 calories per 1000 mg of a fat or oil. So if you were to take 2 fish oil capsules that contain 1200 mg of total oil per capsule, you would be taking 2400 mg of total fish oil, which amounts to 21.6 calories. This would deliver 1200 mg of omega-3 fatty acids, which means that a little more than half of the 21.6 calories are omega-3 fatty acids. This is clearly not a lot of fish oil or omega-3s.

After the article get published, I was contacted by a reader who claimed that taking 1000-3000 mg of fish oil per day would promote inflammation because the omega-3s would oxidize. So, can fish oil really cause inflammation?
Read this blog and find out “Can fish oil cause inflammation?”