Tylenol was not going to END the pain for good. That’s what the Fish Oil did, ended the hip and knee pain and I can now run like I did in 1999
nope
Ibuprofen is practically one of my food groups. It’s so great that we have different options for different people, with different needs and different metabolisms.
You’re trying to put the cat back in the box, it’s no good.
Team Naproxen, here. It’s the closest thing to a magic wand I’ve ever found (for me). 
You’re *positive *it was the fish oil? There’s no possibility the pain just went away on its own?
No, once I started taking the fish oil I was able to feel the pain slowly go away over time
Ah, because pain never subsides due to time, versus intervention.
Seriously, would you feel the same way if you spent $200 for a consultation with a lawyer - say, you wanted to file a lawsuit because your basement flooded during a hurricane - and the attorney declined to take the case, because it wasn’t actionable, and advised that you buy a sump pump instead. Perhaps you chose not to buy a sump pump, but instead, purchased a Super Duper Magickal Water-Go-Away Device. And perhaps the water drained away, due to natural circumstances… You paid the attorney for his expertise. Whether you chose to take his advice is on you, but that doesn’t mean that he gave bad advice.
I’m not saying you therefore should not have gone to the doctor.
The cat was in the box or it wasn’t, whether or not you knew which it was. This isn’t metaphysical, it’s just normal logic!
You know you need to rest, drink plenty of fluids, and keep yourself away from civilized people for a week. You know you probably have a contagious condition, even if you don’t know exactly what it is. You know that you should not take antibiotics for it, and therefore you can spend your cash on hookers and blow instead of yogurt and kim chee to keep your belly from trying to escape via your bum. You know you need to stop and the store on your way home and stock up on honey, lemons, black tea and whiskey to soothe the sore throat, because it’s not going away with a shot of penicillin.
Were you going to sue the hurricane? And why is the attorney advising you about how to deal with flood water? And if the water drained away on its own, it does seem to have nene bad advice. You shouldn’t be paying for this kind of consultation anyway. This analogy is crap.
Fish oil has been shown to help rheumatoid arthritis sufferers. Maybe he was misdiagnosed.
Okay, perhaps you bought your home in Hoboken, NJ in 2010. When Hurricane Sandy hit and half the city flooded, your basement sustained major damage, so you decided you should sue the previous owners for non-disclosure, despite the fact that no hurricane-type event had hit the city since your home had been built. Your attorney pointed out to you that, seriously, you had no case. The suit could be filed, you could pay for his time and court filing costs, but really, you had no case. You’d be better off spending your money on a sump pump.
Instead, you bought the Magickal device. The water in your basement drained away, and hasn’t been back, because that’s the nature of a properly built basement in a city not subject to regular hurricane events. You injury has healed itself - whether you spent on a sump pump, a magickal device, or did nothing. Do you attribute the healing to Magickal Device, and complain that the attorney was just a big ol’ fraud?
Not all attorneys have a free consultation, btw. It’s not required.
Yes, and you knew you were sick without going to the doctor.
Really, if you’re well enough to do all that shopping, what the heck were you doing at the doctor?
But what goes in the blank? All that? That doesn’t make a sentence, let alone one that makes any sense.
How are you better off buying anything if the flooding went away on its own?
And I’m aware of how attorneys work, but why pay for advice you could have had for free?
Analogies are good for explaining something to someone who is trying to understand. Otherwise, not.
In between the time the flooding happened and the time it abated, you bought something that you thought would help - regardless of whether there is any empirical evidence that the device would help, or whether there’s a strong possibility that the flooding would abate through natural processes. The flooding abated. Is this because (a) natural “healing” processes? (b) unproven device? (c) fairies?
I’m not saying that one could/should/would have paid for an attorney consultation. I’m saying that it’s unreasonable to think that paying for the educated advice and time of a specialist in any field will yield precisely the answer you think is reasonable. If you were highly educated in that field, there’s a strong chance that you could figure it out yourself. You’re paying for someone’s time and education.
It’s like the joke about the engineer called in to fix a problem in a manufacturing plant. A critical machine won’t work, so the specialist is called in. He fixes the machine by pushing one reset button. Charge: $1000. The plant owner raises cain over the cost to push one silly button, so the engineer resubmits his invoice: "Pushing button: $10.00. Knowing exactly which button to push: $990.00.
You go to an “expert” and then evaluate for yourself whether what they said is right for you. They aren’t all created equal and will often disagree with each other, so they can’t all be right. Blindly following what anyone says is not the best idea and regardless of whether you can figure out your own medical problems, you can’t order your own tests or prescribe your own medication, so you are stuck relying on an “expert,” no matter how inexpert they are.
I’m sure had the OP asked the doctor if he/she should try fish oil, the doctor would probably have said corroborated that it could help and surely would not hurt. I know it sounds like “snake oil,” having a word in common with it and all, but legitimate studies have shown it to have benefit for some types of arthritis.
Correlation is not causation. This is how superstitions start. Cut it out.
Anamen
Being overly pedantic on the hypotheticals is not helping your case.
My case for or against what?