Too late to edit - As far as I know there is no specific benefit to one brand over another as long as it is a reputable company that produces pure products with the content matching the amount of the substance specified. We get products from companies that dispense only through healthcare practitioners, although most health food stores will carry good products. Even some supermarkets are carrying good products here now.
These fish oils must be mercury and other contaminants free.
When we were children we all took cod liver oil in syrup form. Too much sugar, but there was no trouble getting us to take it.
If an MD recommended an acupuncturist or a practitioner of (traditional) Chinese medicine (as opposed to the medical care most people in China who can afford it receive, which is to say, exactly what we have in the US and Europe), I would run far and run fast. I would also be very wary of an MD who recommended a chiropractor. If it was for lower back pain, and that alone, with a known cause that was not serious (ie, it wasn’t referred pain from kidney cancer, or pain from a spinal fracture, but was from recurrent sciatica), and I wanted to avoid medication for some reason, I might not worry so much, but anything else, and I’d probably change doctors.
Also, in regard to the OP, who insisted that fish oil “cured” his arthritis, did he even get a diagnosis of arthritis? and was it rheumatoid, or osteo? both are relapsing and remitting, but rheumatoid, it’s my understanding, is particularly so in that a person can have a very bad bout of it, but then feel fine afterwards for a long time. Although, I think it would be odd to have this kind of arthritis in the knees only, because I think it starts in small joints.
If the OP didn’t actually get an arthritis diagnosis, there’s another possibility, which I suggest based on a similar thing happening to me. He may have mildly sprained one knee, and then injured the other one by the way he walked to compensate for the sprain.
I had a mild sprain in my ankle (I tripped), which I didn’t see a doctor for, and didn’t put a brace on, like I should have. I just popped some Aleve, and limped about my day. Three days later, I had intense pain in the opposite knee, and that got me into the doctor. The knee pain was from the way I was walking because of my ankle. The doctor gave me supportive wraps for both, three days of steroids, some tramadol, and tol me to ice them and stay off them. I got to ride the little cart at the store one day. After a week, I was fine. But that had been some intense pain in my knee-- worse than the pain in my ankle.
Since all the OP’s doctor recommended was Tylenol, I assumed, perhaps incorrectly, that RA or Sjogren’s, or other arthritis or disease/disorder was ruled out by the doctor. That is another reason why his doctor’s visit was beneficial as it should have ruled out more serious disorders. Their knowledge is part of what we pay them for, not just what they can do.
I was listing paramedicals and perhaps should not have included all of them in the ending of the sentence, although most of them have their place in conjunction with Western medicine. And he had already seen an MD to rule out other more sinister causes.
But I was a little surprised with your attack on chiropractors nowadays. If you go to a reputable properly trained licensed one, they sometimes can achieve far more to relieve pain than any MD. (In the US there are Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O. or DO) too.) My chiropractor would have done the same thing as your doc, plus maybe some cold laser, and/or TENS, (I am only guessing as he/she would do an individual assessment). Minus the prescription drugs. I would probably have asked if the OTC Ibuprofen to counteract inflammation would help.
He/she would probably have sent you for an X-ray before doing anything, and that includes for back problems. They take a history as well at your first visit.
RICE is the way to treat sprains. Rest Ice Compression Elevate
Basically this is what your doctor did - except he/she added steroids and a strong opoid-like pain killer.
Chiropractors are trained to know all about over compensation of one side for injury in another.
And they would have suggested you go to an MD in a couple of days if what they did did not help.
They are very cognizant that back pain can come from other causes such as kidney problems etc. and would send you packing to a doctor if they suspected those types of causes at all.
May I assume you have never been to a chiropractor?
I was seeing a Dr. when I was in my 20’s for several years about stomach issues. He gave me anti acids. I felt like I was dieing it was so bad, constipation, heartburn, reflex, spastic colon the works. I changed Dr’s and in one visit I was on the way to recovery. He gave me a pill to kill the virus causing my ulcers, he gave me personnal advice about emotional issues causing all the other problems. He also told me to quit eating two chili rellons full of cheese every day. Good advice was all I really needed. He questioned me at length about my diet, marriage, job and personnal life and quickly nailed down the problems. Great Dr.
I’ve never been to a homeopath or an acupuncturist either. Or a DO. What’s the point? Most DOs will tell you they do everything an MD does, and don’t do the manipulations, because most patients don’t want them. What’s the point of being a DO then? Either you believe the philosophy, or you don’t. I don’t, and I don’t want a “doctor” who does.
Probably some kind of bacteria, if it was an infection. Maybe a virus. Your doctors don’t know where you have been and what you have been exposed to. Did you share a drinking glass with someone? Kiss someone? Go to a wedding where there was lots of handshaking followed by lots of eating, without hand-washing in between? Have a child in preschool?
They wanted to do a surgery to move muscles, so I assume you had a condition that caused spasms. Knowing the condition itself, and knowing the etiology are two different things. It seems like you expect the doctor not only to diagnose the condition, but figure out the etiology, in one visit, but often the etiology of something is never known, and it usually isn’t relevant to the treatment.
Sometimes that’s all there is. Some problems are not fixable. I get migraines. I take an Imitrex. It makes that particular headache go away. Eventually, I will get another one. I will take another Imitrex. There are some medications that a person can take everyday to prevent migraines, but they have side effects that Imitrex doesn’t have, and I do not get migraines often enough to want to put up with the side effects (some people get three or four a week, and for them, the side effects are worth it). There is no cure for migraines. There is no cure for a lot of things, but there is very effective treatment-- diabetes, for example. Some people have normal life expectancies with insulin injections and and regular testing with a home glucometer. The only “cure” is a pancreatic transplant, but that involves a life on immunosuppressants, and frankly, life on insulin is easier. It’s not a fair criticism of doctors that they cannot fix everything, especially after just one visit. That’s like criticizing your French professor for not making you fluent after one class.
Any up-to-date chiropractor has the latest equipment. Most of the time I get neck treatment from an impulse adjusting instrument that is highly attuned to the nerves. Only when that does not hold does he use the manipulation treatment. And I could tell him not to do the manual neck adjustment at all and still get other adjustments. I have severe osteoporosis in my spine, fibromyalgia, and Sjogren’s Arthritis and do not hesitate to get adjustments. I am going tomorrow. He keeps me out of pain.
I go to a rheumatologist and and a bone specialist for their advice and get injections for osteoporosis. The rheumatologist’s only help would be to take drugs such as methotrexate which would cause even worse problems. Besides I don’t tolerate most drugs taken orally. So I use both mainstream and complementary medicine and take the best of both. In any treatment you have to see that the benefits outweigh the risks. Fortunately my family MD supports me in this.
My private insurance covers me for 15 paramedical practitioners, including chiropractors and osteopaths. I have never seen an insurance company being accused of covering non recognized therapies.
I was going to search further for actual statistics re strokes and adjustments but don’t have time to search right now. I don’t need to for my own peace and if anyone wants to look for themselves, they should do so to make an informed decision. I have no desire to be ‘right’. I am only a patient and would never recommend to anyone here to do as I do.
You’re actually lending quite a bit of weight to the “regression to the mean” argument with this post. Your knee was bad for a while, then it got better. The fact that it’s still better even though you seldom take the fish oil any more suggests that it would have gotten better regardless.
Now, I don’t have a problem believing that fish oil may have helped alleviate your joint pain when it was especially bad, but I don’t think anyone (other than you) has been irresponsible enough to claim that fish oil literally cures arthritis. Many health problems (arthritis being a prime example) are cyclical: the symptoms get worse for a time, then better, then worse, and so on ad infinitum. These kinds of conditions are particularly prone to quack cures. Since people tend to seek out treatments only when their symptoms are about as bad as they’re going to get, and since those symptoms will probably soon abate somewhat no matter what, whatever the patient took or did to treat it will be hailed as the cure. Scam artists exploit this tendency to the fullest. Try to be mindful of this.
More generally: How old are you? You do know that doctors can’t fix everything, and that your body is going to deteriorate no matter what, right? Getting old hurts. Sorry to have to be the one to tell you.
ETA: Obligatory Louis CK clip.
Sigh I don’t believe in “alternative” or “complementary” medicine, and I wish the NIH would get rid of that stupid institution. There’s just things that work, and things that don’t work. If it works, then real doctors use it. If it doesn’t, they don’t.
Well, ok, then i guess my question becomes, what exactly do you mean when you say the manipulation/ adjustment “didn’t last”? What is meant by “didnt last” ?
Means their vertebrae went out of alignment, in the chiropractic view of things, and they need another adjustment to bring them back into alignment.
I’m agnostic when it comes to chiropractic. But in that world view, a small misalignment of the vertebrae can cause considerable pain. One chiropractor explained it thusly: “Y’know how you sometimes get a popcorn skin stuck between your teeth? And it hurts out of all proportion to the size of the popcorn skin? Same thing in your spine. Little misalignments can hurt a lot.”
Mainstream medicine disagrees, viewing small variations in vertebral alignment as benign and normal.
Well, and then there are the chiropractors who deny the germ theory, and think chiropractic adjustments can cure strep throat and influenza, and tell people not to take “toxic” antibiotics, or get vaccines.
I just know I can do things now I could not do before fish oil. I can run now at a fast speed which was something that was unheard of before I took the fish oil
I used to wake up in pain every morning before going to work and had to put ice on my knees. Now I can just pop out the bed with no problems. And that is why I have recommended it to anyone who says they have knee pain.
When you take fish oil for the 1st time, it takes 7 days for the pain to disappear.
Plus I am glad I don’t have to take it like I used to because the price has increased for Fish Oil. So I am just glad to ended the problem completely
Well, yeah, I understand, but you’re kind of ignoring every single thing I said, apart from “How old are you?”.
Anyway, I’m also sad to be the one to tell you that, in all likelihood, you have not ended the problem completely. But I do hope I’m wrong (in which case it was probably an injury of some sort to begin with, but whatever).