Dr. Joe Maroon, a neurosurgeon for the Steelers, performed and published a rather large study that compared non-drug approaches to blocking Cox. If you’ve never heard of Cox, it is an enzyme that creates inflammation in the body once triggered. Those triggers can be trauma, food allergies, hormonal imbalances, blood sugar handling, and several others. Medicine has created a group of medications called Cox inhibitors. Dr. Maroon wanted to know is there a natural inhibitor in his studies? Yes, there is. It’s EPA or eicosapentaenoic acid. EPA is the nemesis of arachidonic acid (AA), and it produces the hormone prostaglandin E3 (PGE3) and neutralizes PGE2, its anti-inflammatory cousin. Let me explain more. Those triggers create AA, which turns on Cox, which turns on PGE2 and creates an inflammatory condition. EPA can block this. Pretty cool, huh?
EPA is the primary ingredient in fish oil. Dr. Maroon’s study published in Surgical Neurology, in April 2006, showed EPA beat pain meds 88% of the time. Furthermore, it did it with no side effects and no damage to the liver, kidney, and gastrointestinal tract, and there was no increased risk for Alzheimer’s and dementia. Instead, it reduced the risk of these conditions. Keep that in mind for preventing Alzheimer’s, dementia, and longevity in life. There was also no erectile dysfunction nor cases of hearing loss. While some individuals will require pharmacology to manage their pain, many need fish oil. A side note, not all fish oil is created equally. I will explain later.
Why are so many of us in pain? An excellent pain book is Whiners Textbook of Pain Management, published by the American Academy of Pain Management. This book concludes that 28% of our population is chronically in pain. Their research showed that paleolithic man, or caveman, had equal amounts of EPA and AA.
Our diets have now changed so drastically that the average ratio is 25/1 in the US. Furthermore, if you have a ratio higher than 10/1, you have inflammation. In my office, we increase blood flow through our treatments. But, what you do outside of your office visits is very important as well. If your ratio of EPA (omega 3) and AA (omega 6) ratio is skewed, it makes your recovery more difficult.
Keep in mind the average American is 25/1. The best ratio is 2/1. If you don’t have inflammation, you appear to reduce your inherent risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s, or cancer! The goal for my patients is a ratio under 4/1. This ratio will reduce the chance of arthritis, autoimmunity, and stroke because inflammation is the basis of these pathways.
If I were to blame this massive oversight on a single thing, it’s our food. There is too much AA in our food, creating inflammation. AA is omega 6 and is downstream of corn and soy in nearly all of our foods and the food we feed our animals. It’s ubiquitous in our environment. Want to feel like junk? Eat those omega 6 foods.
In 2008, Commercial Sciences magazine found 100% of chickens have only one food, birth to death. The chicken then converts corn or soy (doesn’t matter which) to AA. You eat the chicken, and subsequently, you have a low EPA/AA ratio and, of course, more pain.
If that isn’t tough to swallow, 93% of commercial cows are fed one food. Going further, farmed fish also have soy as their primary food. Commercial and farm-raised fish have AA instead of EPA, which is why supplements with fish oil from commercial fish are a joke.
EPA is in wild fish, and farmed salmon has high amounts of AA, not EPA, and AA is inflammatory. Natural wild salmon get EPA from their natural diet. Want to know the worse farmed fish? It’s tilapia because it converts soy to AA the best. Can you see why you can eat healthily, or so you thought, and still feel like crap? The research shows you will get a chronic, incurable degenerative disease if your ratio exceeds 15/1, period. In our office, we test your ratio through a drop of blood. We properly treat if the ratio is off and help you naturally with better science and deliver better and safer results.
Be well,
Dr. Trites