Should you take fish oils to help your Osteoarthritis?

Knowing whether the supplements you’re taking are at all helpful with your arthritis not only stops you wasting money on ineffective supplements, it can also ensure you're taking appropriate supplements to help your condition so it doesn’t continue to deteriorate.

With respect to fish oils, there’s a reasonable amount of scientific evidence to suggest their use is worthwhile. A 2020 study indicates that fish oils have the potential to alleviate the pain and burden of osteoarthritis (1) and a paper from 2022 also suggests that taking with omega-3 could be therapeutic and a possible treatment option in the management of osteoarthritis (2) .

In spite of this, many people taking fish oil supplements continue to struggle with osteoarthritic pain and stiffness…

There are several potential reasons for this, but one of the most common ones is that many people simply aren’t taking a high enough dosage – and by that I’m referring to the actual doses of docosahexaenoic and eicosapentaenoic acids (DHA and EPA) which are the omega 3 fatty acids that are responsible for a lot of the health benefits of fish oils.

Many commonly available fish oil supplements simply don’t contain enough of the active ingredient, and also have labels which can be very misleading.A supplement may advertise a dose of 1000mg of ‘fish oil’ per serving, but on closer inspection, you find that the combined amount of EPA and DHA in that serving could be as low as 250mg!

The problem is that this level of dosage is unlikely to do much for your osteoarthritis - especially when studies suggest you’re going to need about 10X that. For example, in the 2020 trial mentioned above, participants took 2000 mg docosahexaenoic acid + 400 mg/day eicosapentaenoic acid daily. Therefore, based on my 1000my example above, you'll need around 10 capsules per day to get anywhere near this dosage!

So, you may want to consider a ‘cheaper’ yet higher quality supplement! I say ‘cheaper’ because when you read labels closely, you’ll often find that because they provide more EPA and DHA, seemingly ‘expensive’ supplements are actually most cost effective. They're also much more convenient because you don’t need to take a huge number of capsules – which is great, because at least then, you won’t rattle when you walk!

This is one of the reasons why I only use the highest quality practitioner grade supplements with my clients, and why I recommend everyone does the same. Find a fish oil supplement containing at least 600mg of combined EPA and DHA per '1000mg of fish oil' and aim for a daily intake of at least 2,500mg of DHA and EPA.

Some people also say they find it helpful to combine Omega 3’s with other anti-inflammatory supplements. While this certainly sounds logical, I think it’s even more effective to combine supplementation with natural strategies that actually address and resolve the underlying causes inflammation.

This is something I emphasis in my Arthritis Relief Seminar, and it’s in my opinion the most sensible approach because by dealing with the cause of your inflammation, you’re going to resolve it more completely, and then you’re much more likely to end the pain and stiffness of your osteoarthritis.

Remember, whenever you deal with causes, you’re tackling the root of a problem, and when you do that, you get lasting results.

*Cordingley DM, Cornish SM. Omega-3 Fatty Acids for the Management of Osteoarthritis: A Narrative Review. Nutrients. 2022 Aug 16;14(16):3362. doi: 10.3390/nu14163362. PMID: 36014868; PMCID: PMC9413343.

+Kuszewski JC, Wong RHX, Howe PRC. Fish oil supplementation reduces osteoarthritis-specific pain in older adults with overweight/obesity. Rheumatol Adv Pract. 2020 Jul 23;4(2):rkaa036. doi: 10.1093/rap/rkaa036. PMID: 32968708; PMCID: PMC7494084.