Nutritional Advice El MondoObjectives:
Arthritis patients often take fish oil supplements to alleviate symptoms, but limited evidence exists regarding their efficacy. Therefore, this meta-analysis (systematic review) has been conducted.
Do taking marine oil supplements alleviate pain in arthritis patients?
Study design:
This review article included 42 randomized trials; 30 trials reported complete data on pain.
The trials used treatment durations from 2 weeks to 18 months, with doses of EPA from 0.013 to 4.050 g/day and doses of DHA from 0.010 to 2.700 g/day.
Most trials used marine oil from whole fish, but some used cod liver oil, mussel extracts, seal oil and krill oil.
The trials included 2751 patients with a mean age of 53.8 years (range of mean age of 10-68 years) and the mean disease duration was 9.7 years (range 2.3-19.0 years).
Results and conclusions:
The investigators found a favorable effect [SMD = -0.24, 95% CI = -0.42 to -0.07, I2 = 63%] for using marine oil supplements.
The investigators found in 22 trials a significant effect in patients with rheumatoid arthritis [SMD = -0.21, 95% CI = -0.42 to -0.004] for using marine oil supplements.
The investigators also found in 3 trials a significant effect for other or mixed diagnoses [SMD = -0.63, 95% CI = -1.20 to -0.06] for using marine oil supplements, but no significant effect was found in osteoarthritis patients [5 trials: SMD = -0.17, 95% CI = -0.57 to 0.24].
The investigators found a significant, beneficial effect on pain for marine oil with an EPA/DHA ratio >1.5.
The investigators found a significant positive association between SMD and total dose of EPA and DHA [slope β, 0.13 (g/day), 95% CI = 0.04 to 0.22, p = 0.006], indicating less effect at higher dose, but there was no duration-response relationship [p = 0.568].
The investigators concluded using marine oil supplements (with an EPA/DHA ratio >1.5) alleviates pain in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
Original title:
Marine Oil Supplements for Arthritis Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Trials by Senftleber NK, Nielsen SM, […], Christensen R.
Link:
http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/9/1/42/htm
Additional information of El Mondo:
Find here more information/studies about EPA&DHA and chronic diseases.