Supplements
Dietary Supplements – Sorting the wheat from the chaff
If you go down to your local health food store, you will see row upon row of expensive dietary supplements from vitamins and minerals to tonics to balms to… well, you name it and there’s a supplement of some description that matches. With all of the miracle claims attached to supplements, after being diagnosed with Adult Onset Still’s Disease it is tempting to buy up hundreds of dollars worth of supplements.
You’re a smart person. You know that you don’t need to walk out of your health food store with ten shopping bags crammed full of pills, powders and potions. This section looks at the two key supplements that you should be taking every day – Fish oil and a quality whole food multi vitamin.
Fish Oil – The anti-inflammatory relief in a bottle.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last five years, you’ve probably already heard about the health benefits of fish oil and other omega-3 sources. And with good reason, too.
Fish, especially deep water fatty fish have very high levels of omega-3. This naturally occurring fatty acid has several beneficial effects on the body. Omega-3, taken in sufficient amounts, promotes the creation of eicasinoids – a part of your body’s anti-inflammatory mechanism. Fish oil has been used to reduce the severity of rheumatoid diseases for decades (do you remember your grandmother forcing cod-liver oil down your throat? Well, she was right!), and its effectiveness is well documented and scientifically supported.
You can obtain omega-3 from several sources, including some plant oils, krill (the tiny prawn-like creatures that whales eat), mussels and other shellfish and by eating deep sea fish. By far, the easiest to obtain and most cost effective omega-3 source is found in medical-grade fish oil.
You can buy fish oil either as a soft-gel capsule or it can be bought as a liquid. If you were taking fish oil as a general wellbeing supplement, soft-gels are great. You would typically take one or two capsules in the morning with any other supplements that you would take. The trouble is, when taking fish oil for the anti-inflammatory effect required to manage your Adult Onset Still’s Disease symptoms you would need to take eight to ten capsules every day… and that is a tough thing to do on a daily basis! Because of this reason, you should seriously consider liquid fish oil as an alternative.
I know that those memories of the foul tasting cod liver oil are probably flooding back to you know and the prospect of liquid fish oil might not be an attractive option. The great thing about many modern fish oils is that they are flavoured with plant oils and much of the ‘fishiness’ is removed. This means that you can take a small amount (10mls) of pleasantly flavoured lemony oil and get all of the anti-inflammatory benefits of fish oil without needing to take a handful of capsules.
Fish oil truly is the most important dietary supplement that you can take for an illness like Adult Onset Still’s Disease. In fact, to paraphrase from Dr. Barry Sears, on a scale of one to ten for anti-inflammatory effectiveness, fish oil comes in as a twelve.
You have to be careful though! Not all fish oils are effectively flavoured! Arguably the best fish oil on the market is the OmegaRx brand. It is cost effective, tastes as good as fish oil can possibly taste and comes highly recommended.
Multi-Vitamins – Getting the most from your food.
Your body has been designed over thousands of years to extract all of the necessary minerals and vitamins that it requires from a balanced, healthy diet.
That’s the idea, anyway.
When you suffer from a chronic disease like Adult Onset Still’s Disease, however, you are well served by taking out some extra insurance by way of a high quality multi-vitamin. Your body needs a host of vitamins and minerals required for optimum function, but the real important ones for people with rheumatic illnesses like AOSD are vitamin C, B vitamins and others with anti-oxidant properties like folic acid.
Vitamin C has far broader health benefits than just reducing the severity of colds and flu. It is a powerful antioxidant that has been shown to reduce inflammation in patients suffering with rheumatoid arthritis. As such, it is likely that this is also an important vitamin for sufferers of Adult Onset Still’s Disease. The B vitamin group promote a healthy immune system and have been scientifically proven to reduce stress – certainly something that you will be struggling with as an AOSD sufferer.
Adding a good quality fish oil and multi-vitamin are essential parts of your Adult Onset Still’s Disease management plan. For less than $50 a month, you will certainly see real benefits; both in the reduction of your symptoms and increased energy levels.
There are a host of other supplements on the market, and some of them may be beneficial in reducing the severity or frequency of your symptoms as well as reducing any side-effects that you may experience as a result of the medication that you are on. [...Next]
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