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Article on some new research using a derivative of DHA from omega 3 oils for nerve pain. Sounds promising.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0717164721.htm

That is really interesting. We use Omega-3's here daily still after a decade! So I am not surprised.

I'm going to put this on my EFA thread on Vitamin Forum!

Thanks so much, Marlene.

This could be of incredible importance to so many people... wow.

Safe treatments are what should always be studied. Great news.

What vitamin forum are you on Mrs. D?

Ooh, a secret forum! ;)

Just kidding, I'm a bit overexcited by that article. I read it again, to try to fully understand what's going on.

In layman's terms, this medication would use DHA as a precursor and convert it into NDP1. The article seems to suggest that DHA in itself already has anti-inflammatory properties (nothing new there), but these will be much more powerful after conversion to NPD1. (and thus a lower dose is needed)

In the first clinical trials, they want to administer high DHA, and - that's a bit I'm not sure about - convert that "by an aspirin-triggered pathway". I wonder if that simply means administering aspirin or asperin like substances, which have been known to have a strong anti-inflammatory working, but are dangerous in other ways in the long term (internal bleeding etc.). If so, anecdotally this might be close to what I was doing in the last few months, taking both high DHA (up to 4 grams/day now, 7 grams DHA/EPA in total) and (accidentally, when I still had arthritis) Meloxicam. I might be totally wrong on this, and maybe it was just the high DHA/EPA intake that helped me. So, pure speculation on my part, but it would make sense and explain that although my EMG still clearly shows nerve malfunction, I no longer feel any real pain.

What worries me a bit:

"Current treatment options for neuropathic pain include gabapentin and various opioids, which may lead to addiction and destruction of the sensory nerves."

That's new to me, and I really would like to know more about that, as it would mean - as a throwaway comment almost - that some medications we take/took for PN makes the problem worse longer term? We already know of many medications that trigger or make PN worse; do they mean that gabapentin/opioids are in that category too? Or do they mean opioids just mask the pain, and do not reduce nerve inflammation, and let the macrophages continually gobble up the nerve ends?

The article mentions cytokines (these are made from or helped by omega-6 fatty acids if I'm not mistaken); this all sounds very much like why Dr. Barry Sears advocates high omega3 and "lower" omega6 dietary intake, and recommends up to 15 grams of DHA/EPA per day for people with neurological problems (for healthy people he recommends 3.5 grams).

Anyway, it really seems that "inflammation" is all around us now - it almost starts to feel like a "fad"*. I also found a nutrition site that not only shows glycemic load (good good!), but also the inflammatory factor of foodstuffs:

http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/...nd-herbs/212/2

*But what if they are really on to something?

Very good news, and it may lead to cheap and safe medication for chronic pain.

I suspect Big Pharma will make a "medical food" out of all this.

It is not the first time.

Way back the Basel corp found EFAs(including Omega-3s) worked for blepharospasms.

Quote:

Neuropsychobiology. 2000;41(3):154-7.
The control of blepharospasm by essential fatty acids.
Mostofsky DI, Yehuda S, Rabinovitz S, Carasso R.
Source

Psychopharmacology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. dmostof@bu.edu
Abstract

Dopamine depletion induced by administration of Ro4-1284 produces a condition of rapid and repeated eye blinking in rats. This condition mimics the human disorder, blepharospasm, which often accompanies parkinsonism and other dopamine deficiency disorders. When given a 3-week course of a compound (SR-3) developed from a specific ratio of two free polyunsaturated fatty acids - linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid - the eye blinking rate following administration of Ro4-1284 is reduced to saline and no drug control levels. These results suggest a favorable prospect for essential fatty acids in general, and SR-3 in particular, to provide an improved therapeutic option for the clinical management of benign essential blepharospasm.

Copyright 2000 S. Karger AG, Basel

And of course we also have Lovaza (fish oil) RX.

And there are several prenatal vitamins now containing DHA as well. (they are RX too). But there is one OTC called Expecta.
example:
http://voices.yahoo.com/top-5-best-p...s-3990417.html

Back when I started online over a decade ago, none of these papers/products were out yet. EFA information was not in mainstream media, and Dr. Sears had just written his first book.

In answer to your comment Wide-O....about nerve destruction:

On my thread in the SubForum on gabapentin and Lyrica, (drugs used to treat PN), is this new information:

http://www.wellnessresources.com/stu...rain_synapses/

Back in January I listened to Dr. Pariss Kidd being interviewed on "Healthy by Nature" by local nutritionist, Martie Whitikin, and he said then that people weren't getting enough DHA. He recommended Doctors Best DHA from calimari to the listeners.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrsD (Post 1001188)

Thanks for posting that Mrs. D. I too freaked out :eek: when I read that. I felt a little better when I read this key paragraph:

Quote:

Barres noted that he and his colleagues found that gabapentin does not dissolve pre-existing synapses, but only prevents formation of new ones. That greatly diminishes gabapentin’s potential danger to adults. In mature human brains, astrocytes ordinarily produce very little thrombospondin, and adult neurons don’t form many new synapses, although some new synapses do continue to be formed throughout life — for example, in a part of the brain where new memories are laid down and at sites of injury to neurons, such as occurs after a stroke.