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The Scientific Basis for Fish Oil Supplementation in Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Food and Nutritional Supplements

Abstract

Fish oil capsules are widely available in pharmacies, in supermarkets and by mail order. Many claims have been made about the “health giving” properties of such oils and there are articles and advertisements featuring them, appearing regularly in the popular press. They are often marketed as being “beneficial for arthritis”, although it is probably not clear to the consumer why that should be. This chapter aims to present the scientific basis for the act ion of fish oils in rheumatoid arthritis and to give an overview of the evidence for benefits of fish oil in this disease. In order to do this it will be necessary to describe the amount and types of fat in the human diet, the components of the immune system and how they function to protect the host from infectious agents, and the immune dysfunction which occurs in rheumatoid arthritis.

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Authors
  1. Philip Calder
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Public Health Nutrition Unit Trinity and All Saints, College of the University of Leeds, Leeds, LS18 5HD, UK

    Joan K. Ransley  & Judith K. Donnelly  & 

  2. The Centre for Integrated Medicine Institute for General Practice and Primary Care, University of Sheffield Northern General Hospital, Sheffield, S5 7AU, UK

    Nicholas W. Read

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Calder, P. (2001). The Scientific Basis for Fish Oil Supplementation in Rheumatoid Arthritis. In: Ransley, J.K., Donnelly, J.K., Read, N.W. (eds) Food and Nutritional Supplements. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-56623-3_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-56623-3_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-62598-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-56623-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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