In case you haven’t heard, but I hope you have…because it is starting to get some national media, but the leading cause of liver failure is caused by acetaminophen, which is commonly found in; Tylenol, Excedrin, Theraflu, Nyquil, etc.

This little over the counter medication, that is believed to be harmless, is also responsible for almost 500 deaths and over 56 thousand emergency visits to the hospital each year.  But there could possibly be help on the way.  It is possible that the FDA may place a Black Box warning on the package, which is the highest warning placed on any product for its safety or lack of safety.

Manufacturers of this product don’t want that to happen because it could cost them several million dollars in revenue, when you consider that last year sales of this over the counter medication exceeded two billion dollars.  There is no guarantee that the FDA will do the smart thing and place that Black Box warning, because there are many doctors, I suspect who have a connection with the manufacturer, saying that the drug is perfectly safe.

It is hard to believe any doctor on the FDA panel would say this over the counter medication is safe after they look at the evidence.  What’s disturbing is the fact that if a nutritional product or supplement caused a tenth of the damage as acetaminophen has – it would be all over the news and pulled from the market.

Those are the dangers of acetaminophen, which most people take for pain, but the alternative, which is aspirin and or ibuprofen is just as dangerous, because they both cause ulcerations in your digestive system and harm your kidneys.  It’s like giving up a broken leg for a broken arm!

The safe and natural approach for dealing with pain and inflammation is to increase the amount of essential fatty acids in your diet. We’re talking about eating more of the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oils, flax oil, olive oil, as well as, in nuts and seeds and of course cold water fish (salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines, etc). 

You also want to decrease the amount of saturated fat in your diet.  It’s not that saturated fat is bad as many people want you to believe, but the real problem is that we consume too much of the saturated fats in NOT Enough of the unsaturated fats, due to processed, refined, fast foods.  This is an important part of the whole pain and inflammation process, because saturated fats trigger inflammation, which leads to pain.

The unsaturated fats, both the mono and polyunsaturated fats are your body’s natural anti-inflammatory hormones.  Because we are eating too much saturated fat, we are not allowing our body to provide its own anti-inflammatory response.  This is why we also give someone who comes to the office complaining of pain – Sea Energy.  It is a highly concentrated dosage of fish oils that you take when your diet isn’t as good as it should be.  It helps balance out the saturated to unsaturated fats in your diet and helps your body deal with all the inflammation without the use of any medications and their potential risks.

I love fish oils and give Sea Energy to anyone complaining of pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia, heart disease, depression and of course menopause.  Fish oils are one of the super seven supplements we should all be taking for overall preventative health.

FYI…if you have been taking aspirin for joint pain (osteoarthritis) it will prevent the rebuilding of the degenerated joint and cartilage, which is why glucosamine and chondroitin are great for rebuilding cartilage.  I always start with fish oils and once we get the pain and inflammation under control…do we go after the glucosamine and chondroitin.