Do you realize there have been thousands of studies that have shown omega 3 fish oil to be natures most effective and potent anti-inflammatory available today?

And did you also know omega 3 fatty acids have been found to be just as effective (if not more so) and certainly a lot safer and less expensive than the three best selling prescription drugs.

For some reason however, Americans spend nearly $30 billion dollars on the top three classes of drugs; antidepressants, high blood pressure drugs and anti-inflammatory arthritis and headache pain relievers as compared to only $300 million on fish oil supplements.

Of course, it goes without saying that these prescriptions drugs are highly controversial as well as they are dangerous. Actually, they are only effective on a small percentage of prescribers and when they are effective it is only at masking the symptoms not curing the disease.

Many of these drugs have grave side effects that actually do more harm than good. In addition, these drugs may require additional prescription drugs to counteract the damaging effect of the first. For example, Vioxx, had to be taken off the market because the side effects were so severe that they caused heart attacks and strokes.

Regardless of how attractive tv commercials make these prescription drugs out to be they are dangerous at best. Whenever possible, prescription drugs should be avoided and natural alternative treatments perused instead.

And one of the safest, most effective and natural ways to both prevent and relieve depression, high blood pressure and inflammatory pain without resorting to prescription drugs is to eat fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, herring or tuna at least two or three times a week and take a good quality daily fish oil supplement.

And here’s the evidence.

Depressed people have significantly lower total omega 3 levels (Journal of Affective Disorders, Vol. 26, No. 38, 35-46), while omega 3 supplements showed significant benefits in just three weeks of treatment (American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 159:477-479). In other studies, omega 3 fatty acids were found to be an effective treatment for bipolar disorder (Archives of General Psychiatry, Vol. 56 No. 5) and borderline personality disorder patients (American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 160:167-169).

Studies have also found that fish oil is highly effective at lowering blood pressure. The American Heart Association (AHA) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend that you eat cold water fatty fish at least a couple of times a week to reap the benefits.

The AHA and NIH that people with symptoms of heart disease such as high blood pressure take daily fish oil supplements that contain at least one gram of combined omega 3 DHA and EPA fatty acids also recommend it.

Omega 3 fish oil has also been found to be the safest and most effective of the natural cures that help alleviate the pain from headaches as well as inflammatory arthritis when compared to over the counter NSAIDs such as Advil, Motrin, Nuprin and Aleve and other anti-inflammatories (Arthritis and Rheumatism, Vol. 38: 1107-14.)

In fact, in many of the scientific studies reviewed, patients were able to greatly reduce and even totally eliminate prescribed pain medications after starting an omega 3 fish oil treatment program.

And you can relax if you’re concerned about fish oil toxicity. The Harvard University School of Public Health recently confirmed fish oil benefits far surpass any threat of mercury or other toxins in fish by as much as 500 to one. (Journal of the American Medical Association 2006, Vol. 296: 1885-99)

Besides, there are high quality omega 3 fish oil supplements on the market that are fully guaranteed to be absolutely pure and totally free of all toxicity (www.omega-3.us).

So before starting or continuing on a program of drugs for depression, high blood pressure or inflammatory pain relief, consider eating fish two or three times a week and taking daily omega 3 fish oil supplements. Wouldn’t be great if you got equal or better results, avoided side effects and saved a lot of money by taking fish oil rather than drugs? Sounds pretty good to me!