A Future Without Chronic Pain

Neuroscience and Clinical Research

Comments

Omega-6 and chronic pain
David Brown

11/22/2012 10:56:18 AM

 Quote: "Chronic pain is an epidemic worldwide, with 1.5 billion people feeling its effects." For a number of years I experienced leg pain and was becoming increasingly debilitated. Fortunately, about three years ago I heard a lecture about omega-6s and inflammation(1) and concluded that my almost daily peanut-butter-sandwich-for-lunch habit was slowly doing me in. When I learned that peanuts have 4,000 milligrams of omega-6 in each 28 gram one ounce serving of peanuts, I realized my mistake. The World's food supply is heavily laced with omega-6 industrial seed oils, thanks to the anti-saturated fat campaign, part of the edible oils industry's aggressive marketing tactics(2). Thus far, the omega-6 problem remains buried beneath the weight of a scientific consensus that declares saturated fat a major health hazard and industrial seed oils the answer to clogged arteries(3). I have a problem with the concept of consensus science. In a speech delivered in 2003 to the California Institute of Technology, Michael Crichton said, "I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks. Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had. Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus. Period." I was 62 when I stopped consuming peanut butter. I have since regained considerable strength and stamina. The pain is gone. I have my life back. I just wish the rest of the world were aware of the omega-6 hazard(4,5). References 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgU3cNppzO0 2. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2003-09-28/news/0309270148_1_overweight-or-obese-women-were-overweight-south-africa?pagewanted=all 3. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2010-releases/saturated-fat-polyunsaturated-fat-cut-heart-disease-risk.html 4. http://www.prweb.com/releases/david_brown/omega-6/prweb8933501.htm 5. http://www.foodandbeveragepeople.com/cm/news/saturated_fats