Raynaud's disease

• Essential fatty acid deficiency
• Flavonoid (rutin) deficiency
• Possibly magnesium deficiency.

32 patients with primary or secondary Raynaud's disease were randomly given either 12 fish oil capsules or olive oil capsules daily, and followed up after 6 and 12 weeks, at which times they were asked to place their fingers in cold water and the time of onset of Raynaud's symptoms were noted. In the fish oil group at six weeks the average time interval before the loss of circulation began increased from 31 minutes to 46 minutes. At the 6-week and 12-week visits, 5 out of 11 of the primary Raynaud's patients in the fish oil group could not be induced to develop Raynaud's, compared with only 1 out of 9 patients in the control group. DiGiacomo RA et al: Fish-oil dietary supplementation in patients with Raynaud's phenomenon: a double-blind, controlled, prospective study. Am J Med 86(2):158-64, 1989.