Fish Oil (Omega-3)

LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
edited May 2010 in All Encompassing Trip
Has anyone tried it? I'm taking it mostly for allergies, dry skin and anxiety.

I stopped taking flaxseed because the body has to convert the ALA in flaxseed to EPA and DHA, the stuff you need, but is VERY inefficient at it. Generally only 5 to 25% of it gets converted and only women can convert it better in that range. Some people can't convert any of it. Fish Oil is already EPA and DHA with no conversion by the body needed.

DHA is better for smarts and memory. EPA is better for skin, anxiety and depression since it controls communication between cells.

Apparently it takes 3 to 4 months to get the full benefits and up to 6 to 9 months to peak.. Someone mentioned they saw benefits after a couple of days, but that had to be psychological since the stuff takes 72 hours just to get into your blood stream.. and then it is slowly used by building new cells which takes months to fully benefit from because the old cells have a 3 to 4 month life span.. Brain must restructure too, which takes months.

Good signs so far though..
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments

  • Break The SkyBreak The Sky Posts: 1,276
    I take it. I like it. It serves its purpose.

    More importantly, congratulations on your 5,000th post!
    If hope can grow from dirt like me ...
  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    Big Drop wrote:
    I take it. I like it. It serves its purpose.

    More importantly, congratulations on your 5,000th post!
    lol, thanks!

    Embarassingly enough, I lost over 10,000 posts when the board changed last year. 8-)


    Did you see results right away or did it take weeks? Months?
  • Break The SkyBreak The Sky Posts: 1,276
    After a few weeks my cholesterol dropped a few points, which is cool. I exercise a lot and that helps too. I mostly take it because the medication I take for my disease has been shown to increase the risks of cancer and flax has been show to decrease the risks of cancer.
    If hope can grow from dirt like me ...
  • oona leftoona left Posts: 1,677
    I've been taking it for years as part of a regimen for chronic fatigue syndrome.

    It helps a great deal with cognitive issues.

    And, I noticed I "felt" rather soon after beginning to take it (within a few days).
  • ClaireackClaireack Posts: 13,561
    I've taken it on and off in the past, veggie so didn't want to take fish oil. Found it very helpful in stabilizing my mood.
  • StuffnJunkStuffnJunk Posts: 896
    so weird you mention it...i just started taking it, my friend said taking it has stopped him from having allergy attacks

    but he told me to take flax seed, fish oil, and a multivitamin..and thats what i've been doing..am i overdoing it?
    "I'll tell you what: If all I had was Pearl Jam, and I didn't have another band in the world, I would not be worried. Because in there is the essence of making great music. You don't have to use it all at once, but it's there." - Neil Young
  • ClaireackClaireack Posts: 13,561
    StuffnJunk wrote:
    but he told me to take flax seed, fish oil, and a multivitamin..and thats what i've been doing..am i overdoing it?

    Not sure, but I thought flax oil and fish oil were both Omega 3 supplements - do you need to take both?
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,262
    I was showing Omega-3 deficiency symptons, and my eye doctor recommended flax seed oil, or fish oil. I decided to buy flax seed not the oil, and put it into my cereal. Just a few days later symptons were gone. Worked like a charm the same way when my twin displayed the same symptons, and put flax seed into her morning breakfast.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
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  • Pepe SilviaPepe Silvia Posts: 3,758
    i don't think there's any difference other than they are different sources. just compare how much they both have on the side label. omega-3 are really good for you, even in high doses. but it's like you can get vitamin c from an orange or bell peppers or broccoli, strawberries...it's not that one is better than the other unless you are talking about how much they have comparatively or pesticides. but who knows, if the fish had a lot of mercury, dioxins or pcbs could it be in the fish oil? i have no clue

    what can be bad in large doses is omega-6, which are in things like nuts and corn. it can be beneficial but not in large doses. it promotes things like blood clotting and inflammation which is beneficial for animals when they hibernate but not as much as is in our typical lifestyles.
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  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    i don't think there's any difference other than they are different sources. just compare how much they both have on the side label. omega-3 are really good for you, even in high doses. but it's like you can get vitamin c from an orange or bell peppers or broccoli, strawberries...it's not that one is better than the other unless you are talking about how much they have comparatively or pesticides. but who knows, if the fish had a lot of mercury, dioxins or pcbs could it be in the fish oil? i have no clue

    what can be bad in large doses is omega-6, which are in things like nuts and corn. it can be beneficial but not in large doses. it promotes things like blood clotting and inflammation which is beneficial for animals when they hibernate but not as much as is in our typical lifestyles.
    There's definitely a difference. It's recommended to take both.

    Flaxseed gives you ALA, which can be converted by the body into what it needs, but the body can be inefficiant at it, so you need to take a lot of it, if it works. Fish oil gives you EPA and DHA already converted from ALA, so its more direct. The advantage of Flaxseed is it turns into other good fats the body needs, but only gives you little, if any of the important EPA and DHA you need.

    So Fish oil is better, but flaxseed can help with other things and only some of what fish oil does if taken in large amounts.
  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    Claireack wrote:
    StuffnJunk wrote:
    but he told me to take flax seed, fish oil, and a multivitamin..and thats what i've been doing..am i overdoing it?

    Not sure, but I thought flax oil and fish oil were both Omega 3 supplements - do you need to take both?
    If you can, its recommended to take both.. I can't take the Fish oil, so I wanted to see what others are getting out of just the flax seed.
  • Thoughts_ArriveThoughts_Arrive Posts: 15,165
    I've only recently started taking omega3 fish oil capsules.
    Let's see if it works.
    Adelaide 17/11/2009, Melbourne 20/11/2009, Sydney 22/11/2009, Melbourne (Big Day Out Festival) 24/01/2014
  • FirstExitFirstExit Posts: 973
    You should go with whichever has the higher concentration of Omega-3's. The fish oil caps I take have 720g O3's per 2 pills, so I take 4 per day. But as LikeAnOcean said, you get different healthy fats from the different forms of oil pills. You could always buy the pills that have a mixture of all the linolaic acids, but those are a bit more expensive than the others.
  • m0jorisenm0jorisen Posts: 516
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  • BinFrogBinFrog Posts: 7,309
    Be warned: the first few days you take a flax supplement you may feel a bit....bloated.
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  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    BinFrog wrote:
    Be warned: the first few days you take a flax supplement you may feel a bit....bloated.
    Yes, I've noticed this.. although, it could also be from the all you can drink beer tasting I went to last night. :D
  • Do any of you add ground flax seed to food?

    The bottle of flax oil softgels that I got several months ago will run out in 2 days. I bought it in a sale on Barbara Watson's website. The label reads: "Renew Life FlaxSmart Certified Organic Cold Pressed Flax Oil, an omega 3-6-9 Flax oil with lignans and lipase, the enzyme that digests oils." Each day, I would poke one of the gels with a pin and eat the linseed oil inside.

    .......Anyway......I have no money to buy any supplements of any kind. The only money I've had for food all month is the $32 I've made selling my apartment building's recycleables. I always have a bag of flax seeds on hand because my pet mice thrive on them. The seeds are dirt cheap at Whole Foods Market. I recall that a few years ago, I tried adding ground flax to some pastry I was baking. I no longer bake at all (being allergic to both eggs and soy makes finding ingredients too much hassle.) Is ground flax edible if sprinkled on cereal? Toast? Refried beans?
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  • Break The SkyBreak The Sky Posts: 1,276
    Please don't let me come across as a dick, but if you're living on 32 bucks worth of food all month, there are government funded programs that will help you. I'm on Medicade because of my low income doubled up with the fact that before this health bill passed, no company would take me on with my pre-existing condition. I get help from HEAP over the winter, too. It's embarrassing to apply but trust me, the ends justify the means.
    If hope can grow from dirt like me ...
  • Big Drop wrote:
    Please don't let me come across as a dick, but if you're living on 32 bucks worth of food all month, there are government funded programs that will help you. I'm on Medicade because of my low income doubled up with the fact that before this health bill passed, no company would take me on with my pre-existing condition. I get help from HEAP over the winter, too. It's embarrassing to apply but trust me, the ends justify the means.

    I am not insulted at all. Much to the ire of several other members here, I embrace my socio-economic status with disturbing relish: I chose to give up my extremely-low-rent housing in Rhode Island in December of '7. I moved back here, home, the City Of Angels the LOVE OF MY LIFE which quite simply makes me happy :P . So now most of my income goes to rent.

    In a recent thread, I broke down the average of $1150 that I make in a month, and explained that I spend $150 on organic food and $50 on water purification, supplements, coffee, and green tea. Due to almost zero in eBay sales so far this month, I am making less than my average. I am not eligible for food stamps (I have made sure!) In the mid 90s, I received food stamps. I got between 2 and 15 dollars every month. It was lovely. I reeeeeaaaaaaly know how to stretch a dollar. Sometimes I have no money, other times I'm almost middle class. Life is bouncy.

    Wheeee!
    "May you live in interesting times."
  • Someone asked about mercury in fish oil.

    You have to read the label VERY carefully, but there are brands that are purified. Be warned, Nature Made is not purified. Target sells one in a blue bottle that is. Also be warned, fish oil burps are gross! I also find it to be a bit of a pain in the ass to take it 3 times a day, so I only do it twice.
    Opinions are like assholes, everyones got one.

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    10/27/06
  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    Someone asked about mercury in fish oil.

    You have to read the label VERY carefully, but there are brands that are purified. Be warned, Nature Made is not purified. Target sells one in a blue bottle that is. Also be warned, fish oil burps are gross! I also find it to be a bit of a pain in the ass to take it 3 times a day, so I only do it twice.
    I'm actually being brave and taking that now. My fish allergy doesn't seem affected by it.. how much mercury is bad? I'm taking two pills a day (2400 mg total).
  • Mercury in tiny amounts isn't harmful, fish you eat contain it. I was breast feeding at the time and needed the purified.

    If I were you, I'd talk to my doctor. No supplement is worth getting sick over.
    Opinions are like assholes, everyones got one.

    "do gay midgets come out of the cupboard"
    ~CreedDisease~

    10/27/06
  • ABC News (America, not Australia) recently ran a story demonising fish oil. They studied ten different brands of Cheap Crap supplements, like the ones from major pharmacy and grocery chains. They concluded that all ten brands contained PCBs.

    What they did not discuss was fish oil from free swimming deep cold water fish. Big corporations selling the common brands use factory farmed fish. Here's a blurb about fish farms:
    "David Carpenter, MD, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany and publisher of a major study in the journal Science on contamination in fish, gives us the scoop:

    The problem: Nature didn’t intend for salmon to be crammed into pens and fed soy, poultry litter, and hydrolyzed chicken feathers. As a result, farmed salmon is lower in vitamin D and higher in contaminants, including carcinogens, PCBs, brominated flame retardants, and pesticides such as dioxin and DDT. According to Carpenter, the most contaminated fish come from Northern Europe, which can be found on American menus. “You could eat one of these salmon dinners every 5 months without increasing your risk of cancer,” says Carpenter, whose 2004 fish contamination study got broad media attention. “It’s that bad.” Preliminary science has also linked DDT to diabetes and obesity, but some nutritionists believe the benefits of omega-3s outweigh the risks. There is also concern about the high level of antibiotics and pesticides used to treat these fish. When you eat farmed salmon, you get dosed with the same drugs and chemicals.

    The solution: Switch to wild-caught Alaska salmon. If the package says fresh Atlantic, it’s farmed. There are no commercial fisheries left for wild Atlantic salmon.

    Budget tip: Canned salmon, almost exclusively from wild catch, can be found for as little as $3 a can."
    "May you live in interesting times."
  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    So.. after three weeks on this stuff, the first sign of improvement is my skin is much smoother. I've always had really dry skin and all the flakes, redness and such are pretty much gone. Definitely shinier skin, so it appears to have started doing something.. My allergies have pretty much disappeared as well. Even though I'm allergic to fish, the fish oil has had no allergic effect on me.

    Apparently it takes 3 to 4 months to get the full benefits and up to 6 to 9 months to peak.. Someone mentioned they saw benefits after a couple of days, but that had to be psychological since the stuff takes 72 hours just to get into your blood stream.. and then it is slowly used by building new cells that takes months to fully benefit from, since old cells have a 3 to 4 month life span.. Brain must restructure too, which takes months.

    Good signs so far though.
  • morellomorello Posts: 6,212
    Sorry, haven't read the whole thread but fish oils have saved my life(so to speak) in terms of my monthly. I used to be doubled over in pain for 2 days every month + an absolutely grump bitch from hell for 2 days before it all started(so that's 4 days of hell every month) & since I've been taking fish oils I get a wee bit emotional for about 1/2 a day & maybe have to take painkillers once!! HALLELUJAH!!! Fish oils ROCK!!! :->
    <hr>
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  • joebotjoebot Posts: 372
    I've been taking them for a few years. there is no question they have helped my skin and hair . I hope that the supposed positives for your inner heart and organs do indeed prove true. You must look out for purified, you do not want to be pumping mercury into your system daily. The pcb issue does worry me but the brand i take natures bounty supposedly does not contain them. Also they have a touch of vanilla on the caplet so they have a pleasant go down taste and no fish burps !!
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,262
    Do any of you add ground flax seed to food?

    The bottle of flax oil softgels that I got several months ago will run out in 2 days. I bought it in a sale on Barbara Watson's website. The label reads: "Renew Life FlaxSmart Certified Organic Cold Pressed Flax Oil, an omega 3-6-9 Flax oil with lignans and lipase, the enzyme that digests oils." Each day, I would poke one of the gels with a pin and eat the linseed oil inside.

    .......Anyway......I have no money to buy any supplements of any kind. The only money I've had for food all month is the $32 I've made selling my apartment building's recycleables. I always have a bag of flax seeds on hand because my pet mice thrive on them. The seeds are dirt cheap at Whole Foods Market. I recall that a few years ago, I tried adding ground flax to some pastry I was baking. I no longer bake at all (being allergic to both eggs and soy makes finding ingredients too much hassle.) Is ground flax edible if sprinkled on cereal? Toast? Refried beans?
    I started to add flax seed to my cereal when my eye doctor told me that it or fish oil would alleviate my omega-3 issues. Even though the seeds were too small to be ground in my food processor, I added them to my cereal and they work like a charm. It's been over a year I've been adding flax seed to my cereal and I don't get the dry skin on my upper eye lids anymore. It was a reflection of omega-3 deficiency.
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    Ms. Haiku wrote:
    Do any of you add ground flax seed to food?

    The bottle of flax oil softgels that I got several months ago will run out in 2 days. I bought it in a sale on Barbara Watson's website. The label reads: "Renew Life FlaxSmart Certified Organic Cold Pressed Flax Oil, an omega 3-6-9 Flax oil with lignans and lipase, the enzyme that digests oils." Each day, I would poke one of the gels with a pin and eat the linseed oil inside.

    .......Anyway......I have no money to buy any supplements of any kind. The only money I've had for food all month is the $32 I've made selling my apartment building's recycleables. I always have a bag of flax seeds on hand because my pet mice thrive on them. The seeds are dirt cheap at Whole Foods Market. I recall that a few years ago, I tried adding ground flax to some pastry I was baking. I no longer bake at all (being allergic to both eggs and soy makes finding ingredients too much hassle.) Is ground flax edible if sprinkled on cereal? Toast? Refried beans?
    I started to add flax seed to my cereal when my eye doctor told me that it or fish oil would alleviate my omega-3 issues. Even though the seeds were too small to be ground in my food processor, I added them to my cereal and they work like a charm. It's been over a year I've been adding flax seed to my cereal and I don't get the dry skin on my upper eye lids anymore. It was a reflection of omega-3 deficiency.


    Does it really work? The Flaxseed???

    Everything I've read online suggests human bodies have a hard time converting it, if any of it, to the chemicals it needs. Fish oil works better because its already in the chemical form the body needs.
  • jervin007jervin007 Posts: 3,182
    I have heard lots of good things about Fish Oil. I have to hand it to all that take them because I work at a pharmacy and know how big those capsules can be! In addition, they don't smell all that well so it can't be fun trying to get them down the hatch!
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  • LikeAnOceanLikeAnOcean Posts: 7,718
    jervin007 wrote:
    I have heard lots of good things about Fish Oil. I have to hand it to all that take them because I work at a pharmacy and know how big those capsules can be! In addition, they don't smell all that well so it can't be fun trying to get them down the hatch!
    The capsules are huge, and ironically I started taking them because of an allergic problem I have that shrinks my esophogus to the size of a needle. I had to go to the ER last summer choking on food that I already thoroughly chewed..

    Doctors put me an anti-histamines and all sorts of crap that didn't work, so I took it apon myself to find something that would work.. I started taking the suppliment Quecertin, which dramatically helped. Average size pills that I had to cut in half at first, but after a few weeks I could swallow whole.. then came the fish pills which also got stuck at first, but now after the three weeks I don't even feel them go down.

    I definitely recommend the Quecertin for anyone with allergies. Not only did it get rid of most of them, but it gives you an energy boost. I also feel less tired when I don't get much sleep.. and now the Fish Pills are making me super-human! :D

    Get the ones from Trader Joes. They don't smell at all.. you can break them open and drink them if they don't go down.. plus they are very high in DHA and EPA per capsule.

    They're good for your skin, hair, eyes, anxiety, depression, bones, memory, immune sytem, allergies, acne, slows aging.. really everything, but will take months to fully work, so start now!
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