Fish Oil

 

fish-oil-supplements

I just ordered Fish Oil off of Amazon on Danger & Play’s advice, however, he didn’t elaborate on how much fish oil I should take per day.

I did some very basic research online and got no clear answers that I liked.

An excerpt from the Energy First:

There is no FDA recommended dosage for fish oil but the FDA does say that the average healthy person (age 5+) should not take a fish oil dosage of more than 3000 mg per day.

So what dosage of fish oil should you take? 450-500 mg per day of combined EPA/DHA is a good place to start. The World Health Organization and other governmental health agencies recommend 300-500 mg per day, and most research studies touting the health benefits of omega 3s are done using fish oil doses of 1000 mg and up. It’s recommended that you start slow when you take fish oilto see what your body feels comfortable with and to make sure you don’t have any fish oil side effects (link to Artcile 3), like allergies.

Some people claim that taking higher dosages of fish oil can be helpful with various health issues. For example, The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends a fish oil supplement daily dosage of 2000 – 4000 mg for high triglycerides, while for coronary artery disease (CAD), also known as diagnosed coronary heart disease (CHD), the AHA recommends a daily dosage of 1000 mg of EPA and DHA omega 3s. Some claim that taking extremely high doses of fish oil omega 3s can benefit major issues like depression (10,000 mg), Chron’s disease (4000 mg), and lupus and rheumatoid arthritis (6000 mg).

When to take fish oil for individual ailments or diseases can be discussed with your doctor and dosages should always be under his or her supervision.

Energy First was not very clear, as I could not tell how many capsules per day I should take. I checked another website.

An excerpt from eMedTV:

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that people who have high triglycerides take a fish oil supplement with 2 to 4 grams (2000 to 4000 mg) of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids. There is no need to take all of this fish oil all at once; you may find that splitting it up into two daily doses decreases some of the bothersome side effects. The AHA recommends that you take fish oil for this use only under the supervision of your healthcare provider.

I could not see anything other than advice for maintaining a healthy heart or fixing an ailing one, so I checked a third website.

An excerpt from Healthy Omega 3:

Around 500 mg (1/2 gram) minimum of EPA and DHA a day for healthy people, and around 1000 mg (1 gram) a day for known heart disease patients, perhaps double for lowering triglycerides.

The best fish oil supplements contain 280 mg of DHA and 120 mg of EPA per capsule.  (That’s more than double the normal amount of DHA in most “average” capsules). A total of 400mg of DHA and EPA.

So 2 capsules a day will give you 800 mg in total, around the level proposed by the AHA. And the recommended dosage, (taken from the label), for adults is 2 capsules a day.

The conclusion therefore is that if you use the best fish oil supplements and have no known preexisting heart problems, just follow the recommended dosages listed on the label. Other fish oil supplements may require you to take 4 or 5 or more capsules, depending on the quantity of Omega 3 fats in the capsules.

Healthy Omega gives the most clear recommendation so far, so I will start with their guide line and modify my dosage as I see fit. I will take two-three capsules per day depending on how much of each supplement each capsule contains. I will report on any changes I notice  a week from the day I first receive my fish oil and take my daily dosage.

On that note, I welcome advice from anyone from the manosphere who has prior experience taking fish oil supplements, especially Danger & Play himself.

~Wald

5 thoughts on “Fish Oil

  1. The thing with fish oil is that you really can’t take too much but the health benefits really start at the 2000 to 4000 mg range. I take three to six 1000 mg soft gels a day and sometimes more. It’s according to how many times I eat a day. I’m on a paleo micro-meal diet (which means pretty much I’m always eating) so every time I eat, I take one. Seems to work for me.

    • The university I go to serves crap food for the “nation’s finest”. I simply hope to add some extra goodness to my diet to mitigate the lack of goodness in what is normally offered to me (crap food vs. junk food – both are crap in the end).

  2. I was put on a daily 4 – gram dose of Lovaza (prescription fish oil) for high triglycerides. They dropped from 500+ to 44. My lipid profile went from sketchy to absolute best risk profile. My mood and mental state improved dramatically. I credit fish oil with a substantial turnaround in my life. I have even started my kids on it now and have noticed improvements in mood and focus. The more DHA the better.

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