Some people are concerned about a fish oil overdose, and fish oil side effects.

Can you have a fish oil overdose? Now that’s an interesting question. When we were asked can you overdose on fish oil pills we decided to write about the risks of an Omega 3 overdose.

The first thing to say is yes, you can overdose on fish oil if you’re getting your oil from eating a lot of fish. It is now well recognized, including by the FDA, that fish are contaminated with toxins like PCBs, mercury, dioxin and chlordane. And for this reason they have a warning on their website about eating too much fish, especially top of the food chain fish.

But otherwise we aren’t aware of any fish oil overdose symptoms from eating a lot of fish. Remember, eating fish is healthy, and ignoring the problems with toxic contamination, eating a lot of fish is good for you.

Most of the studies of the benefits of Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids started with studies of populations of people who eat a lot of fish. A whole lot of fish. People like the Eskimos who eat fish daily, for example. And the studies found all sorts of health benefits from eating a lot of fish due to their intake of those healthy Omega 3 fats like DHA and EPA.

We haven’t seen any evidence that the Eskimos overdosed on fish and had negative health side effects.

But the question was about fish oil tablets and supplements, not eating fish.

Again we return to toxic contamination. Fish oil supplements can be contaminated with toxins. Most are pretty good, but there are issues with contamination depending on where the fish oil, or the fish it comes from are sourced, how the oil is treated to remove the toxins and even whether the oil is treated at all.

When buying fish oil supplements these are the things you need to find out. The best fish oil supplements don’t have any detectable levels of contamination at all.

So, can you have an Omega 3 overdose and if so what are the symptoms? Well the risks of an Omega 3 overdose are slight, but like all things you need to have an understanding of what the fish oil dosage recommendations are and follow them. We have written about the right fish oil dosage on our site already, read that article if you’re in doubt about how many capsules to take.

There are always those people who believe that if some is good for you more must be better. So if 2 capsules a day (of high quality fish oil capsules, more for “ordinary” capsules) is good for your heart then 20 capsules a day must be REALLY good for your heart.

We always recommend that, even though Omega 3 supplements are really good for so many aspects of your health, always follow the dosage recommendations. Don’t take more than recommended.

At best you may find that taking more than recommended is wasting money, at worst there may be an overdose effect.

But in reality there is only a small risk of a serious fish oil overdose. Unless you’re taking huge amounts you ought to be ok. You may have an upset stomach, but probably not a lot worse than that. Perhaps some fishy reflux with inferior quality supplements or a fishy after taste.

HOWEVER. For those with a preexisting medical condition we also always recommend that you check with your doctor before starting supplements of any kind. If you have a preexisting medical condition there MAY be some possible fish oil overdose effect specific to that condition.

For example one of the major benefits of taking Omega 3 fatty acids is their ability to thin the blood. This is good and is part of the reason why taking supplements improves your heart health and reduces your risk of stroke.

But for some people with pre exising medical conditions there can be some risk of bleeding from thinning of the blood, so they should consult a doctor before starting on any Omega 3 capsules.

And even for those with no pre existing conditions, taking huge doses may result in bleeding from blood thinning.

ALWAYS follow the recommendations of your doctor on dosage, or if you have no pre existing problems, follow the recommended dosage on the label.

The reality is that fish oil supplements are inherently safe, disregarding the problems of contamination. Fish oil is a natural product that is taken from fish, and you shouldn’t have an overdose from eating too much fish.

A word of warning though.

Here we are talking about an overdose of fish oil from normal fish oil supplements. You CAN get an overdose if you take too much cod liver oil. Normally Cod Liver Oil isn’t found in Omega 3 supplements, but there are still some people who take it believing it to be good for them. Read the rest of this entry

Written by - Healthy Omega 3 Fish Oils

(And make sure you read our page explaining why you need Omega 3 Fish Oil supplements, and find out how to choose the Best Fish Oil Supplements).

Not all fish oil supplements are the same. How do you choose high quality fish oil supplements?

You’ve decided that you need to be taking daily Omega 3 supplements because the evidence for their health benefits is overwhelming. But now you’ve got to find the highest quality fish oil capsules you can.

How do you decide on which capsules are the best high quality fish oil capsules? What factors should you consider?

There’s a number of things that you ought to consider when comparing fish oil supplements. Obviously price is one of them but the price is usually not an indicator of quality. And a high price also does not ensure that you’re getting the best quality.

The best high quality fish oil capsules have a number of factors that take them out of the range of the “average” capsules.

1. The amount of DHA and EPA.

DHA is the major Omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, along with EPA. There’s others, but DHA is the biggie. When you’re buying Omega 3 capsules you’re primarily buying DHA. So the amount of DHA that you get in your capsules is an important factor.

Most Omega 3 supplements are 18/12 supplements. This refers to the ratios of DHA and EPA in the capsules and tells you how much you are getting. If you’re taking a 1000mg 18/12 capsule you’re getting 18% EPA, or 180 mg of EPA, and 12% DHA, or 120 mg of DHA.

One of the most important things to do when looking at comparing Omega 3 fish oil supplements is to see how much of each of these fatty acids, particularly DHA, that  you are getting.

It’s impossible to compare the price of fish oil capsules without knowing this because you can’t compare apples with apples. If you want to find  out more about comparing Omega 3 capsules by price read our article about how to compare fish oil supplements.

The highest ratio of EFAs (essential fatty acids) that we know of in any Omega 3 supplements is 12/28. This means that you get 120 mg of EPA but in particular you get 280 mg of DHA. That’s over double the amount of DHA you find in “regular” supplements. Almost 2 1/2 times as much actually.

But as we said in that article, a price comparison isn’t the main determinant of a high quality Omega 3 supplement. There’s more to it than that.

2. The purity or cleanliness of the fish oil used.

Contamination of fish is a major issue for our diets. Particularly mercury, PCBs and dioxane are found in many fish that we would regularly eat. For this reason the FDA has issued it’s warning about eating too much fish. There have been scares in the past with contaminated fish oil supplements and some have been withdrawn from the market.

It’s essential that you’re getting the cleanest oils, after all you’re taking those capsules for your health so you don’t want to jeopardize your health with toxins.

High quality Omega 3 capsules are clean, and free of toxins. Most companies purify their fish oils using a process called molecular distillation. This is effective.

However the company that makes the highest quality fish oil supplements isn’t satisfied with this and takes it a step further. It adds an intermediate purification step before molecular distillation.

Firstly it sources it’s fish from the Southern Ocean, south of New Zealand, the cleanest ocean in the world. That’s a pretty good start. It contracts with the fisherman that catch the fish and the entire process from catch to capsule is strictly controlled to ensure purity.

(Most manufacturers just buy their fish oil from a wholesaler, who knows where it’s come from).

And before the molecular distillation process is undertaken they add a further purification step to the process. The oil undergoes 2 separate purification processes, including molecular distillation.

On top of this the company sets it’s own standards for contamination, many times lower than the other recognized standards. For example they have their own standard for mercury contamination that is 10 times lower than all the international standards for contamination of fish oils.

That isn’t a problem as their oils have no detectable levels of contamination, so having an acceptable that is 10 times stricter than international standards is still easy to meet.

Finally they have every batch of fish oil tested by 2 separate independent laboratories and publish the certificate they get from the laboratories on their website. You can’t do better than that.

3. The effectiveness of the Omega 3 fats in the supplements.

All Omega 3 supplements are not the same. The reason you want to find high quality fish oil capsules is because the Omega 3 fatty acids found in them will do good things for your body.

Different fish oil capsules can have different levels of effectiveness. Those we consider the best fish oil supplements have been shown to be much more effective. Here’s how.

For Omega 3 fats to work they have to be absorbed into the body. There are different forms of Omega 3 fats and each is absorbed differently. Now it can get quite technical and we may baffle you with science, so suffice to say that not all forms of fish oils found in capsules are as effective as others.

It’s called “bioavailability’ and if  you want to find out more about the chemical reasons then click here.

The result is that studies have shown that the Omega 3 supplements from Xtend Life have up to 2 1/2 times more effectiveness as an anti inflammatory than other “average” Omega 3 supplements. It’s the anti inflammatory effects of fish oil that are the most important reason for all those health benefits.

Summary.

That’s how you find the highest quality fish oil supplements. You look at the fish oil quality, both the levels of contaminants and how much effort the company puts into ensuring it’s supplements are totally clean.

And the fish oil quality includes how effective it is as an anti inflammatory, that being the most important reason for the health giving qualities of Omega 3 fats.

And finally you look at the amount of Omega 3s you get in your supplements. Then you can look at price, and compare the different supplements on both quality and price.

Then you can determine what is the best value in high quality fish oil supplements.

We have no doubt about it. Both on quality and on value the Omega 3 supplements from Xtend Life are streets ahead.

On a price per gram of DHA they work out better value. And on the other determinants of quality they also come out better value. Read the rest of this entry

Written by - Healthy Omega 3 Fish Oils

(And make sure you read our page explaining why you need Omega 3 Fish Oil supplements, and find out how to choose the Best Fish Oil Supplements).

Along with daily fish oil supplements a good Omega 3 cookbook will help add more good fats to your diet.

By now, even if you haven’t read our site before, chances are that you know that the Omega 3 polyunsaturated fats found in fish oil are good for your health. Very good for your health.

More and more research is showing that there are so many areas of our health that can benefit from more Omega 3 in our diet. Our brain, our heart, our eyes, our internal organs, and way more can all benefit from more fish oil.

There’s 2 essential fatty acids found in fish oil. DHA, or Docosahexaenoic acid, is the main one but EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid) is also very important. These are the most important essential fatty acids.

These 2 are found primarily in fish and fish oil, and that’s why most Omega 3 supplements are based on fish oil.

But there is also a plant based Omega 3 fatty acid. It’s called ALA (alpha-linolenic acid). The benefit to the body is that it converts ALA to DHA, although there is debate about how much ALA actually gets converted, some say not a lot. For that reason DHA from fish oil is better, because your body doesn’t need to convert it.

The way your body gets  these healthy Omega 3 fats is through what you eat. Now of course Omega 3  fats are so important to us that they should be taken daily, and the best way to do that is using high quality Omega 3 fish oil supplements. But there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t also add more Omega 3 fats to your diet as well as take daily supplements.

There are good fats and bad fats. Saturated fat found mainly in dairy products and meat, are not healthy fats. But if you eat the right foods with the good fats in them then you’re eating better food and getting healthier from what you eat.

For example olive oil, canola oil, and flaxseed oil have healthy Omega 3 fats in them. And some foods also have good fats. For example walnuts.  Brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, and salad greens do as well.

Whilst the vegetables have ALA fish, particularly oily fish, has DHA. So adding fish to your diet is great. But the FDA tells us to eat only moderate amounts of fish due to chemical contamination.

So whilst you really need to be taking daily fish oil supplements, if you concentrate on adding good Omega 3 foods like those above to your diet you’re also doing yourself a favor. So start concentrating on cooking with Omega 3 foods. Omega 3 cooking is not hard, if you have a good Omega 3 cookbook.

It’s pretty simple, a good Omega 3 cookbook will be packed with recipes that feature high Omega 3 foods. So it will have some great fish recipes, it will have you cooking with Omega 3 oils like canola oil or olive oil and it will feature recipes that have plenty of vegetables and other Omega 3 foods.

So remember, whilst you should be taking daily fish oil supplements to get the maximum benefit from those good fats, it’s well worthwhile also concentrating on using Omega 3 recipes when doing your cooking.

So where do you find a good Omega 3 cookbook full of healthy Omega 3 recipes? There’s an excellent book called Anti-Inflammatory Foods for Health: Hundreds of Ways to Incorporate Omega-3 Rich Foods into Your Diet to Fight Arthritis, Cancer, Heart Disease, and More .

As well as being a great Omega 3 cookbook it also offers all sorts of good tips on finding and incorporating healthy fats into your lifestyle and diet.

Whilst supplements are great, there’s powerful reasons to start making some simple modifications to your diet. You’ll get more healthy polyunsaturated fats in your diet and you’ll also get less saturated fats in your diet if you concentrate on healthy Omega 3 recipes. Read the rest of this entry

Written by - Healthy Omega 3 Fish Oils

(And make sure you read our page explaining why you need Omega 3 Fish Oil supplements, and find out how to choose the Best Fish Oil Supplements).