How long does fish oil take to work & how much to take?

[tobeblessed]

I am following the program "The Road Back" for people who have stopped taking medication and are having various problems. For that & my ADHD I started taking fish oil for the omega-3. As far as I can recall the dose recommended for that program is 3,000 of EPA.

How much is the recommended EPA for ADHD; anyone know? I am having a hard time finding dose recommendations on Google.

Also, how long does the omega-3 start to help?

Thanks!

[Ted Hutchinson]

Omega-3 fatty acids supplementation in children with autism (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16920077)
This trial used the effects of 1.5 g/d of omega-3 fatty acids 840mg/d EPA + 700mg/d DHA
A generous serving of this daily would be equivalent. (http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=7908&at=0) WAB666 is a code for a $5 introductory Iherb discount. But there may be other cheaper sources of molecularly distilled fish oil liquid.

The trial was only a very small one and lasted only 6 weeks. I personally would expect improvement to take longer than 12 weeks for the body to replete.

One of the ways Omega 3 may be helping Autistic brains is as an anti-inflammatory agent, if this is so then using Vitamin D3 as well (this is another anti-inflammatory agent that works in the brain) may improve the outcome even more. This research discussed the possible role of inflammation in autism. (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=17412520) This 2000iu/daily capsule should be sufficient for a child. (http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=7255860309350762561&at=0)

[Dan Burdick]

Hi,

Name's that are big in the field for search purposes.

S.P. Mahadik
David Horrobin
Malcolm Peet
Hibblen




Can be up to 15 grams. 3 grams would be a moderate real amount.
http://www.omega-dha-epa.com/article7.html

EPA is anti inflammatory and DHA is a cell wall component. Both used for Cell wall chemistry.

EPA though the "main" one of the two, as far as all these treeatment things, though both together is really the idea, EPA can worsen manicness, perhaps precipitate it.

An idea out there is to do it when aimed towards depression, or not tending manic.

Fish oil generally really great, but that is a cautionary preparedness planning thing there.

So that itt does not oxidize inside the body before it can do good and thus backfire (outside the body keep cool, air protected, away from light) it is adviced to take range of antioxidants starting with alpha/gamma E plus 2-3 grams C. Selenium is good with E and C because they can somehow deplete Glutathione level if Glutathion is not given a little aid as I recall.

Plant antioxidants and others perhaps alpha lipoic acid n-acetyl cysteine
can round out the anti-oxidant cocktail. Antioxidants should not be taken in isolation generally the idea is a spectrum with emphasis on certain items.

Dan

[houghchrst]

My son is 16 and was diagnosed with ADHD and we stopped the Vyvanse because of the side effects and at the same time started him on 1000 mg Omega 3 fish oil with 120 mg DHA and 180 mg EPA and within a week we noticed that he stopped exhibiting the symptoms of ADHD. He has also been diagnosed as Bipolar but has not exhibited any of the hyper manic symptoms. Now I am trying to work on his terrible depression and anxiety that seems to be all that is left over.

He is still taking some meds but fortunately we are down to two and the rest are nutritional supplements.

[michael178]

To get rid of the after-taste of fish oil, freeze the pills before taking them, by the time they defrost they are too far down into the stomach to cause any after-taste.

[Ted Hutchinson]

To get rid of the after-taste of fish oil, freeze the pills before taking them, by the time they defrost they are too far down into the stomach to cause any after-taste.Interesting idea. I'll give it a go with some ordinary capsules. I've been using these enteric coated (http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=8341&at=0) to achieve the same effect but as the non coated ones are cheaper and you get more. (http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=8305&at=0) its worth a try. WAB666 Iherb $5 introductory discount. UK readers must limit order to one box per order or there will be customs VAT charged and PO £8 handling charge but still cheaper than UK for molecularly distilled.

Although houghchrst reports results with a mere 300mg of omega 3 daily this is a very small amount. If you read through the posts on Fish Oil use at Dr Davis's Heartscanblog (http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Fish%20oil) you will see that he suggests six normal fish oil capsules daily are the minimum and maybe more would be better.

If we also reduced omega 6 (by eliminating industrial vegetable oils soybean, corn, cottonseed, etc ) intake (omega 6 is pro inflammatory) and the foods that contain them, from the diet, that would improve the situation and maybe reduce the amount of omega 3 input needed, as would improving vitamin d (around 5000iu/daily) and magnesium (around 600mg/d) status (these are also anti inflammatory agents that work with omega 3)

[CathyE]

My local naturopath told me that the enzyme lipase should help prevent "tasting the oil for hours" and it does seem to help (in a multi enzyme vegetable capsule).
Also take it (omega 3 oil) with food - do you agree?
Cathy

[robinrenee]

My son is 16 and was diagnosed with ADHD and we stopped the Vyvanse because of the side effects and at the same time started him on 1000 mg Omega 3 fish oil with 120 mg DHA and 180 mg EPA and within a week we noticed that he stopped exhibiting the symptoms of ADHD. He has also been diagnosed as Bipolar but has not exhibited any of the hyper manic symptoms. Now I am trying to work on his terrible depression and anxiety that seems to be all that is left over.

He is still taking some meds but fortunately we are down to two and the rest are nutritional supplements.

Have you tried giving him Sam-E? It is supposed to be taken early in the day with a glass of water and a B-100 vitamin. It's supposed to be as good for depression as something like Zoloft but without the side effects.

By the way ... I think hypomania sometimes looks like ADHD. It's hard to tell which is which.

[robinrenee]

My local naturopath told me that the enzyme lipase should help prevent "tasting the oil for hours" and it does seem to help (in a multi enzyme vegetable capsule).
Also take it (omega 3 oil) with food - do you agree?
Cathy

Doesn't flaxseed oil have the same amount of omega 3 as fish oil? And it's tasteless and odorless.

[Ted Hutchinson]

Doesn't flaxseed oil have the same amount of omega 3 as fish oil? And it's tasteless and odorless.Is flaxseed oil a substitute for fish oil? (http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2006/09/is-flaxseed-oil-substitute-for-fish.html)

Can adults adequately convert alpha-linolenic acid (18:3n-3) to eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3)? (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9637947)The use of ALA labelled with radioisotopes suggested that with a background diet high in saturated fat conversion to long-chain metabolites is approximately 6% for EPA and 3.8% for DHA. With a diet rich in n-6 PUFA, conversion is reduced by 40 to 50%

[robinrenee]

Thanks for the links to the excellent articles, Ted. I must admit that I’m a vegetarian, and that mercury from the sea concept concerns me.