Posted by Noa on January 11, 2003, at 18:50:45
In reply to Re: Fish Oil update and questions, posted by linkadge on January 11, 2003, at 17:58:43
Thanks. I did some browsing and found a post by Henry O.
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021122/msgs/128879.html
that gives some info links on fish oil. This one:
http://www.bipolarchild.com/newsletters/0501.html
is very good. It also touches on the epa vs dha thing, saying one scientist thinks of the difference as dha=structure and epa-function. fwiw.
In any event, I also read some articles about that study you are refering to, I think, where one gram of epa was looked at vs. 2 gm, 3, 4, and placebo, and showed that 1 was effective. There was another by Stoll on bipolar that used something like 10 gms of epa. That is a lot of fish oil!
Aparently, there are "pure" epa preparations available in England, acc. to one site I read.
I also learned from browsing that most oil preps have more epa than dha in them.
So, with my current product, to get 1 gm of epa per day, I will have to take 6 caplets each day.
BTW, I was just thinking about fish in my diet. I have essentially been a vegetarian for almost 40 years, since early adolescence but have been a fish eating vegetarian for the past dozen or so years. In my late 20's, I found myself having yearly fish cravings that would last about 2-3 weeks, and would be satisfied by eating a tuna sandwich from the local deli for lunch every day. Then I'd be sick of the fish binge and stop, and the craving would not appear until about 1 year later. This happened for a few years, only the cravings started to stay with me for longer periods and I started widening my repetoire of fish foods, and it stopped being a binge kind of thing. Finally, when the cravings for fish became more normalized, ie, less of intense, episodic thing, I realized that my body was seeming to need it, and just decided that fish would become part of my diet. I guess I had reached an age (thirties) when the moral inconsistency of being a fish eating vegetarian didn't bother me as it once would have. It requires a fair amount of denial, which I think develops with age! Denial helps me not focus too much on the origins of the fish food. Of course, I did once freak out in a pub in England when my fish meal came and I saw that it was a whole fish, head tail and all. They were very kind and took it back, but probably were muttering, "crazy american" under their breath, I'm sure.
Anyway, now that I have read some material that seems to suggest that people with depression are deficient in the omega 3 essential fatty acids, I wonder if that is why I had these fish cravings. I also wonder what role my not eating fish before that might have had in my developing depression. Hmmm....I'll never know, will I. Oh well.
poster:Noa
thread:135380
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030106/msgs/135396.html