Psycho-Babble Alternative Thread 454973

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will REDUCING my FISH OIL (EPA) help???

Posted by bipolarspectrum on February 8, 2005, at 11:32:08

Hi,
I suffer from the bipolar phase of depression.. I've been taking EPA (Omega-3 fish oil) for about one week at 4.5 g... Its been reducing my mindracing very much and helped my depression.. but it leave me so TIRED, all i wanna do is sleep.. is it possible that I am at to high of a dose? I've read in the literature that a high dose of fish oil may activate some oxidation pathway which negates the its benefits.. any opinions??
bps

Re: will REDUCING my FISH OIL (EPA) help??? » bipolarspectrum

Posted by Larry Hoover on February 14, 2005, at 9:13:52

In reply to will REDUCING my FISH OIL (EPA) help???, posted by bipolarspectrum on February 8, 2005, at 11:32:08

> Hi,
> I suffer from the bipolar phase of depression.. I've been taking EPA (Omega-3 fish oil) for about one week at 4.5 g... Its been reducing my mindracing very much and helped my depression.. but it leave me so TIRED, all i wanna do is sleep.. is it possible that I am at to high of a dose? I've read in the literature that a high dose of fish oil may activate some oxidation pathway which negates the its benefits.. any opinions??
> bps

The oxidation pathway you're talking about is called beta-oxidation. It's nothing more than your body adapting to burn *excess* long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids as fuel. These long-chain PUFAs don't fit the normal fat-burning enzymes (like mono-unsaturates and saturates do).

Your fat storage cells (adipocytes) do not like to store PUFAs. Long believed to be passive in a metabolic sense, adipocytes have fairly recently been shown to be endocrine glands.....diffuse endocrine glands....secreting all sorts of regulatory hormones and the like. Beta-oxidation is an inducible trait (usually not "turned on"), but the very fact that we have this capacity, and that it is not usually turned on (in modern humans) suggests that we evolved with diets with far richer PUFA content than we obtain today.

As far as the dose of the dose of omega-3s you're taking in....is that the total of EPA/DHA (i.e. 4.5 grams), or is that the total fish oil dose?

Your individual response (sedation) may just indicate you're not used to having sufficient intake of these fatty acids, and it might take a few weeks for your body to adapt. In any case, just reduce the dose to a tolerable level, and rebuild it gradually.

Lar

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