Posted by bluedog on December 17, 2002, at 12:45:14
In reply to Re: Fish oil - insomnia, vivid dreams and agitation!! » bluedog, posted by ShelliR on December 17, 2002, at 11:49:05
> Thanks for checking back in about fish oil and anxiety, and letting us know that you stuck with it and have had positive effects. I definitely think that it was been causing me anxiety and I need to start much much slower.
I started out on one 1000mg capsule for a week with my largest and fattiest meal of the day, then I went to two capsules per day and stayed at that amount until all the side effects disappeared. The worst side effects were during the initial 2-3 weeks. I always take the capsules with food (preferably fatty food but I can now even tolerate the capsules with a low fat meal with no side effects except for a very occasional fishy burp) when I finally went to 3 then 4 and now 5 capsules per day I experienced absolutely no side effects with these gradual increases in my dose (I take one capsule at breakfast, two capsules with lunch and two capsules with dinner)
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> You say you are benefitting from a much healthier Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio than previously.Yes I believe this is benefitting me. Not only am I taking the fish oil supplements but I now also minimise my consumption of vegetable oils and I completely avoid products with Trans-fatty assets or partially hydrogenated oils (I eat butter instead of margarine and use olive oil instead of sunflower/safflower or canola oil for cooking) Though I don't completely deny myself (you still need to live a little) and I occassinally will eat fish and chips or potato chips (crisps). I simply try to take a more balanced approach to the different types of fats that I do consume.
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> What about the ratio between EPA & DHA?
>
> I'm taking omegabrite; the ratio is 7 to 1 EPA,
> Your ratio is much more even between EPA & DHA, right?The ratio in my capsules is 3 EPA to 2 DHA. I don't know what the importance of this ratio is. I think Larry Hoover would have a better understanding of this aspect though I believe that EPA is more important once you are an adult and your brain is no longer developing like with babies and children.
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> The smallest I can start with this stuff is total fatty acid 1500mg, EPA 375 (one pill).I'm pretty sure you could get a less potent brand initially and then move on to the Omegabrite brand once your body has adapted to taking the fish oil supplements!!!!
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>Also, I have been too anxious to eat very much, so I hadn't been taking it on a full stomach.I would definitely recommend taking it with food. If your too anxious (or depressed) to eat large meals try "grazing" throughout the day with more smaller yet healthy meals. Try taking your fish oil supplements with something fatty like a decent handful of raw cashew nuts and a slice of cheese with some natural yoghurt. I can't guarantee it will work but you can only try
==================================================================================================>AND, I just started lexapro, which, from what I am reading on the board, also causes anxiety.
>I think at this point it would be very difficult to distinguish whether your anxiety is caused by the Lexapro the fish oil or whether you simply have a diagnosis of anxiety. Has your doctor discussed the possibility of taking a short course of a long acting Benzo like Klonopin or Valium say for a month or two to help you through the initial anxiety phase that many ssri's can cause. I know I experienced a definite "10 strong black coffee effect" when I first went onto Prozac but this passed after about a fortnight and the Prozac now actually helps my anxiety.
==================================================================================================> This has been so much information on fish oil on this board for the last couple of months, but it is all scattered. When I told my doctor about my anxiety yesterday, he had no idea whether it could be caused by the omega; it is pretty obvious from you and others on this board that it definitely could be the culprit. This pdoc is pretty good; it's amazing how many more people we are exposed to on each drug/treatment than most pdocs because of the large volume of people who write in here creates a bigger sample than he personally sees. And he's good about reading the literature, but there's not a lot of emphasis on side effects there; sometimes just a one sentence summary.
>
> I even called the omegabrite people and they couldn't give me any side effect information, which I think is pretty pathetic.
>Because supplement manufacturers (at least here in Australia) are not subject to the same stringent regulations that the pharmaceutical companies need to comply with it's extremely doubtful that omegabrite would admit to any negative effects from there product
==================================================================================================> Anyway, thanks for the original post and your update.
Not a problem at all. I've learnt a lot from this board and believe in sharing any knowledge I have gained from this board and from my personal experiences
warm regards
bluedog
poster:bluedog
thread:131954
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20021217/msgs/132166.html