EFA a question

[neutronnorman]

Hello everyone. I'd like to know what EFA's are you taking and what dosages. Has anyone had any adverse side effects taking Flax, borrage, fish oils, etc.?

[mizski]

Re: EFA a question

I have been taking Natrol Omega 3 complex with Flax, Borage & Omega 3 for a couple of years. They've discontinued that item for a new Natrol Omega 3-6-9 Complex, again with Omega 3 fish oils, Flax and Borage but now with lemon oil.

Lemon oil??? Isn't that for polishing furniture? Maybe some users of the old product could taste fish oil? I don't know, I never had any aftertaste.

Sorry I don't have a report on the new product as I'm finishing up my old stock. I love it though and have not had any side effects at all. My skin & hair seem to love it. I only take one a day.

[not2late]

Re: EFA a question

I only take fish oils because they are more bioavailable than the plant oils---there's something like a 32 g plant Omega 3 to 1 g fish oil Omega 3 conversion rate.

I take 2 grams daily because the current American Heart Association guideline suggests 0.5 g/dl to 1.8 g/dl to be preventative in heart disease. Since I have a very positive family history of heart disease, I go more for the upper dose rather than the lower dose. And I also eat foods that contain omega 3, like fatty fish, nuts, and certain vegetables like purslane.

Fish Consumption, Fish Oil, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and Cardiovascular Disease -- Kris-Etherton et al. 106 (21): 2747 -- Circulation

[imagood1]

Re: EFA a question

I was prescribed 4GM Lovaza (each pill is 1GM fish oil) which I've been taking for almost 2 years to help lower my triglicerides....it hasn't helped yet - I'm wondering when it's suppose to "kick in".....

[neutronnorman]

Re: EFA a question

I only take fish oils because they are more bioavailable than the plant oils---there's something like a 32 g plant Omega 3 to 1 g fish oil Omega 3 conversion rate.

I take 2 grams daily because the current American Heart Association guideline suggests 0.5 g/dl to 1.8 g/dl to be preventative in heart disease. Since I have a very positive family history of heart disease, I go more for the upper dose rather than the lower dose. And I also eat foods that contain omega 3, like fatty fish, nuts, and certain vegetables like purslane.

Fish Consumption, Fish Oil, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and Cardiovascular Disease -- Kris-Etherton et al. 106 (21): 2747 -- Circulation

Thank you. For the past 2 weeks or so, I got a bit paranoid about saturated fats and cholesterol intake. What I did was to substitute those fats with EFA's, Flax oil, Fish oils and CLA. What I noticed was that my blood pressure was spiking up a bit in the afternoon. It rose to 132/84, I believe, for about a week, only in the late afternoon, evening hours. Before that, my bp has always been about 117/72. Well, when I went back to eating pretty much as described in the induction phase, DANDR (Yes! I'm eating that way with out no carb loads...before you guys jump all over me...), my BP normalized.
I was ingesting quite a bit of Flax oil and Fish oils. Possibly way more than 15,000 grams daily, combined.

Grant it, I was not doing cardio because of time constraints. I'm now doing cardio, once again, but in order to combat the sheer monotony and boredom of cardio, I'm taking my camera with me and have taken up photography as a hobby. I've become the scourge of birds.

I'll finish induction, once again, this Sunday. Then I'll start checking out OWL, rung 1.

What I noticed about induction and body fat composition changes, is that my muscles appear "flat." They appear to be smaller and when I train, I fail to achieve a hard pump. That's the negative side. On the positive, and I know most women hate this, induction has brought out vascularity I never dreamed I had before. I still have small love handle type of fat deposits, and on my upper side torso right in between my pecs and lats. But I'm getting quite cut. I can see my abs. Nope, I ain't shaving.

I've been monitoring my bp three times daily now, and it seems to have returned to normal. I've laso am doing what you do, eating red, wild salmon and taking one capsule of EFA, one tablespoon of organic flax seed oil, and 1000 mg of CLA.

[not2late]

Re: EFA a question

Thank you. For the past 2 weeks or so, I got a bit paranoid about saturated fats and cholesterol intake. What I did was to substitute those fats with EFA's, Flax oil, Fish oils and CLA. What I noticed was that my blood pressure was spiking up a bit in the afternoon. It rose to 132/84, I believe, for about a week, only in the late afternoon, evening hours. Before that, my bp has always been about 117/72. Well, when I went back to eating pretty much as described in the induction phase, DANDR (Yes! I'm eating that way with out no carb loads...before you guys jump all over me...), my BP normalized.
I was ingesting quite a bit of Flax oil and Fish oils. Possibly way more than 15,000 grams daily, combined.

Grant it, I was not doing cardio because of time constraints. I'm now doing cardio, once again, but in order to combat the sheer monotony and boredom of cardio, I'm taking my camera with me and have taken up photography as a hobby. I've become the scourge of birds.

I'll finish induction, once again, this Sunday. Then I'll start checking out OWL, rung 1.

What I noticed about induction and body fat composition changes, is that my muscles appear "flat." They appear to be smaller and when I train, I fail to achieve a hard pump. That's the negative side. On the positive, and I know most women hate this, induction has brought out vascularity I never dreamed I had before. I still have small love handle type of fat deposits, and on my upper side torso right in between my pecs and lats. But I'm getting quite cut. I can see my abs. Nope, I ain't shaving.

I've been monitoring my bp three times daily now, and it seems to have returned to normal. I've laso am doing what you do, eating red, wild salmon and taking one capsule of EFA, one tablespoon of organic flax seed oil, and 1000 mg of CLA.

Personally I don't believe that dietary cholesterol has a great effect on serum cholesterol. Our livers synthesize about 2/3 of our serum cholesterol: only 1/3 is from dietary. So if you have a serum cholesterol of 200, guess what? That hard boiled egg you had for breakfast isn't to blame for it.

There is a new theory that if you don't get an adequate amount of dietary cholesterol, your liver produces more cholesterol to make up for your poor dietary intake. Some people point to that as the reason why some people on cholesterol lowering medications still have high cholesterol inspite of the medications and a low cholesterol diet.

Anyhow, you should read Uffe Ravnskov MD's work on the cholesterol myth. Taube's book basically reitterates Ravnskov and Enig, but I figure you're more of a primary source type of person, due to your science background.

[neutronnorman]

Re: EFA a question

Personally I don't believe that dietary cholesterol has a great effect on serum cholesterol. Our livers synthesize about 2/3 of our serum cholesterol: only 1/3 is from dietary. So if you have a serum cholesterol of 200, guess what? That hard boiled egg you had for breakfast isn't to blame for it.

There is a new theory that if you don't get an adequate amount of dietary cholesterol, your liver produces more cholesterol to make up for your poor dietary intake. Some people point to that as the reason why some people on cholesterol lowering medications still have high cholesterol inspite of the medications and a low cholesterol diet.

Anyhow, you should read Uffe Ravnskov MD's work on the cholesterol myth. Taube's book basically reitterates Ravnskov and Enig, but I figure you're more of a primary source type of person, due to your science background.

I know, I agree, but the cholesterol / saturated fat thing has been hammered into me since I was young. I've read quite a bit of papers on the subject but there are so many conflicting reports.
I'm pretty sure my 'paranoia' came from my lack of cardio and my pretty severe weight training.

[not2late]

Re: EFA a question

rose to 132/84, I believe, for about a week, only in the late afternoon, evening hours. Before that, my bp has always been about 117/72

you should see a doctor. For someone in your physical condition, your blood pressure should be in the low normal range, from what I've read. Granted you can still have heart disease. I work at a doctor's office a couple of weeks ago, we had a body-builder come in ---- plenty of health problems: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stage 1 heart failure, etc. His office visit was like 2 hours long because the doc was doing EKGs, pulmonary tests, etc. and I had to deal with the complaints from the some patients stuck in the waiting room. So get yourself checked.

I wouldn't count that your afternoon spikes are due to the circadian rhythm because blood pressure is highest around noon and lowest at 3-4 AM (that's when most people die of non traumatic sudden cardiac death too.) Circadian variation of blood-pressure. [Lancet. 1978] - PubMed Result

[neutronnorman]

Re: EFA a question

you should see a doctor. For someone in your physical condition, your blood pressure should be in the low normal range, from what I've read. Granted you can still have heart disease. I work at a doctor's office a couple of weeks ago, we had a body-builder come in ---- plenty of health problems: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stage 1 heart failure, etc. His office visit was like 2 hours long because the doc was doing EKGs, pulmonary tests, etc. and I had to deal with the complaints from the some patients stuck in the waiting room. So get yourself checked.

I wouldn't count that your afternoon spikes are due to the circadian rhythm because blood pressure is highest around noon and lowest at 3-4 AM (that's when most people die of non traumatic sudden cardiac death too.) Circadian variation of blood-pressure. [Lancet. 1978] - PubMed Result

Cheez...thanks...great way to start a weekend...I'm going to my Dr. this afternoon, I just called him...he's also cardiovascular...thanks for scaring the bedevils out of me...

[not2late]

Re: EFA a question

I don't mean to scare you. It's just that 'you shouldn't judge a book by its cover'. There are thin people who come into this office with high cholesterols and high blood pressure. There are people who look athletic and are athletic with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and pre-renal failure. And we have non-athletic people or slightly obese people with low blood pressures, normal cholesterols and no health problems except their weight.

[neutronnorman]

Re: EFA a question

It's a good scare, if there's such a thing. At least you got my heart rate up over 130 bpm.... It's best for me to be prudent. I just took my bp and it was 112/71. I wonder if my sphygo at home is not working properly..the ones I use are in my office and lab, and they never give a high reading.. It's noon here in sunny, wonderful, cool and dry Miami...I'll keep you up to date...I'm cleaning up here and leaving now to my Dr...hope I make it there without dropping dead suddenly...

[not2late]

Re: EFA a question

It's a good scare, if there's such a thing. At least you got my heart rate up over 130 bpm.... It's best for me to be prudent. I just took my bp and it was 112/71. I wonder if my sphygo at home is not working properly..the ones I use are in my office and lab, and they never give a high reading.. It's noon here in sunny, wonderful, cool and dry Miami...I'll keep you up to date...I'm cleaning up here and leaving now to my Dr...hope I make it there without dropping dead suddenly...

It could be your sphyngomometer. It could be your technique too. We have a hard-back chair in the nurse's room to blood pressure taking because the guidelines say something like the person need to be seated upright, both feet fllat on the ground, etc. Also we have several different sizes of the cuffs because if the cuff is too small or too big the reading will be off. And for the really large people we have a thigh cuff that is wrapped around their arm.

[neutronnorman]

Re: EFA a question

Time to buy a new sphyngomometer. My bp was 107/71. MY EKG was okay and my arm hurts from the blood drawn. My resting heart rate was 70, but I'm sure my near fainting spell contributed to that.
He'll fax over to me my blood profile, which I will post.
Thanks Not2late for the advise and the nervous breakdown...seriously thanks. It put my mind at ease. Now, off to the gym I go. Then church......I need to light up some candles after this afternoon...