# How many mg of fish oil to take a day?



## pikindaguy (Nov 21, 2004)

I can't really find any information on the "recommended" dosage out there. How many grams do you guys usually take to feel the effects..though I realize it can take a while before they set in.


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## Panic Prone (Mar 5, 2006)

take 6-8 grams a day if you really wanna feel the postive effects of fish oil. I reccomend going to sam's club or a costcos and get the highest grade fish oil caps you can get. It's a lot cheaper there and they work good.


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## limited (Apr 3, 2006)

Go research some studies regarding fish oil, and look at what the subjects were given.. There are so many available.. here is one.

_A 2001 study of 70 depressed patients who had not responded to other treatments were randomized into three groups taking different doses of refined EPA (one, two, or four grams a day) or a placebo. Six of the 52 patients on the EPA dropped out before 12 weeks. The one gram group did "dramatically better" than the placebo group, but surprisingly the two and four gram groups fared only modestly better than the placebo group. Much higher doses (eight to 10 gm/day) have been found effective in treating bipolar._

The important thing to look out for is not the amount of fish oil, but rather the amount of Omega-3 Fatty Acids - DHA docosahexaenoic acid - EPA eicosapentaenoic acid.

The current brand of fish oil i take has 300mg of DHA/EPA combined per capsule. I am currently experimenting with nine capsules a day (2.7g EPA/DHA).

I started out taking 6 capsules (1.8g) ( and saw an immediate benefit in my mood. Almost felt like i was on a high... could just be an initial placebo effect.

The important thing is to stay with it, I am going to hopefully make this a life long supplement.


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## Panic Prone (Mar 5, 2006)

limited said:


> The important thing is to stay with it, I am going to hopefully make this a life long supplement.


That's the biggest thing with fish oil. Stop taking it and you no longer get the benifets. It's something you have to take consistantly for awhile and one day you will notice better mood, stabilty, concentration will all come up.


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## pikindaguy (Nov 21, 2004)

Is there a difference in effects between taking them all at once, say in the morning, or splitting the dosages up during the day?


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## jasonz (Apr 11, 2004)

experienced it for months and it seems to work best when taking it when you are bout to retired for the day and take it also when u just woke up.


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## Caedmon (Dec 14, 2003)

pikindaguy said:


> Is there a difference in effects between taking them all at once, say in the morning, or splitting the dosages up during the day?


Some people take them with breakfast because they find it stimulating. (Not me.)

I do prefer to take it with fatty meals, generally in proportion to how fatty it was. If I just had 3 slices of pizza (or more... :hide) then I gulp down a handful of fish oil totalling perhaps 1.8 grams. If I had yogurt, maybe just .3g or none.

I personally follow a general rule nowadays of consuming 1 milligram of fish oil for every 1 calorie I consume. So, since I usually eat about 2700 calories, I eat about 2700 milligrams of fish oil (2.7 grams). I base this on the *theoretical *notion that a balance of fatty acids is optimal, but I generally don't keep track of how many omega-3 fatty acids I eat in a day (do you?).


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## microbe (Apr 3, 2006)

I used to take it for just cardiovascular health, because my parents both have heart problems. I never found any noticeable difference, but it can't hurt.


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