Question regarding high doses of fish oil

[Turismo]

Recently I downloaded the free Precision Nutrition starter pack being offered on their website and in this pack Dr,John Berardi reccomends taking a multi vitamin every day alongside 1gram of fish oil per percentage of body fat for the first 2 weeks before reducing it by half.

I'm interested in understanding his thought process in reccomending this and also looking for reassurances when it comes to avoiding some sort of vitamin toxicity as a consequence of consuming such high doses.

You see I'm relatively new to nutrition and when each of my fish oil capsules contain 100% of the otherwise reccomended A & D vitamins I have some concerns swallowing 20 of them right after a multivitamin!

Thanks in advance guys.

 

[Codger]

Could be wrong but I'd be surprised if there is hard science behind those recommendations. People like Beradi have to keep coming up with stuff to stay in business and so they make out they've got it all sorted out with figures on various nutrients. But as far as I'm aware, the science simply doesn't exist to come up with such specific figures. There isn't even any evidence saying that multivitamins are a good thing for most people: https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/more-evidence-that-routine-multivitamin-use-should-be-avoided/

The initial positive flurry of studies for fish oil have had the shine taken off them more recently. There is even one paper linking high fish oil intake to aggressive prostate cancer risk. It's probably safe but nobody can be 100% sure. It might have some health benefits.

Given that it's quite clear that nobody knows the full effects of any of these supplements long term, the only sensible path would appear to be to ignore any recommendations requiring you to take lots of pills or potions on a daily basis as there is no way they can be making those recommendations based on hard science rather than some speculation based on a few studies.

Others will disagree I'm sure.

 

[TheLuckiest]

That is a shit load of fat. Oil still has about 20% saturated fats. Just seems excessive.

 

[AWESOMEACE]

I don't understand the necessity of it personally. There are enough guys backing what they claim with actual peer reviewed articles that I am not going to just follow a suggestion of consuming 20 fish oil pills on a whim.

 

[grndzro]

Just make sure you get enough linolenic acid and Vitamin B3/B6 for the DGLA conversion and you won't need to worry about getting enough fish oil. Do that and take a couple FO pills and you will be fine.

 

[MacDuffle]

Vitamin B3 all day, son

 

[Curly Peibce]

Just another gimmick.

 

[HuMz]

So what is the final verdict about fish oil consumption and prostate cancer?

I found this article from mayo clinic that basically say the study did not prove anything.

Omega-3 and Prostate Cancer: Examining the Pertinent Evidence
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(13)01000-8/fulltext

 

[dat1978]

You sure you have that dosing correct?

 

[Demogoblin]

my friends dog swallowed a whole bottle of fish oill as a puppy and he survived i dont think anything will happen except you might get diaherra

 

[Codger]

So what is the final verdict about fish oil consumption and prostate cancer?

I found this article from mayo clinic that basically say the study did not prove anything.

Omega-3 and Prostate Cancer: Examining the Pertinent Evidence
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(13)01000-8/fulltext

Reading that it seems that O3 is the same as most foods - it "causes" and "cures" cancers to a very minor degree. I.e. as usual, eat sensible amounts and forget about it. No point in forcing loads down all the time.

IMO its supposedly positive effects on joint health are massively overblown. The scientific evidence looks weak and certainly my own experience bear that out.

 

[denmarker]

Just make sure you get enough linolenic acid and Vitamin B3/B6 for the DGLA conversion and you won't need to worry about getting enough fish oil. Do that and take a couple FO pills and you will be fine.

sorry how can i get enough linolenic acid and vit b3/b6?

 

[denmarker]

my friends dog swallowed a whole bottle of fish oill as a puppy and he survived i dont think anything will happen except you might get diaherra

such a large quantity in a day, the dog's body may have eject it...
but if a humand takes a large quantity day after day after day, may be a different story altogether

 

[blaseblah]

Could be wrong but I'd be surprised if there is hard science behind those recommendations. People like Beradi have to keep coming up with stuff to stay in business and so they make out they've got it all sorted out with figures on various nutrients. But as far as I'm aware, the science simply doesn't exist to come up with such specific figures. There isn't even any evidence saying that multivitamins are a good thing for most people: https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/more-evidence-that-routine-multivitamin-use-should-be-avoided/

I skimmed through this article and it looks like rubbish. Dude is basically arguing that multivitamins don't prevent cancer so shouldn't be used.

 

[Codger]

I skimmed through this article and it looks like rubbish. Dude is basically arguing that multivitamins don't prevent cancer so shouldn't be used.

Articles on Science Based Medicine are rarely "rubbish".

Whilst it it focuses on the fact that vitamins have no benefits for rates of cancer and heart disease (despite many claims made over the years that they do), it also covers other evidence, pointing to a lack of evidence of measurable health benefits in general for indiscriminate supplementation of multivitamins across the general population.

The blog, as the name suggests, is medically oriented and the author of the piece is a pharmacist. The general approach in medicine is do no harm - don't take stuff if you don't need to because almost anything has the capability of being harmful if taken in sufficient quantity or for long enough. There is evidence that some vitamins can increase disease rates so it's not like we're 100% sure taking those tablets every day for like 30 years is harmless. Therefore if there is insufficient evidence of benefit then they default to advising not to take them and rather to spend your time and money ensuring you have a decent diet.

 

[blaseblah]

Articles on Science Based Medicine are rarely "rubbish".

Whilst it it focuses on the fact that vitamins have no benefits for rates of cancer and heart disease (despite many claims made over the years that they do), it also covers other evidence, pointing to a lack of evidence of measurable health benefits in general for indiscriminate supplementation of multivitamins across the general population.

The blog, as the name suggests, is medically oriented and the author of the piece is a pharmacist. The general approach in medicine is do no harm - don't take stuff if you don't need to because almost anything has the capability of being harmful if taken in sufficient quantity or for long enough. There is evidence that some vitamins can increase disease rates so it's not like we're 100% sure taking those tablets every day for like 30 years is harmless. Therefore if there is insufficient evidence of benefit then they default to advising not to take them and rather to spend your time and money ensuring you have a decent diet.

Who the fuck claims vitamins can cure cancer? Source that shit because that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

 

[Codger]

Who the fuck claims vitamins can cure cancer? Source that shit because that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

Well they do actually, do a google search if you really want to know. Here's one I found in 2 seconds that has the phrase "prevent or cure cancer" in it: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...dont-have-a-cure-for-cancer-yet-or-do-we.aspx - filled the usual FDA/Big Pharma conspiracy crap as one might expect.

But that isn't what I said. I never mentioned curing cancer. I think you really ought to read the entire article and understand what it's actually saying before getting too worked up.

 

[The Audience]

Re fish oil..according to Chris Kresser, youre better off eating a few portions of oily fish a week rather than getting them from supplements because the healthy oils degrade very easily and can be harmful if they oxidise too much.

 

[miaou]

I skimmed through this article and it looks like rubbish. Dude is basically arguing that multivitamins don't prevent cancer so shouldn't be used.

::gets a reasonable, well-thought-out reply::

Who the fuck claims vitamins can cure cancer? Source that shit because that's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard.

::gets another reasonable reply along with a link from a popular source::

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...never writes back.