Good brands / fish oil
 

Could someone please tell me what are decent supplement brands I can get at the drug store or health food store? I don't want to order them online.

I am interested in fish oil and don't want to end up with something so gross I can't use it. Also CoQ 10 and any other anti-inflammatoriess anyone may know about. (I am using turmeric).

thanks :)
judi

Krill oil would probably be better for you... no fishy burps etc.

We use MegaRed...and get it at Costco. 2 a day.

We find them just a good as fish oil. Hubby likes them better too.

Thanks, I would not like fishy burps. Does it have the same anti inflammatory properties as fish oil? I found fish oil recommended for COPD inflammation.

thanks
judi

Krill oil is better absorbed. So you need less. It has to do with
the phospholipids in the product which enable absorption.

It will act in the body the same way, EPA and DHA are in it also.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2...-oil/index.htm

We switched to Krill oil about 2 yrs ago. At Costco the cost is much less than retail pharmacies. Amazon also has competitive prices.

This is the link to the original size capsule:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012G5YMK

There is a new extra one out now too.

The MegaRed at Kroger's was really a high price, though!

I use Pure Encapsulations brand.

I heard from a well known nutritionist in my area that Carlson Brand is very good.

A long time ago, I saw on the Dr. Oz show a person who had studied Fish Oils. The take away from it, was that there were only two brands of Fish Oils that this person and the verifying agency he represented would accept as "good."

They were checking the amounts of nutrients the label said would be in the tablets and they were checking for impurities. There were only TWO that this expert claimed were acceptable...which was rather shocking (I think).

I can NOT remember both names. However, one name was Life Extension. Since this weird little segment on the Dr. Oz show, I only buy my Fish Oil from The Life Extension (LEF) Company. I personally have not experienced the "fish burps."

I use LEF for some of my supplements also. Great company. My doctors use several brands for supplements, just depends which one. LEF is used by them also.

Sally B... I ADORE your "healing" icon/photo!!!!!!

I have heard from many that LEF is a good company. I am picking and choosing which items I buy from them due to the cost. I wish I could remember more about the expert on the show.

What I do recall is that he was adamant that LEF and the other brand (the one i cant recall) were the only truly exceptional brands when it came to fish oil.

Dr. Oz has mentioned Krill oil in a favorable way. Not sure if he focused on a brand.

I guess for me... That segment I saw on LEF stood out strongly.

Thanks everyone. I planned to try some Krill but when I read the package it mentioned allergic responses and I have been getting worse so decided to try the fish oil first until I recover some adrenal/immune function as I just cut back my stupid inhaled steroids (again) because I started retaining water and my blood pressure went up on the wretched stuff.

I know the good stuff is better but I decided to dip my toe in the water as the it is kind of expensive so got some cheap Safeway brand on sale as it was buy one get one free so I got CoQ10 too.

I didn't really expect anything with the first dose besides disgusting fish taste but :Dancing-Chilli: Awhile after I took it I felt like someone had oiled my poor old arthritic joints and poured soothing oil on my inflamed lungs. It was not a placebo effect. There is a steep driveway at one entrance of my apartment and I generally have to stop and catch my breath twice when I come up. I wasn't paying attention and walked up the whole way without stopping. Afterward I looked up some research concerning F Oil and COPD and it said it increases distance on the little walk test we do. It worked!

I will definitely be willing to spend more for the better brands next time. I read the cheap ones have their phospholipids stripped out so will try to take it with food that has that. I don't know what else those brands lack.

Does it help nerve function? I don't have much neuropathy pain anymore but I am still numb and have a little pain and it seemed to help that too. It seemed to be something my body really needs.

The CoQ10 was a bust however. I didn't take any fish oil and tried that today and it was just not good for my muscle/nerves or my breathing.

Thanks again. I am going to write down all the brands and maybe try krill too. I really hate fish but there is a fish market near me and I'm tempted to go buy some salmon even though I dislike that too.

judi

CoQ-10 is very slow in onset. You may need weeks or months to see improvements.

Fish oil doesn't work that fast either. I had substantial improvements in asthma and GERD within 3 months on fish oil.

If you had such fast results on fish oil, you must be very LOW in Omega-3's. This supplement is necessary for repair, and in some cases will brake inflammation. But it is not a drug or fast acting for the most part.

I am so glad you felt better. I bet that made you happy!

If you have a doctor that knows about supplements, you can ask about NAC and lung function. I take it daily for glutathione and so many reasons.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2706612/

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2010/...ysteine_01.htm

Thank you!

cat breath
 

Well I took it again today and I really did get the effect I thought, my joints and lungs both felt good and I really can walk further without desaturating. I hope it continues to have more of an effect.

Mrs D, I don't know why I can feel it, I wouldn't believe it either. I usually can feel things like that. It may be part of my hypersensitivity issues, I had a bronchospasm at the grocery store the other day in the bread isle from the bread smell . I've been having some airway inflammation I can feel and turmeric takes that away like an aspirin takes care of a headache. Or maybe I got too many genes from my Norwegian ancestors who probably ate a lot of fish and I need more Omega 3s. :)

Flovent can cause all of this as a side effect and I'm trying to use other forms of anti-inflammatories and wean off it. I don't know if I will be successful, I've been on it for a long time. They have pretty much concluded COPD is a systemic autoimmune disease, we switch on inflammatory genes by smoking and they don't shut down when we stop. They say they don't know what the long term effects of Flovent are and I think a few of us are worse off for it. I started having frank inflammation last fall and pulmo upped dose of it and it suppressed it but never really resolved it and I'm fed up.

Sally, I have some NAC, I just took one in fact. It is used mostly for congestion which I don't have but it also helps me when I get short of breath and twitchy airways in the evening.

OK so what do I do about the cat breath? :eek: I haven't had any fish burps but I get kind of an oily feeling in my mouth and later a very bad taste reminds me of that horrid breath cats get sometimes. Is it my cheap brand? I don't taste fish but when I drank a glass of water it smelled like lake water so I'm sure it was my breath. :p

thanks,
judi

Take the fish oil with food. As your body utilizes it, and fixes your stomach and intestinal linings, the fishy burps or other symptoms usually go away.

Many people are very low in Omega-3's. It is amazing how poor our American diet is in this regard.

You can get Omega-3s now in several smart foods. Smart Balance is one company that provides palatable foods with Omega-3's in them. We even get Chicken nuggets at Costco made in Canada with them in there. Even Jif is now making an Omega-3 peanut butter!

Krill oil typically has no symptoms. Some fish oils are enteric coated now, to dissolve in the small intestine.

Keep it up though, as it appears you really need them acutely.

As Mrs D said, you can add a lot into your diet also. I LOVE salmon!!! I agree, eat when you take the fish supplement.

Thanks, I really hope it continues to work. It must just fit with my particular kind of inflammation. Its weird, it and turmeric both cause a little neuropathy flare up but not too bad. It must all be immune related somehow.

It is the enteric coated kind, someone said it helped to put it in the freezer?

I used to use Smart Balance but it made my popcorn 'melt' and I started to wonder what was in it that did that. :eek: I am just paranoid about the junk in our food supply and was suspicious of my fish oil but it appears to have been made in Canada and says it distilled the mercury, pcb,s etc out so hope its ok.

If anyone knows of any more supplements that are good for inflammation please let me know.

thanks
judi

Well, probably not as powerful/important as what you have already mentioned (fish oil, etc,), but I have heard good things re fighting inflammation and immune system enhancement from: Quercetin, Bromelain and Vit C. And Solaray makes a tablet with all three in it. Something I'm trying out now....just recently.

There is really no reason you can't use butter anyway...

All of the "substitute" spreads, have more water in them than butter does. This is to lower calories, etc and be less fatty.

That is why the popcorn gets "wet" and soggy.

I don't use butter or spreads much. I eat my veggies plain.
I cook with ghee now, and that works very well, when stir frying
or cooking up pierogis etc.(I don't have these often tho).
A little jar of ghee lasts me a year in frig. ;)

I find cooking veggies properly conserves their flavors well.

If I have toast I put peanut butter on it. (smart balance )

Butter is made from milk and cream and some salt if it is salted. Nothing else. Spreads like Oleo have a whole lot of other ingredients in them. Oleo has 70 - 80 calories in a Tablespoon of it and butter has 100 calories per Tablespoon. I'll stick with butter. Whatever a person wants.

I had to back off the fish oil for a little while as it seemed to be triggering ICS side effects in addition to helping. I just had an Echo and my heart is fine but I have been retaining water which seems to be associated with the Flovent. I do have some pulmonary hypertension which could be the root cause but I if I take a lower dose of Flovent I retain very little so I will blame the med as that is a listed S/E. :D So after I took the fish oil for a few days I started having edema at a dose of ICS that I previously tolerated. So I have changed to Qvar and am getting used to it and seeing how low I can go before I add fish oil again. Do you think there is an actual interaction that could be a problem? I read that fish oil also suppresses the immune response. I am pretty sure that ICS are causing actual airway inflammation (listed as a common side effect) so am hoping to take very little and use fish oil instead. Stupid drugs....:mad: I can actually breathe better without them but get inflammation and I don't know if that is COPD inflammation or rebound from the ICS.

I found material that said around 30% of people of European descent are not able to convert short chain fatty acids to long chain very effectively so have a hard time getting Omega 3s from plants. One set of my great grandparents came from Norway where they lived on fish and snow (haha). My grandfather and several of his brothers had early heart attacks (40s), he survived but 3 brothers did not. His children, including my mother took medication for hypertension so had no significant heart problems but all developed Alzheimers. I think I probably need that fish oil.

I know about quercitin, bromelin and Vit C. I take some additional C and it does help but I get mouth sores if I take too much. I haven't taken the supplement but I have seen the brand you mentioned. I do run apples through the chopper for quercitin and eat it with chunks of pineapple and ground cloves. Very tasty. I read that onion skins are a good source too so I put some in the broth when I make soup or stew and they add a nice flavor as well. (Not too much they are bitter) Onion tea with a little skin actually tastes fine but it really makes the house smell and I probably reek of onion too so I don't do it much.

All of the antioxidents work, I can feel it, but the problem is they aren't very stable and the effect doesn't last long enough. The actual supplements might be better. Fish Oil is the best thing I have found so far.

thanks
judi

After I had 4 stents put in back in 2007-2008 my cardiologists prescribed a fish oil called Lovaza..I think the caps were 500 mg, and it was the only fish oil approved by the FDA. It was around $70.00 plus for a thirty days supply. I took it for about a year and then stopped because of the expense, and I found an alternative at the local health food store. It also seemed to help with joint stiffness. Some of these are the triclyceride form (don't know exactly what that means at the moment) of fish oil. I had to take them with food because they made me burp fishiness.

What brand did you find at the Health Food store? Mine is supposed to be coated to dissolve in the intestine and it doesn't seem to cause fish burps but some time after I take it my mouth tastes like cat breath and when I drink water I smell fishy lake water, I assume that is my breath. :eek:

judi