Help with Omega 3

[DanielsMom]

???I have to decided to increase my sons Omega 3 intake. My question is, which is better? Fish oil, flax oil or flax seeds? Also, my son is 8 yrs. and is 52 lbs. How much of fish or flax oil would he need to take?

[catatonic]

Both have their merits, but both work a little differently.

With flax oil, you are providing Omega-3 in the short-chain fatty acid form which your body will then need to utilize to build the long-chain DHA, which is the end-product. As long as you can do this effectively, flax oil will work fine for you. Typical dose is 1 Tbsp per day of oil and between 3 and 6 Tbsp per day of the seeds.

Fish oil provides long-chain fatty acids that the body doesn't have to do a lot of work on -- DHA and its immediate precursor EPA which is also long-chain.

This is a trade-off. When you provide the building blocks, your body has the opportunity to insure that it creates what it needs. When you provide the end-product, it's immediately available (a big plus for those whose bodies don't carry out the building process effectively) but you're going to lose some to the gut via the digestive process.

We use fish oil simply because that's what works the best for us. We don't use the concentrated type where you get the required amount of DHA with very little excess EPA in there, because my son does poorly on it. We use a pretty basic and inexpensive fish oil that provides, per capsule, 120mg of DHA and 180mg of EPA. My son (who is 9 and weighs 85 pounds) takes 4 of these capsules each day, 2 in the morning and 2 in the evening. This is what works for him.

[DanielsMom]

thanks for your help, I got him the fish oil and started it today. Hope it helps!

[catatonic]

Way to go! I hope it helps, too.

Just a reminder not to expect immediate results with the fish oil. Researchers have concluded that it takes 10-12 weeks to correct a fatty acid deficiency. In our experience, it didn't take nearly that long. We saw the turning point at about 6 weeks.

Vitamin supplements along with the fish oil greatly increase your chances of success. I'd recommend using a number of things along with the Omega-3, which I'll be happy to post if you are interested. If you do nothing else,

ADD MAGNESIUM.

This is critically important to the brain's use of neurotransmitters. If your son is 52 pounds, you ought to give him 300mg daily. If you find magnesium tablets that come in 200mg or 250mg increments, go ahead and use 2 because it won't hurt. Only side effects associated with high magnesium intake are loose bowels, which seems to be a bigger problem if you are using chewables.

I'm wishing you all the success you could possible hope for!!!

Cat