15 replies to this topic

[lordbaal1009]

Yesterday I started taking 12 capsules of EPA XTRA and 6 capsules of DHA XTRA from nordic naturals. This gives me around 12 grams of omega 3 a day and abundant EPA/DHA. I also started taking 5 grams of creatine yesterday. This morning I woke up feeling a bit wierd; my brain felt weird. It was very cloudy, hard to move my eyes (they felt sore as well), and I felt this phenonmenon in my head that I can't explain. It felt like a rush of blood or what ever to my frontal lobes. I noticed absolutely no benefits besides dealing with stress better (this is probably a placebo, and don't get me wrong, I don't expect any benefits two days in lol).... So what's up? I tried searching the internet but couldn't find anything about this? I also smoke around 4-5 cigarettes a day. I know that omega 3 thins the blood and cigarettes thicken the blood. Could this be messing me up?


Thanks guys and sorry for my bad grammar - English is not my first language!

Edited by lordbaal1009, 07 November 2012 - 10:36 PM.

[norepinephrine]

I'd be very doubtful in concluding that fish oil had that immediate of an effect. There's most likely some other variable lurking in the background to explain your symptoms.

[pamojja]

May I rather ask: What the heck you did with the fish oil??

Why this huge dose without gradually get your body used to such unusual doses? Are you aware how supra-natural amounts of fish you would have to eat to get 12 gram of pure EPA/DHA content? That is, if you really mean 12 gram of EPA/DHA, and not the fish oil which only has 30-60% of EPA/DHA. What benefits did you expect from shocking your system that way?

I understand that there are benefits in high doses of fish oil in certain conditions, but they usually come with higher Omega-3 content in your body which takes many months and patience to develop. Omega-3 is very oxidation prone - did you take precaution to have your system soaked in antioxidants to prevent possible damage?

[lordbaal1009]

I'd be very doubtful in concluding that fish oil had that immediate of an effect. There's most likely some other variable lurking in the background to explain your symptoms.

I see what you are saying but I didn't take any other supplement before in a long time.

May I rather ask: What the heck you did with the fish oil??

Why this huge dose without gradually get your body used to such unusual doses? Are you aware how supra-natural amounts of fish you would have to eat to get 12 gram of pure EPA/DHA content? That is, if you really mean 12 gram of EPA/DHA, and not the fish oil which only has 30-60% of EPA/DHA. What benefits did you expect from shocking your system that way?

I understand that there are benefits in high doses of fish oil in certain conditions, but they usually come with higher Omega-3 content in your body which takes many months and patience to develop. Omega-3 is very oxidation prone - did you take precaution to have your system soaked in antioxidants to prevent possible damage?

I understand that and would like to mention that it was never my purpose to shock my body. I hate to say but I never really looked at it that way. What should I expect when I shock my body with that much omega 3 considering I don't ever eat fish nor have supplemented with omega 3 in a long time. I guess you can say I should expect it?

Either way I'm not stopping this and will see what happens in two weeks.

[hippocampus]

Jeez, why such a high dose??? Start with 1-2 capsules a day and eat real fish (they have some other brain nutrients, like zinc, magnesium, b-vitamins and so on ...) three times a week. Better spend money on real quality food. I don't know what do you want to achieve. Even if you take 12 grams a day, this doesn't mean your body will absorb all of it and it doesn't mean it will get in your membranes much faster (it will probably be somewhat faster, but not 6-12 times faster like you would think according to dose).
Anyway, I also get a strange reaction with higher dose of fish oil - I get a headache (and if I take fish oil with EPA/DHA ratio 1:2 I feel strange, like confused and depressed, the opposite with 3:2 ratio) - it's probably because of vasodilation/blood thining. Just start with slow doses. Too much of a good thing is bad.

[Bemiller16]

What an extraordinary dose of fish oil! The fish oil I take (from Vitacost) is 800mg EPA and 400mg DHA which is a larger dose than most other fish oil supplemental pills I've seen. The symptoms you experience are odd, but since your brain has no pain receptors and can't perceive sensations, I doubt you were experiencing the feeling of blood rushing around your brain. It's possible that your body was just reacting to a large dose of fat. Also, it's important to take fish oil with food to help facilitate the digestion process.

[hippocampus]

lol yeah, brain doesn't have pain receptors, so headache doesn't exist? of course it is possible, he is getting headache from vazodilation, it's a common side effect of brain vasodilators, like vinpocetine, ginkgo and of course fish oil. maybe even garlic for some.

[Bemiller16]

lol yeah, brain doesn't have pain receptors, so headache doesn't exist? of course it is possible, he is getting headache from vazodilation, it's a common side effect of brain vasodilators, like vinpocetine, ginkgo and of course fish oil. maybe even garlic for some.

Oh sorry I wasn't implying the headache was fabricated, I was more under the impression that one could not feel blood moving around the brain.

[hippocampus]

I was saying that one could feel the blood moving around the brain. Meaning exactly like that - around the brain, not in the brain.

[Bemiller16]

I understand now

[Anewlife]

When I was on 12g of fish oil a day I noticed my eyes were slow to refocus on things, this gradually went away after a couple months.

I dont think you should take more than 6 grams per day and eventually reduce it to just 1 after a few months.

[nowayout]

Large quantities of fish oil are not healthy. A lot of guys on a fitness forum I participate in are complaining that fish oil takes away their libido.

[Thorsten3]

Fish oil won't destroy your libido if you keep it in sensible dosages. It enhances it, in lower dosages, in my experience.

Fish oil isn't necessarily healthy anyway. It's a polyunsaturated fat, which is highly unstable. When it comes into contact with heat of any source (yes, including the human body), it will oxidize and create free radicals. Hyper dosing fish oil each day will probably age you faster, and maybe even put you at risk of certain diseases, if you follow this protocol over a number of years. Always buy the best quality fish oil, especially fish oil that is sold with vitamin E (an antioxidant that helps neutralize the free radical assault, but in all probabability, doesn't really get rid of the damage that would ensue, as the protective barrier would probably depend on current levels of vitamin E, not those that are being ingested, so keep it topped up).

Of course, there are benefits to taking n3s in easily absorbable EFA/DHA format, hence I keep the dose fairly low at 2g per day. If I went totally raw and organic I would skip the fish oil supplementaion all together. The real reason omega3 is beneficial to people is because their diets are awful, and they eat too much omega6 (which is antagonistic to omega3).

Edited by Thorsten2, 24 December 2012 - 08:56 PM.

[purpleblue]

I'd be very doubtful in concluding that fish oil had that immediate of an effect. There's most likely some other variable lurking in the background to explain your symptoms.

 

Yes, you are 100% correct. Omega-3 (EPA/DHA) would NOT cause the negative effects that the guy asked.

BUT, you and we must look at the product he is taking, because some products have other ingredients in them, even other omega's such as omega-6 / omega 9/ vitamins  /etc.

 

Again, while DHA/EPA would NOT cause the negative effects, the other omega's (6 & 9) and or added vits would be causing the negative effects.

 

 

Example:
- I was taking a Omega 3 supplement (fish oil) for a couple of months, BUT this product included other omegas in high enough amounts (Omega 6 & 9, and maybe others). I then took 2 tea spoons of it, and within 10 minutes I started to feel really dizzy,awful,etc.

 

But another time, I was taking a different omega 3 product (and this only included the omega-3' DHA/EPA and 'other omega-3's but the other 'omega-3's were in very small mg. ), anyway I took a high dosage of that, and experienced no problems. (the issue is, this product was EXTREMELY over priced. like, totally. and like there was no point to continue to use it as it was way over priced for what you got)

 

 

So its not that Omega-3 (EPA/DHA) cause bad effects. ITS THE OTHER Omega's such as Omega-9,etc in the product that would cause the bad effects.

Edited by purpleblue, 23 August 2014 - 08:31 PM.

[Luxflux]

I am not sure about your problem, but fish oil for me had an immediate effect when I took it for the first time some years ago. When I say immediate, I mean, literally within 30 minutes of taking it I noticed extreme differences in my cognition, specifically accompanied by light, pleasant throbbing in the frontal lobe area of my head. If you're lucky you really need fish oil like I did. Try lowering the dosage.

[redFishBlueFish]

Large quantities of fish oil are not healthy. A lot of guys on a fitness forum I participate in are complaining that fish oil takes away their libido.

 

I wish I knew this as a teenager. But I have discovered 1G a day is enough. Anything more and I start having anger issues, it's odd. I've discovered proper hydration helps a ton. When I was drinking half a gallon a day, my external problems were gone and thinking was pretty easy.