Posted by Ed O`Flaherty on April 1, 2004, at 3:54:40
In reply to Re: Alternative approaches that can cause mania? » Ed O`Flaherty, posted by hundredhugs on March 31, 2004, at 5:45:19
> Ed,
>
> After reading your website (which I found very informative), I am confused as to what amount of omega 3 fish oil to try...1 or 5 for bipolar?
>
> Thanks again,
> HundredhugsThe dose used by Stoll in his famous article in Archives of General Psychiatry in 1999 was 9.6g of fish oil daily.This is the total of EPA and DHA,not the actual weight of the capsules themselves.Typically 1000mg capsules contain 180mg of EPA and 120 DHA giving 300 mg of omega-3.In that case the dose would be 9.6 divided by 0.3 giving you 32 capsules per day.In practice a much smaller amount of about 5g works for many,so if you start on 9.6g then reduce it quite soon if you feel well.Do not come off the medication prescribed by your psychiatrist-simply add the fish oil. If you have symptoms of pyroluria as described on my site then omega-3 would probably not be a good idea.Neither would it be a good idea if you have a blood clotting problem.Stoll favors high concentration of EPA such as Omegabrite (www.omegabrite.com)as the best type of fish oil.I think it is worthwhile doing tests for kryptopyrroles and histamine as described on my site for bipolar as well as schizophrenic and even depressed patients as there appears to be different biochemical types not recognised by most psychiatrists-I am a family doctor in Ireland and not a psychiatrist.The pyrolurics do well on zinc, primrose oil and vit B6.Many rapid cycling bipolar patients in particular are pyroluric and the change seen in some cases is dramatic.
poster:Ed O`Flaherty
thread:330460
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040225/msgs/331170.html