Posted by JLx on August 24, 2007, at 11:38:04
In reply to Re: fish oil side effects: acne + other changes, posted by chinablue on August 24, 2007, at 10:11:24
> Hi JLx:
>
> so have you had no problems with acne taking natural factors?Not like I did with other brands. I'm a middle aged woman and shouldn't be having problems with acne in the first place, I thought! So I don't know how normal it is to have even the occasional small pimple, which is all I have now. Which may be due to some hormonal fluctuation or whatever totally unrelated to the fish oil.
I have yet to see a possible explanation as to why fish oil may exacerbate acne. I never would have noticed the connection if I hadn't read of it on this board. If we knew the why...
The different brand being helpful suggests to me that it may be something to do with impurities. Natural Factors is a Canadian company who states on their website that, "All of our products undergo rigorous testing at all levels of the production process in accordance with United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) guidelines. Our manufacturing is done according to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) guidelines laid out and regulated by the Health Protection Branch (HPB) of Health Canada. Factors Laboratories also follows Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) guidelines."
Prior to Natural Factors I was using my local supermarket brand or NOW brand. They say to open an capsule and see if it smells rancid. I did that but wasn't sure if I was smelling just fish oil or rancid fish oil.
If fish oil was working for you, then it was the EPA/DHA that was doing that; taking a capsule with higher EPA/DHA volume will decrease your number of capsules and overall volume of the oil itself. Perhaps that alone will help -- to simply take less. It's possible too that waiting it out a bit may lessen the acne side effects.
There are other fish oils with a even higher amount of EPA/DHA, btw. Omega-Brite has the highest EPA to DHA ratio capsules, but they are more expensive. Country Life has a higher one too and if I remember correctly, so does Nordic Naturals. There may be others since I've researched this a while back. I settled on Natural Factors as it seemed a good compromise of EPA per capsule for the price.
JL
poster:JLx
thread:777929
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20070816/msgs/778311.html