Mari, we have been taking Nutriex fish oil supplements for awhile now, and are pleased and will continue to order this brand. We take one 2x daily, which provides 700 mg of EPA, but I personally wouldn't have a problem with taking more if needed, and I have not only an aversion to anything that tastes or smells even remotely fishy, but fish phobia as well. So I think that says a lot about the ability of these gel caps to go down nicely.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nutriex Omega 3 Fish Oil

We take six of these a day (two give you 360 epa): the Carlson salmon oil capsules available many places. they don't disagree with any of us. I also take --well, let's just say many--supplements/meds as well per day and these don't bug me. Have you tried these yet?

I agree with you on the 'lemon flavored' -- UGH! They disagree with me and do it even more disagreeably because of the 'lemon'. UGH.

(And re the natural vs. pharma: I am in that quandary wrt cyclobenzaprin for sleep at night -- the valerian mixture from nat foods shop works just as well but it's WAY more expensive, so off I trot to the pharmacy for my prescription refill)

Mari, another possibility may be one of the Nordic Naturals products. I gag on fish IRL or in capsule form. I just have a thing about fish in general. I just can't stand the smell of fish. This brand doesn't smell fishy to me in the bottle, and there is no aftertaste that I can detect. It is flavored with lemon, but it's not lemony. In fact, I forgot it even had lemon flavoring until you mentioned it and I looked at my bottle.

I take the NN Ultimate Omega. Two caps provide only 650 mg of EPA, so that wouldn't be the best option for you but they have other options. Browsing through their website, I see that they have something called EPA Xtra that has 530mg of EPA per capsule. That one would still run you $40 a month if you buy it from the NN website but you could try to find them elsewhere for less. The one that I take costs $27.95 on the NN website, but the GNC website offers it at the 'regular' price of $27.95 and 'gold card' price of $22.36. I didn't see the the EPA Xtra offered on the GNC website, but I wonder if you could have your local store or a similar store order it for you at similar savings.

Here is a link that might be useful: Nordic Naturals

I like Costco's brand--Kirkland Signature Fish Oil Omega 3. I believe each gel has 300 mg of EPA. It has no fishy taste whatsoever. I did a little research on the Costco site and everyone said there wasn't a fishy taste so I tried them and there's not.

Mine aren't small but I can get them down and they don't make burps. They only contain 300 mg of EPA. It was important to me to that they are molecularly distilled to remove PCBs and come from tiny fish (sardines and anchovies) which are likely to have concentrated less mercury into their short-lived fishy bodies.

They are Trader Joe's brand.

P.S. I believe supplements fall under the pre-tax health/dependent care flexible spending benefit/account that many employers provide. I'm sure you know that, Mari, but someone else may not.

There is one that is available as a prescription

jamies, only if they're prescribed by a doctor. Which mari could make happen, but I haven't bothered to yet. Maybe I should. Although what with one thing or another, we've already maxed out our flex spending for the year. (one thing being a complete RIP-OFF by the place that does mammagrams--every time I think about how they cost me $275 pre-tax dollars just because they *could* I get steamed. I will take my mammagram business elsewhere next time. but that's just a digression.)

that would be mamm*o*gram. UGH. I'm too busy. Sorry. Don't type it often, don't like to think about it, feel ripped off...etc...

It *should* be mamma-gram. Or mom-o-gram.

This is where I check before I buy a supplement. They test popular brands and approve or dissaprove them according to weather they have the claimed amounts.

Here is a link that might be useful: list of approved supplements

BUy ours at Costco -- no fishy taste at all!

Jan

This is interesting. Last month my doctor put me on it for my cholesterol. I hardly take it. Oops. But I had no idea it helps with moods.

Can you all really say it helps in that regard? Mine is 1000mg a day. My pharmacist takes the same thing.

According to the bottle, each Omega 3 has 300mg each. Do I need to take more or is this the right amount?

I'd sure like to hear some testimonials about moods! lol I've been really down in the dumps lately, I'm not used to my "new" house yet for some odd reason. It could be the heat of the summer though.

judiegal- which fish oil supplements were the top rated?

According to the bottle, each Omega 3 has 300mg each. Do I need to take more or is this the right amount?

There are two components to the Omega 3 in fish oil - EPA and DHA. For adults, EPA is more important. I know that Costco has changed the labeling for their fish oil and only lists the total Omega 3 content, but in the past when they broke it down it was 180mg EPA and 120mg DHA. So if you want to reach the 1000mg mark for EPA you need to take 6 capsules. I highly recommend that you check out the website I linked to above, FattyAcidTrip.com.

terri, you were so right on with hoops I'm considering buying our fish oil from TJ's now. I'm only concerned about heavy metals in it, though -- do you know whether it's 'pharmaceutical grade' and heavy-metals-free? The Carlsons definitely is.

And thanks, jamies :) Yes, it should be Mama-gram :)(although honestly I was thinking of mammary glands, so mammagram...but I should have remembered.)

I don't know about heavy metals in the Trader Joes fish oil, but it is "molecularly distilled".

terriks - am I missing something? I went to that site and it concluded:

However, the current study and collective body of research do not provide the level of evidence necessary to recommend fish oil to improve mood, whether for the management of psychological distress or major depression.

Graywings, there are many more studies on the site, including quite a few on Omega 3s and mood, such as this one titledEPA Proves to be a Viable Alternative to Prozac.

Thanks--I'll go look at them today. Might even write their PR dept. I wrote them before about something and they responded (a while later, though).

Thanks, all. I actually love many kinds of fish but it's an inefficient and expensive way to get the job done. I just can't hack fish burps.

I'm VERY familiar with the Fatty Acid Trip website - great site. My psychiatrist (a psychopharmacologist) has been using EPA, among other supplements, in concert with the pharmaceuticals for some years with good results. He and another one of my doctors tend to prefer "cocktails" of multiple meds and supplements in combination - gettin' synergistic and all that, duuude - rather than the usual "one pill fits all" approach. Unfortunately, this can get a tad spendy (most of it is extremely cheap but a few... argh), and our FSA ran dry a couple of months ago.

Sadly, we have neither Costco nor Trader Joes (boooo!!!) here.

The prescription Omega-3 supplement is Lovaza (prescribed along with a "statin" for extremely high triglycerides) and more and more insurance companies will not pay for it because "the same thing" is available OTC, and you usually don't have a leg to stand on to argue it unless you DO have sky-high trigs. It's not any better than any of the OTC products and it's even more expensive. (But, as a basis of comparison, the amount of EPA in Lovaza is 1860mg/day.)

anntique, I'll make some calls about the Nordic Naturals EPA Xtra, thank you. Two capsules I could handle.

flyleft, I have not tried the Carlsons because the potency just wasn't high enough - I just didn't look at anything under 500mg/capsule. I miscalculated... there are 25 things on my med/supp. list (I had just looked at my list when I wrote the above), but a bunch of those are multiple pills a a day. There are a few other supplements to be added as well (fairly easy ones though) so the very notion of gagging down SIX more horse pills is enough to make me scream.

And hey, they can't be called mom-o-grams, because those of us who don't have kids have to do the squishage too! (I had the joy of my baseline this year, which means LOTS of pictures and LOTS of mashing and more than a bit of unpleasantness.)

And hey, they can't be called mom-o-grams, because those of us who don't have kids have to do the squishage too! (I had the joy of my baseline this year, which means LOTS of pictures and LOTS of mashing and more than a bit of unpleasantness.)

Did your facility have digital mammography? I have to say that the digital is waaaay better and faster than the old way.

Yeah, it was digital, but if that was way better and faster than the old way than I am thanking the Goddess with all my heart that I didn't have to do the old way. About ten minutes in I was wishing they'd just yank the d@mn things off, do whatever they needed to do, and put them back on when they were done. The tech was very nice about it and apologized a lot but it still really sucked.

Yeah, mari, I thought of that after I posted. How mom-centric of me. Silly. The trouble that one simple misspelling can cause!

Oh, all is forgiven, flyleft. I was joshing anyway, although I'd gladly forgo that particular event if not having kids meant I could - not my idea of entertainment!

*chuckle* The joys of fibrobrain and pain meds and too little sleep... I just glanced back at the bit above where I said I wished the mammo tech had just taken the relevant parts off to do their thing with them and the King Missile song "Detachable P&n!s" popped into my head, although it was playing in my head as "Detachable B**bies". (Had to look that up, for some reason I thought it was Primus. Not quite my taste in music but I used to work with some chefs who played really weird stuff in the kitchen during prep time. They introduced me to They Might Be Giants - we always played "Minimum Wage" from the "Flood" album just before we opened for the day, synching turning the door key to the whipcrack - so I forgave them a lot.)

johnmari, I too thought of the "Detachable P@nis" song!

O.K., I've got it on youtube playing, and I read the lyrics -- LOLOL -- I saw "the Kiev" and thought "yeah! I used to love their pierogies!" -- I know exactly what they're talking about, and the guys selling stuff on the street...I bought a fair number of books and clothes (nice designer clothes) from street sellers in the East village...never a detachable p*nis, though. I swear :)

Thanks for the new group *and* the walk down memory lane. Gosh, I wish you both lived closer : )

Followup - checked with a pharmacist while getting a script refilled and she recommended I try out CardioStat. Two capsules provide 1080mg EPA and a box of 60 is only $20. Mercury/PCB-free, molecularly distilled, yadda yadda, I can (just) swallow them and so far the little fishy ghosts are not returning to haunt me.

The CardioStat sounds good, but the Trader Joe's fish oil will still be less expensive. The CardioStat is one month's supply for $20, the Trader Joe's fish oil contains 1200 mg in 3 capsules. There are 90 capsules in each bottle for $8.99, so one month supply is less than half the price.

I have a confession.

The TJs did not give me fish burps until, after reading this thread and realizing that I could use a mood elevation, I tried taking 3 per day. That is really a lot of fish oil. I had been accustomed to taking them only occasionally, like when I hadn't eaten any fish for a few days.

Not when the nearest Trader Joe's is a 150 mile, 3 hour round trip. You're spoilt. :-)

Actually, for me Trader Joe's is over a 300 mile, 5 hour round trip. Obviously I don't make that trip just for TJ's, but whenever I go visit my relatives I always either pass by a TJ's or there is one in my relative's town so I stock up. We just got back from a trip to San Francisco and I got a 3 month supply while there.