Fish oil brands

I goggled cats and fish and had my pussy and fish oil. I do like cats though, especially with a brown sauce and broccoli…only kidding

Okay… Taking a break from my lunch now.

I had cat on a stick while vacationing in an un-named Asian country. Tastes like dog.

Fuck it. I was finished anyway. Maybe, I’ll go for a walk.

It could be what ever the doctor gave her is kicking in or maybe it took both the fish oil and the stuff the doc gave her.

That’s sort of what I’m thinking. The fish oil is somehow allowing the testosterone to do it’s work. Or, maybe it’s just a coincidence.

OK, I read through this thread and much of the linked material, but not all of the links (yet). It appears, as usual, that there was no actual consensus as to the "best" choice among the various brands. Where "best" is a mix of your personal preferences, actual effect obtained, and cost concerns.

What I am (was?) going to do is try the expensive brands first to see what, if any, effects I experience. After a time I plan to switch to the less expensive (CostCo) brand and determine if there is a change in what I experience.

Zaneblue, your recommendation is for a mix of the OmegaRx brand from Zone Labs (8 caps/day) and of the Carlson’s Super DHA (2 caps/day). Of course, starting at a low dosage and working up to that amount over time. The total dose per day is 3,200 mg EPA and 2,600 mg DHA.

I have no problem with the Carlson’s brand. They have been around for a long time. I have used other products from them for years. They have a normal distribution network (I.e. Independent resellers). At other times I have gone out of my way to purchase some of their products. After a brief web search I found the "Carlson Labs - Super DHA - 180 Softgels" available for $32.16 in single bottle quantities from LuckyVitamin.com with reasonable shipping costs.
To update hobby’s cost analysis:
Carlson Labs - Super DHA - 180 Softgels: $32.16/bottle
18g EPA, 90g DHA per bottle
Price per g of EPA: $1.79
Price per g of DHA: $.357
Per g of combined EPA and DHA: $.298

However, I am really turned off by the way the Dr. Sears ZoneLabs brand is marketed. They do not appear to have a "normal" product distribution structure. From what I have seen so far they only sell their products through their web page. They are attempting to sell/push the "Dr. Sears Zone" system which includes multiple supplements, skin care, books, diet, etc. They sign up "Affiliates" who basically only go out and get a domain name, then point back to a generic purchase page (Affiliates get a percentage of sales, 20% for the fish oil). A retail customer can get a discount, but only if you sign up for their "autoship" program where they will automatically ship you X bottles every t days/months (you can stop anytime, but still…).

[No update to hobby’s cost analysis, as $40/bottle is the Only price I have found, and that with "autoship". It is $50 without autoship.]

It _feels_ like a multi-level marketing push. However, it does _not_ appear to actually have a multi-level marketing structure. Don’t get me wrong, I have/am successfully used/using products (weight loss) from multi-level organizations. I just don’t _like_ a company to try that hard to sell me a "system", even if they have excellent products.

Has anyone else looked into this?
Are there independent resellers of the OmegaRx brand?

Thanks,
makyen

[I would use actual underlines, but the spell-checker force-changes all the vB codes to [you]This[/you] (and capitalizes the word).]

ModestoMan, I missed your post! Yes, there can be a slight fishy taste—another good reason for getting more refined stuff. Fish oil increases nitric oxide, similar to Viagra, but unlike Viagra doesn’t slow down orgasm—the harder clit thing is very common. Some women do report a change within several days, and most men do, when it works. For women I recommend staying on the fish oil for at least a month to go through all the hormonal fluctuations of the menstrual cycle, but the stuff is fast-acting.

My diet works very well with TRT. Make sure she takes the calcium/magnesium/zinc too, will help keep her SHBG low and allow the diet to work. Also I should add if her T was undetectable, my diet alone will not work for her. My diet assumes a healthy hormonal production. It helps boost free T, but the body has to have the capability of making T to begin with for that part of the diet to work. So keep on keeping on.

I love doing what I do! :flame: Please report back further!

As for the Sears fish oil brand, yes, you have to buy it direct. I imagine it would be ridiculously expensive sold someplace else; they’d have to up the price for the seller’s cut. I am also put off by the affiliate thing. But if you don’t like that particular brand, there are other pharmaceutical-grade fish oils out there. I would recommend finding one that has EPA in it too, the Carlson’s is mostly only DHA.

I would love if you started off on the Sears stuff for a couple months and then switched to something cheaper. That’s the kind of useful feedback I need to know.

Thanks, Zane.

Unfortunately, I have no more data to report (although that may change shortly ;) ).

I didn’t catch the bit about calcium/magnesium/zinc. Do you think an ordinary vitamin supplement (like Centrum) will suffice?

Also, do you think your diet will work if her T is supplemented and brought back within the normal range, even if her natural “production” is low?

Regardless of your answer, I think I will “keep on keeping on” as long as I continue to see good results. Wouldn’t it be cool if this actually works?!?

Even though Mrs. MM and I haven’t gotten any since my post above, she did something unprecedented yesterday morning. She actually moved over to my side of the bed and nuzzled me. The absolutely has never done this. Maybe I’m just learning to be more charming (but I doubt it).

Thanks again, Zane.

Actually, no, it would be less expensive for the consumer due to two main reasons:
A) They provide their affiliates an immediate 20% discount on all (fish oil) sales referred by the affiliate. That means that they are still making a sufficient profit off one bottle (autoship) sales at a net price of $32. Thus, they could be selling in volume to resellers at a price reasonably below that point. The resellers could then mark up the product to the point that they were making money. Even with the reseller’s markup the general price in the marketplace should be well below $40, probably between $30 and $35, without the need to to "autoship".
B) A network of resellers provides a major advantage for the customer: competition for your purchase. Such competition results in a mix of lower prices and better service. Currently there is no competition for the sale of their specific product.

The "Carlson Labs - Super DHA - 180 Softgels" can be used as an example of what price differences develop between buying directly from a manufacturer and a reseller. On the Carlson Labs website a bottle of these will run you $54.50. However, from the retailer above you can get them in single bottle quantities for $32.10 (41.1% discount). If a similar discount was applied to the ZoneLabs product, the price from the reseller would be $29.45 (assuming starting from $50; $23.56 if $40 is the starting point).

The affiliate thing, in and of itself, does not put me off. It is the way that it is implemented, and the culture that they are engendering with their "affiliates". For example, things like the "Zone Cruise". Also: that affiliates are bared from being resellers; and that affiliates are not permitted to compete on price. The "affiliates" are effectively commission-only sales reps that have been covered in a very thin veneer of "independent contractor" in an attempt by the company to force the "independent contractor" to bear the costs of operation (marketing), taxes, health care, etc (or at least that is how the courts have looked at such relationships in the past). I had thought that such relationships, with such a thin gloss of legitimacy, had been ruled illegal in many/most jurisdictions. [NOTE: You _can_ set such things up legitimately, but not in the manner in which they have done so.]

In addition to the affiliate issue, I also have a significant problem with the ethics implied by how they have presented the "autoship" discount. While "autoship" could be quite desirable to many of their customers, it _feels_ like they are presenting it in one of the typical manners used to get people to commit to purchasing things that they don’t actually want (I.e. People forget to cancel and get extra undesired product).

Basically, the whole picture resolves to the image of a company that is intentionally skirting the edge of legality in order to wring the most financial benefit out of their quasi-employees and customers. It certainly does not give me warm feelings about the care and effort they put into their products.

On the other hand, their products could be really good, and this might just be the business model they fell into as they began development as a company. Once in this model it is hard to break out of it, even when it restricts the growth of the company.

Thank you for making sure that the relative concentrations of EPA and DHA were noticed by me and others. At least in my case, I had definitely noticed the difference once I read your post with the contents of the capsules earlier in this thread. On the other hand, prior to that I had read your recommendations and noted the fact that you recommend mixing two types of similarly classified capsules. Given that the highest probability for your doing so was a difference in formulation, I was expecting to see that they were different.

However, the facts that you are recommending mixing them, and that they need to be mixed, imply that there are differing schools of thought as to what relative concentrations of EPA and DHA are best. In addition, it implies that you have specific ideas as to what those concentrations should be, and that your thoughts differ from those of the these manufacturers. [Well, actually, there is the possibility that you merely picked one of these to compensate for a deficiency you perceived in the other product. Based on the products and their relative concentrations, I would expect that it is the Carlson Super DHA that is compensating for the lack of DHA in the ZoneLabs product.]

All of that begs the questions: What are your thoughts on the desired relative concentrations of EPA and DHA? What lead you to these conclusions? Given that that there is a good chance I will choose not to use the ZoneLabs product, what relative, and absolute, concentrations should I be targeting for EPA and DHA?

Getting this data point was a significant consideration in my choice of methods. It appeared clear that you had a reasonable number of people that had done it the other way around, but I did not recall hearing much about doing it this way. I thought there was a bit along these lines in the information you linked to from the doctor with whom you had the long telephone conversation. Unfortunately, I did not find that link again when going back through the thread.

makyen

Modesto, the fish oil may trigger erotic dreams. Take advantage of morning amorousness, if possible.

I’d have to see the results of her bloodwork to be sure, but the main reason women don’t show results on the TRT is that the SHBG jumps up to match. Just having high T won’t make a woman more horny, just more masculine (and possibly more irritable). The key is to have high total T and to get the SHBG down low. My SHBG is at the absolute lowest healthy minimum, which is why I have the free T of an (elderly) guy. A multi won’t do it, you need to get the calcium/magnesium/zinc in separate pill form. All drugstores have it. Also helps to be on a low bad-carb diet (fruits and vegetables are fine).

As I said, TRT works very well with the diet. One of the women who developed the spontaneous orgasm ability is on TRT.

Makyen, I’m not really sure the optimal balance. I’m trying to shoot for an EPA/DHA ratio that more closely approximates what’s found in nature. However I do know that it’s the DHA that causes the fast-acting libido improvement. If I take a big dose I can feel it “hit” in an hour or two.

I believe resellers demand a much higher percentage than 20% from talking with another fish oil manufacturer frustrated by his inability to sell in general retail. I think it’s more like 50%, but I’m not sure, that’s hearsay, and again, a private telephone conversation.

I do have a conflict of interest here, so I can’t really talk too much more. But certainly I welcome brand comparison—if the fish oil/libido thing works for a person, it makes the potency of the fish oil very obvious. Not like a preventative thing like taking it for your heart or something.

What about synthetic EPA / DHA - it should be possible to make the stuff, shouldn’t it? To get rid of possible contaminants I mean. Granted it’s cheaper to put fish in a press, but I was thinking of pregnant/breastfeeding mothers and infants.

Also, another question for you fish oil buffs - I take mine in liquid form (Friggs brand with extra vitamin E - Friggs is a healthy food brand), but I tend to forget to do it every day, I tend to do mon-thurs and forget about the days inbetween.

I usually take about two table spoons, and the stuff has a 18/12 (%) ratio of EPA/DHA, they claim that the total concentration of Omega3 is 38% (whatever the rest is?). In a month or so I’ll down a bottle of 150 ml, which gives me about 1.5 grams of EPA/DHA daily over that period.

Any opinions on whether one should be diligent about taking it everyday?

If the bottle says “Pharmacy Grade” , is it really Pharmaceutical Grade , or is it just a play on words & is really just Health Shop Grade …. just don’t want to waste my money is all . Down here , a pharmacy/chemist sells just as many vitamin supplements as health food stores .