F.D.A. Calls Ads for Cholesterol Pill Crestor 'False and Misleading'

I'm an infrequent fish eater (yuk, it makes the house smell fishy) and daily fish oil user. I look carefully at the composition of Omega 3s and especially want Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA). My guide for this is Barry Sears, author of the Zone Diet books and a high-level ivy-league biochemist who trains Olympic athletes.

If you use fish oil, you might check out Natural Factors RxOmega-3 Factors, pharmaceutical grade, with 630 mg Omega3 in each cap, 400 of which is EPA. Nice product! I found it at www.iherb.com at a very good price.

Also, because I live in the gloomy northwest, I take Cod Liver Oil in the winter, buy Carlson's Norwegian 1000 mg, supposedly the most pure product available. So that also gives me an additional 240 mg of Omega 3. Also available at iherb.com at a nice discount.

And to think I used to live in Florida and had a vacation house in Key Largo. Who worries about fish oil there?

According to an analysis by Public Citizen, there were 29 reports of kidney failure or insufficiency among patients given Crestor in the first year of its approval in the United States. Considering the limited number of prescriptions for the drug, that is 75 times the rate of kidney failure or insufficiency for all other similar drugs combined, Public Citizen said.

Though I am concerned with the Statins as I am with almost any drug with an advertising budget bigger than some small nations' GDP the above statement seem like a hyperbolic extrapolation. Still it would be interesting to see the unmodified data from the original trials.

I have the Sears book on Omega 3's.

An excellent source of Omega 3's (DHA and EPA) is available from most SuperWal-Marts. Look in the egg section for "Christopher Eggs".

Each egg has 600 mg of DHA and EPA. That is the same as two standard fish oil concentrate pills.

It is, by far, the highest non-fish source of the converted Omega 3's I've ever seen (plant sources are ALA and converted at 10-15% efficiency to DHA and EPA).

http://christophereggs.com/

Hello guys,

I thought I'd chime in with a little insight (hopefully!).

Regarding Natural Factors fish oil, it IS pharmaceutical-grade, but it's in "ethyl ester" form, rather than the natural "triglyceride" form, which means its absorption by the body is severely impaired. Regarding cod liver oil, it contains toxic levels of vitamin A, so in the winter, I'd make sure you balance it with another fish oil, or just take a Vitamin D supplement in place of the Cod Liver Oil (The nutrient that sunlight produces). Also, Carlson's claims their fish oil is pure, but they don't test every batch with the International Fish Oil Standards program.

Those Christopher eggs are interesting, but I don't see any mention on their website that they contain DHA and EPA. It just says Omega-3s, but what kind of omega-3s is conspicuously absent. Since the omega-3s come from feeding their hens all-vegetarian diet, I think it's safe to assume that it's ALA, the short chain omega-3s, rather than the long-chain EPA and DHA that are useful to your body.

I operate a website about the benefits of fish oil supplements and I also have a report that goes into more detail about ethyl esters vs. triglycerides, cod liver oil, international fish oil standards, short and long chain fatty acids, and other things about fish oil. You can request the report by e-mailing me at marshall@fishoilblog.com if you'd like.

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