It's Confusing Finding The Right Fish Oil Dosage.

It's not quite clear what the right fish oil dosage is, I constantly see questions about how much fish oil should I take.

How much fish oil should you take? What is the recommended dosage of fish oil capsules for someone who has heart disease already? Should they take more fish oil supplements?

Lets have a look at the view of the American Heart Association. They tell us the benefits of Omega 3 fish oil on their website, and they look at what is the correct dosage of fish oil for people with, and without, heart disease.

Lets look at what they recommend.

Firstly though, lets consider the source of the fish oil. Now of course you could get your fish oil from eating fish. That's fine, but be aware that there are some problems associated with this, (apart from the fact that fish is very expensive and its cheaper to buy fish oil supplements).

Fish can be contaminated and for this reason the FDA tell us not to eat too much.

The very best fish oil capsules do through a strict decontamination process, so are free from chemicals. But not all fish oil capsules are.

The next problem is how much Omega 3 polyunsaturated fats you get from different types of fish. The level varies from one type of fish to another, and its hard to know what you need to eat to get enough. Generally speaking oily fish such as mackerel, herring, sardines, lake trout, albacore tuna and salmon is better than non oily fish.

Now the AHA tells us to eat 2 fish meals a week, but what if you're worried about contamination, or fish is too expensive?

And they also say evidence from prospective secondary prevention studies suggests that taking EPA+DHA ranging from 0.5 to 1.8 grams per day (either as fatty fish or supplements) significantly reduces deaths from heart disease and all causes.

So for healthy people we should be taking around half to 1.8 grams of EPA and DHA a day from fish or supplements.

And for people who have heart disease already:

For those with documented Coronary Heart Disease: 1 gram of EPA and DHA a day. (Note that those with known heart health problems should consult a doctor before starting any supplements).

And 2 to 4 grams a day if you have triglycerides that need lowering.

That's not too vague, but lets look somewhere else.

In a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on 11th August 2009 the recommendations are at least 500 mg per day for those with no known cardio vascular issues, and 800 to 1000 mg per day for those with known pre existing heart disease problems, of EPA and DHA.

But what about the ratio between DHA and EPA, the 2 major Omega 3 fats? How much of each? The AHA don't tell us, it's being studied.

What's the conclusion? Firstly, those with known heart disease should take more fish oil than those without.

We don't know what ratio we should aim for between EPA and DHA, but otherwise it's reasonably clear.

A minimum of a half gram a day of EPA and DHA together for healthy people and about double that for those with known heart issues. More for lowering triglycerides.

The best fish oil supplements money can buy have 280 mg of DHA and 120 mg of EPA in them. (Double the amount of DHA than your "average" capsules). So they have a total of 400 mg.

So 2 capsules a day will give you 800 mg in total, around the level proposed by the AHA. And the recommended dosage, (taken from the label), for adults is 2 capsules a day.

So if you have no known heart issues take the best fish oil supplements at a fish oil dosage of 2 capsules a day. You need to take up to double that for your "average" fish oil supplements, depending on what is in them.

So I hope that helps a little for those looking for the correct fish oil dosage. There's no exact recommendations, it's still being studied.

We can draw some conclusions from the recommendations of the AHA and others.

And those dosage conclusions correspond with the dosage recommendations of the best Omega 3 supplements money can buy. Take 2 of the best fish oil capsules day for general heart health.