Dr. Mike - Question about micro distilled fish oil and Borage oil

[JJdryeye]

Dr. Lange, thank you for contributing to this site. I recently posted my history in the introductions forum, and was happy to see that you are an active member here.

I read a previous thread in which you spoke about taking micro distilled fish oil with borage oil.

I am looking for an alternative to taking flax seed oil, since I've read about the studies linking flax seed oil to an increase risk of prostate cancer.

Your previous post mentioned taking 1550 mg of micro distilled fish oil with 44 mg of borage oil. As well as vitamen A, sesame, and curcumin.

I have a couple of questions about this:

1) Is the ratio mentioned above safe for anyone to try? And how much Vitamen A, sesame and curcumin would one take?

2) Where can these items be purchased?

3) Are the suggested amounts to be taken just once a day?

I will probably also take ground flax seed everyday (assuming the ground flax seed doesn't carry the same prostate risks).

Thank you so much for your help!

[Michael Lange OD]

Dr. Michael Lange on omega three fish oil and GLA

I have changed my thoughts on this a bit since that was posted. I have tried a huge variety of combinations on patients over the years and now i actually like the following. moderate dry eye take omega three fish oil triglyceride form aproximately 800-900 EPA and 500-600 dha in two divided doasges with meals at breakfast and supper. GLA from borage oil or black currant seed oil 80-100 mg with one of the fish oils, astaxanthin 6mg a day wiht the evening dose of fish oil take along with a good multi vitamin like Fortifeye Complete One-a-day. For moderate to marked dry eye i woould double the fish oil and double the GLA keep the astaxanthin the same. I do like curcumin and sesame but only for short term use now, so often time adding some of the antiinflammatory nutrients like curcumin, ginger, sesame for the first month is ok, however after a lot more careful research i am not a big fan of using nutrients that block cyclooxgenase long term(this acts like a cox 2 inhibitor) we all know what happened to viox, so long term use of thise i think has potential problems in high dosages. the small amounts that i had in the older fortifeye dry eye therapy were fine. The gla stimulates series 1 prostaglandins that are anti inflammtory and the fish oil stimulates series three prostaglandins that are also anti inflammtory. and the combination helps to supress but not totally block series 2 that is pro inflammtory. this gets complicated and is a whole discussion .

Michael P. Lange OD, CNS
www.fortifeye.com

[JJdryeye]

I have changed my thoughts on this a bit since that was posted. I have tried a huge variety of combinations on patients over the years and now i actually like the following. moderate dry eye take omega three fish oil triglyceride form aproximately 800-900 EPA and 500-600 dha in two divided doasges with meals at breakfast and supper. GLA from borage oil or black currant seed oil 80-100 mg with one of the fish oils, astaxanthin 6mg a day wiht the evening dose of fish oil take along with a good multi vitamin like Fortifeye Complete One-a-day. For moderate to marked dry eye i woould double the fish oil and double the GLA keep the astaxanthin the same. I do like curcumin and sesame but only for short term use now, so often time adding some of the antiinflammatory nutrients like curcumin, ginger, sesame for the first month is ok, however after a lot more careful research i am not a big fan of using nutrients that block cyclooxgenase long term(this acts like a cox 2 inhibitor) we all know what happened to viox, so long term use of thise i think has potential problems in high dosages. the small amounts that i had in the older fortifeye dry eye therapy were fine. The gla stimulates series 1 prostaglandins that are anti inflammtory and the fish oil stimulates series three prostaglandins that are also anti inflammtory. and the combination helps to supress but not totally block series 2 that is pro inflammtory. this gets complicated and is a whole discussion .

Michael P. Lange OD, CNS
www.fortifeye.com

Dr. Lange, thank you for the information. Since posting my original question to you I've been wrestling with the decision to go on fish oil or not, mainly because of some information I've come across on people experiencing hairloss after taking high doses of flaxseed or fish oil. (This is a link to that thread in which over a hundred people have complained about this. Most of these people were taking flaxseed oil, but there are several on there who experienced hairloss on fishoil):

http://www.baldingblog.com/2006/04/1...and-hair-loss/

I'm curious to know what your professional opinion is on this subject, and if any of your patients have experienced this?

I've wondered if perhaps these people were not using pharmaceutical grade fish oil and if this might be the difference.

I realize to some this may seem trivial in comparison to the discomfort of dry eyes, but to a single guy in his 30's who is already experiencing hairloss, it's something I just can't take lightly.