How does Lovaza fish oil compare with Xtend-Life's Omega 3?
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 at 10:56AM Question: from Leon
How many capsules of your Omega 3/DHA Fish Oil would be equivalent to the strength of 4 Lovaza capsules (prescribed dosage I am taking)?
Lovaza contains 465 mg of EPA and 375 mg of DHA per capsule, so 4 capsules should contain 1860 mg of EPA and 1500 mg of DHA. Your Omega 3/DHA Fish Oil gels each contain 120 mg of EPA and 280 mg of DHA.
So it appears that it would take 15.5 (1860/120) of your capsules to equal the daily dosage of Lovaza for EPA and almost 5.5 (1500/280) of your capsules to equal Lovaza's DHA daily dosage. Obviously, the two products contain different combinations of each ingredient, plus yours has some extra things thrown in.
So far, my medical insurance allows me to buy Lovaza by only paying a low co-payment, making it quite a deal. However, I may change to another insurance plan without such a co-payment available for Lovaza. If so, I may switch to your product if it is more cost effective for the same benefit.
I have been using some of your other products for 4 years now and am pleased with their benefits. The results of my above comparison are confusing as to what dosage of your product I should take. By the way, Lovaza will cost me about $1.20 per capsule or $4.80 per day ($1.20 x 4) without the co-pay.
I am taking Lovaza primarily to reduce my triglycerides and to improve my bad cholesterol levels. Knowing which of the key ingredients are most beneficial for my problem, please let me know what dosage of your product will effectively equal that of Lovaza. Then I can determine which will be the most cost effective one for me.
Thanks for your excellent products and for your ongoing efforts to make them even better. I especially thank you for taking the time to write your excellent articles. You must not ever sleep!
Answer: from Warren
It is difficult to do a direct comparison in this case as there is more to the fish oil than just the Omega 3, DHA and EPA factors.
Lovaza is a very concentrated form of fish oil. It is very similar to the tuna oil that we use as 50% of our mix. The only difference is that it has gone through a couple more concentration processes. This means that the parts of the oil other than the DHA and EPA have been discarded.
What is interesting is that some of the benefits of the fish oil are lost as part of the concentration process.
We discovered this when we compared the anti-inflammatory rates of the concentrated tuna oil with the 50/50 blend of the tuna oil with our Hoki oil. The tuna oil has 85% Omega 3 but when we blend it with our natural Hoki oil in triglyceride form the total omega 3 drops back to a little over 50% because the Hoki oil is not concentrated BUT the anti-inflammatory properties actually double.
So, there is something that is lost in the concentration process which scientists have not been able to pin point as yet.
I suspect that if you take 4 - 6 of our Omega 3 capsules that you would be getting similar if not greater benefits than the Lovaza, but I course I cannot prove that, so this is only an opinion. I think that it is a reasonable opinion though because we know that it is just not the omega 3 component of fish oil that gives the various health benefits.
We have set some of this out in more detail in the Buyer's Guide which you may wish to download off our website under the Omega 3 fish oil product page.
And...thank you for your kind comments.
Reader Comments (43)
but it seems like lovaza, while it probably is a good fish oil, is way way over priced and very expensive....woah
I have been using for the past 6 years Xtend -life products after getting it introduced to me by Jim Sheridan and i never bought supplements from other companies.
There is some scientist who say the best way to get vitamins is to get them in the natural form ie eating fruit and veg we know that but most don't eat much of that this days and don't have the time plus the fruit and veg don't have much vitamins in them so it is hard to get them from that alone.
But some scientist say that eating vitamins from natural sources like freshly picked fruit and veg then concentrated and powdered to fit in to capsules is the best way to get vitamins in a natural form and best to absorb.it.
One example of a company who does that is:
www.juiceplus.com
Is there any truth to this and is it possible to put all the vitamins from fruit and veg in a powder form and capsule and keep the vitamins locked in so long?
I would appreciate your views!
By the way your company is the only supplements company i have seen that is not associated with MLM and comes up with facts when challenged and compared with other products and that also has no celeb faces all over the website doing the selling which when i see raises the alarm bells in my head for a good reason.
Keep up the great work!
PEACE!
There is no doubt that the best way to get your vitamins is to eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables...but, for most of us this is totally impractical.
Taking it in the form such as juice plus do is an extremely expensive and inefficient way of getting these nutrients. A few capsules of juice plus will do very little for you as they are only equivilant to a few bites of fruit.
If you want to be sure of getting enough vitamins and minerals from a supplement you must have it in a concentrated form such as you have been getting in Total Balance. If you were to do an anaylsis of the vitamins and minerals in juice plus the amounts would be negligible and would fall way short of your daily needs.
If you do a search for juice plus on this blog you will find some further comments about this product.
And...thank you for your kind words.
50,000 units of Vitamin D per week is really too much, especially if it is the synthetic D2 form. My inclination would be to find a good Vitamin D3 which is the natural form and start taking that at a lower dose. It will build up in the body. When you are outdoors do you get full body exposure to the sun? Face, arms and lower legs is not really enough...and do you do it without sunscreen? That is important.
That is a high dose of aspirin? Did your Doc say why you are even on it? There could be long term negative repercussions on this dose.
If your CRP is elevated it would be a good idea to increase your intake of our Omega 3 fish oil. You could double it to 4 soft gels a day. I personally take 5 a day. However, if you do that you should reduce the aspirin dose as the fish oil is a natural blood thinner. Discuss this with your Doctor.
I wouldn't be to concerned about your cholesterol levels provided your triglycerides are normal. Also, have your homocysteine checked. That should be OK given that you are taking Total Balance. If it isn't ideal and you are on the standard version of Total Balance you would find it beneficial to upgrade to the premium version which will not only be better for your homocysteine with the extra SAMe but also for your CRP.
The Arthrit-eze is also good for your homocysteine and will help your CRP.
Please let me know how you get on.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1950454,00.html
All the best and I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday.
Over the years I have seen negative studies on Gingko as well as a great deal of positive ones.
Usually when one of these studies are investigated closely it is found that the 'researchers' set off with a specific objective in mind...in this case to discredit gingko. Also, when digging deeper it is sometimes found that the study is funded by a pharmaceutical company whose sales of a particular drug are being hurt by a natural compound.
I would take this study with a grain of salt unless they published full details of the study and that means revealing the source of the gingko, the potency and the dose rate. With any natural ingredient there can be massive differences in efficacy. If you want to discredit a nutrient it is really easy to select an nutrient that is correct by name but may have zero potency.
With some natural ingredients the potency of the active ingredient may range from 5 to 90%. If it is little old it may have no efficacy at all. Unless the ingredient has a full assay done on it just prior to the study then any results are suspect.
Yes, we will continue to use Gingko. It is a good ingredient and has plenty of data to support its efficacy.
I'm just wondering if you will bring out new updated version of your skincare in 2010?
If so i hope 2 things will be better, i like the design of the tubes but i noticed that they leak in a easy way when you open the cap, so it makes a mess and the content is waisted at times.
Another question i have is will you include nutgrass root in your eye serum to brighten under the eyes and boost the effects of the serum on dark circles? Was wondering also if you will add that to the men facial fluid version as i get uneven skin tone after being exposed to sun so i use the women version to get rid of that which is bit to oily for gents skin.
It would great to hear you on this..
N.B. The "old" GLM-Omega 3 Plus bottle will hold 120 gel caps "comfortably"................
I am currently using your Total Balance Men's and just recently ordered Neuro Natural General to add to my daily supplements, as recently I have been searching for words or having short term memory occasional difficulties. I have been fighting gastritis for the last year as well, and since using Total Balance I have been doing much better with it, but my main question follows, I have been using Nature's Way FISOL vs your Fish Oil. Can you comment if your fish oil would be better? My biggest concern is using your fish oil and having it react in an adverse manner with my gastritis, though your nutrition specialists via email have assured me it won't. Do you know if your fish oil has better overall properties than FISOL?
Thanks for the help and great supplement line!
On your Cholest Natural the recommendation is to take 2 caps 30 mins before evening meal. Is this because the evening meal is usually the main meal or is there another reason? I normally have my main meal at lunchtime.
We have slightly thickened the last batch of Men's facial fluid so hopefully you will find that better.
Thats a good idea about possibly adding the Nutgrass to the Eye serum. I will talk to our cosmetic chemist about that. It would not be practical to add it to the Men's Facial Fluid though and most men don't want to lighten the skin. However, you will find that after a prolonged period of use that the current facial fluid will even out the skin tone.
For your specific problem we have developed a new product which is for beauty from within and we will be releasing that shortly. It is our Omega 3 fish oil to which we have added a couple of natural ingredients one of which has clinical data supporting its effectiveness to repair photo-aging of skin. This will be excellent for you.
Thanks for your comments...and of course your custom. This is a difficult one. Most people prefer the 60 count bottle as it lasts them a month. From time to time we have considered using a larger bottle. We will revisit this again soon.
However, that will be after we release the two new Omega 3 products we have just developed. The first of which will be released in about 10 days with the other about 2 - 3 months later. After we have put these on the market we will have another look at the size of the omega 3 bottles and consider if it is viable to introduce a larger size.
I have absolutely no doubt that you would find our omega 3 oil is fine for your gastritis. There is really very little benefit in enteric coating fish oil other than to mask and 'flavor' is it is oxidized. (rancid)
We researched the practicality of enteric coating the fish oil a few years ago but decided against it. Most fish oils which are enteric coated do not use the type of enteric coating that we use on Total Balance which is a water based polymer. Instead they use an inexpensive solvent based coating which we would not use because there is some question regarding its long term safety.
If you would like to try our oil then give it a go. If you find it doesn't agree with you let us know and we will give you a full refund and you can give the product to a friend or family member.
The reason for that recommendation is that the majority of your cholesterol is produced at night and taking the product in the evening makes it slightly more effective.
What do you think about the product Longevenex: www.longevinexadvantage.com a resveratol hyaluronan,quercetin, cocoa extract and lutein based product? Is it safe to take it with xtend-life products?
The people behind the product claim that it activates more genes than plain resveratol.
Oh and i wanted to share this video with everyone about the amount of iron is added in our cereals, the experiment is shocking and will make one think twice about their cereal next time:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/16/Dont-Rely-on-Fortified-Foods.aspx
I assume that you have stated your opinion on artificial sweeteners in the past. I haven't read anything of yours on the subject.
I am wondering about the pros and cons of the highly touted artificial sweetner Splenda or Sucralose.
The word artificial lights up a danger sign in my head right away.
Like to read your opinion.
Thanks
Eric
Longevenex is OK to take with Total Balance although not really necessary as we have an adequate dose of a high quality resveratrol already in Total Balance.
Don't know how they can make the claim that it activates more genes than normal resveratrol? What genes? Maybe they are suggesting that it is more effective because it is combined with the other ingredients. That could well be so. If the correct ingredients are combined a synergistic effect can take place which gives benefits over and above the total of the parts.
We do this in Total Balance.
If you decide to use that product ask them what the level of emodim is in their resveratrol. This is actually important but most manufacturers don't know or don't test for this. When you have the answer come back to me on it and I will tell you why it is important...and also the levels that we have in our resveratrol.
I don't use either of these products...or any sweeteners for that matter. There is controversy over both of these products but I have not done a detailed study on them and cannot really offer an informed opinion.
From what I have picked up it seems that Stevia is the best option for a sweetener.
Sorry I'm not much help on this.
I am a 63 yr old woman with crepey cheek skin and slacking under chin...does your line hold help for me or is my only recourse surgery? I have no interest in looking 30 or even 40 but do not like looking like an old prune when I feel like a barely ripe peach! Thanks. Washington DC