Difference between Flax Seed & Fish Oil

[mable]

What is the difference between flax seed oil and fish oil? Aren't they the same pretty much? Do most people take both? or is one better than the other?

[NYNikki]

I add fresh ground Flaxseeds to my steel cut oats every morning and I take Fish Oil Gelcaps in the evening.

http://www.barleans.com/literature/flax/21-nothing-fishy.html

Nikki

[arc]

The omega-3 in flax seed oil is in a form that our bodies can't use directly. We have to convert it, which is highly inefficient. We can only use about 10% of the omega-3 in flax seed oil because of this conversion. Flax seed oil is also high in polyunsaturated oils, which have been shown to be proinflammatory.

The omega-3 in fish oil can be used directly and is an anti-inflammatory.

[Whoa182]

Flax seed oil is also high in polyunsaturated oils, which have been shown to be proinflammatory.

Although flax oil studies have shown an anti-inflammatory effect... But fish oil does win in its anti inflammatory benift.

I would say go with fish oil rather than flax oil because of what arc said about the conversion is not so good, especially for DHA. Although EPA seems to be the active component of omega 3 that is mostly benificial to humans, DHA is mostly needed when the brain is developing during childhood.

[Whoa182]

See this article here


EPA, not DHA, is the Omega-3 for
Healthy Mood and Thought Patterns
http://www.aor.ca/magazines/pdf/Advances_9_April_2006_The_Fish_You_Can_Catch.pdf

[mable]

Thanks everyone, I will stop taking my flax seed oil, and buy fish oil, now