I started taking fish oil when I started Crossfit back in April. Fish oil is a good source of omega-3 fats which are an essential nutrient missing in our modern diet. This deficiency is now believed to play a major role in why there is such rampant heart disease, cancers, and brain disorders. I had been taking two 500 EPA/ 250 DHA capsules per day. Last night I discovered I wasn’t taking nearly what I needed. It was recommended to me that I take 0.5 – 1 gram of actual EPA/DHA per 10 lbs of bodyweight per day. This means I should be taking a minimum of 18 pills per day. Wow…this is going to start becoming expensive. I purchased this bottle which contains 180 pills at approximately $25. If I manage to consume 18 per day, I will be buying a new bottle every 10 days and spending about $75/month. I’m going to try to stick with it and possibly find a better price/solution. For a good read about Omega 3 fatty acids check out healthyomega3.

*Update: My dad (the pharmacist) read my blog last night and told me taking these levels of omega-3 can be very dangerous. In the medical journal article he sent it stated: “Doses greater than 3 grams per day of fish oil or high dietary intake of fish can inhibit platelet aggregation, increase the risk of bleeding, and potentially increase the risk for hemorrhagic stroke (1313, 8699). Very high consumption of fish (more than 46 grams per day) seems to increase the risk of both ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke (7603).
There’s also some evidence that fish oils in doses greater than 3 grams per day might adversely affect immune function. Fish oils appear to suppress T- and B-cell function and to reduce the production of cytokines, which might be detrimental to elderly people and people with suppressed immune function such as patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (1313, 7383, 7384).”

So I’ve decided to reduce my fish oil intake to about 2.5 grams/day or about 5 pills. Whew…that could have been bad.

Crossfit

Press: work to a heavy set of 5. I got to 129#.

WOD

“Helen”

3 rounds for time of:

Run 400m

21 53# kettle bell swings

12 pullups

Time: 8:38

I was :20 seconds slower than my PR of 8:18. I came out today hoping to break 8 minutes but instead hit a wall on my third run and didn’t even make the PR. I think a lot has to do with the fact that we’ve been doing a lot of strength work lately and not  a lot of running. I didn’t feel good at all on the runs today.