cod liver oil

[Guest guest]

Here is the thing on CL oil from Medscape -- don't know if that's the kind

of information you're looking for. Perhaps there are other contaminants.

We use CLO in my family, and don't worry too much.

From

Medscape General Medicine

Letter

Mercury and Fish Oil Supplements

L. Schaller, MD

[MedGenMed, MedGenMed, April 13, 2001. © Medscape, Inc.]

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Purity in nutrients and herbal products is increasingly a concern,

particularly in the United States because there is no regulatory supervision

of these products to assure purity or quality control. For example, the Food

and Drug Administration does not certify purity of nutrients and herbals

products. Some popular nutrition products contain essential omega fatty

acids, often derived from fish. I tested popular fish oil supplements to see

if they had traces of the toxic heavy metal, mercury.

The testing was done using internal capsule contents to prevent outside

contamination. The forensic analysis used special cold vapor atomic

absorption spectroscopy and was carried out by National Medical Services of

Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.

The analysis showed that all the samples had no detectable total mercury.

(The analysis could detect as little as 0.1 micrograms of total mercury per

gram).

The following oils were tested:

* Twinlab Emulsified Super Max EPA

* Twinlab EPA New & Improved

* Twinlab Omege-3 Concentrate

* Nature's Way Max EPA Fish Oil

* Amni Omega-3 Marine Fish Oil

* Nordic Naturals DHA Junior

* Atkins Diet Essential Oils

* Health From The Sun Ultra DHA 50

* Kyolic-EPA (Aged Garlic & Fish Oil)

Other non-fish oils were tested to confirm the quality of the testing and to

check for random contamination in product processing. They also were all

without detectable mercury. They were:

* Natrol Flax Borage Omega-3

* Health From The Sun Organic Flax Oil

* Nature's Herbs Borage-Power Oil

* Nature's Way Organic Flax Oil

In conclusion, it appears that the independent testing and/or the quality

control measures claimed by these companies are being done as far as

potential mercury contamination is concerned. At the least, the amount of

mercury in the fish used is so minimal as to be below the detectable limit

by the method used. In any event, the common brands tested appear to offer

no mercury risk. While this is positive health news, it cannot be assumed

that every brand is free of mercury.

Disclosure

Dr. Schaller is a stockholder in Vitacost.com who helped support this study.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Schaller is with the Chester County Research Center, Chester Springs,

Pennsylvania.

_________________________________________________________________

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