Dr. Roizen Describes Safety of Omega-7

Interviewer: When we talk about omega sevens, do we know what a beneficial and safe daily dose is at this point?

Dr. Michael Roizen: We think we're pretty close to knowing what that is with some assurity. We don't know it with enough assurity exactly. We know what's safe. You can actually take up to about 1500 milligrams and we can't find a side effect or a drug interaction that's negative. We don't know what is the most effective dose yet. Is it 210 milligrams a day? Is it 420? We know that when we give more of it, you can get more of an effect. For the vast majority of people, it appears a dose some place between 210 and 420 will be effective in lowering cholesterol and lowering triglycerides and decreasing c-reactive protein, that inflammatory marker, strongly. Is that the optimal dose when something doesn't have much side effect? We don't know what the optimal dose is yet.

Interviewer: Based on that, are there studies going on right now? Or have there been studies that show the benefits and more that we'll learn about it?

Dr. Michael Roizen: So, we are doing more studies now, all the time. I mean that's what science tries to do is advance and do more studies. We know that for the vast majority of people, around 210 milligrams of the purified omega seven has substantial and important benefits. We know however that 420 milligrams lowers the cholesterol, lowers c-reactive protein, lowers triglycerides more than the 210. We don't know whether 840 or 630 lowers it more than 420 right now. So we don't know where the upper limit of effectiveness. But it was so effective in the 420 dose, even the 210 was substantially effective that those are important doses to think about.

Interviewer: Are there any people or certain candidates of people that might not want to take this? That are maybe at some sort of risk of taking omega sevens?

Dr. Michael Roizen: Well, because it is a fish oil source, if you're allergic to fish, that may be a reason. Now that's not shellfish, but it is fish in general. The interesting thing is it's purified enough that it doesn't have fish oil taste. It doesn't cause the same burp that fish oils do. You know, when you get an omega 3 from an algal source, you don't get that burp either and you get much less of the fishy taste. With this, it appears that the purification process gets rid of all of the fishy taste as opposed to with the EPA or DHA from fish oil. So this appears to not have that burp, not have the fishy taste. Some people will have some intolerance to it. We haven't found any in the relatively small studies yet. But I'm sure there will be. But we just don't know of drug interactions and side effects other than if you're allergic to fish.