Cod liver oil 400mg capsules

As cod liver oil is a composite of several other nutritional compounds including the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) as well as vitamin A and vitamin D [A33159][L2872][L2871], the presence in varying amounts of all of these compounds at once makes it difficult to recommend or use cod liver oil as an appropriate supplement to confer any one particular health effect or for any one particular nutritional deficiency.

For example, one tablespoon of cod liver oil contains approximately 4,080 ug of retinol (vitamin A) and 34 ug (1,360 IU) of vitamin D [L2871]. Since the general dietary reference intake of vitamin A is only 900 ug per day for adult men, 700 ug per day for women, and 3000 ug per day as the tolerable upper intake level, the regular intake of cod liver oil as a regular supplement can result in harmful levels of vitamin A accumulating in the liver and sufficient to cause hypervitaminosis A [A33163], which is associated with various symptoms such as blurred vision, changes in consciousness, skin and hair changes, liver damage, among many others.

Moreover, while cod liver oil only contains a certain percentage of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA per amount of the oil [L2871], separate fish oils supplement products that exclusively consist of only EPA and DHA are available in a great variety of different percentage content formulations, even including prescription strength formulations should certain patients need such a level of therapy. Furthermore, such exclusive omega-3 fatty acid supplement products do not contain any vitamin A or D either, which allows patients to use the supplements without any concern about affecting their vitamin A or D levels or exposing themselves to the unnecessary excess intake of vitamins.

Subsequently, although cod liver oil contains a combination of healthy dietary supplements like EPA, DHA, vitamin A, and vitamin D, the presence in varying amounts of all of these compounds all at once makes it difficult to effectively titrate for appropriate amounts of intake for all the compounds involved when using cod liver oil as a general supplement, often resulting in either an excess or insufficient amount of one or more the aforementioned compounds.

Nevertheless, because cod liver oil does consist of the component compounds of EPA, DHA, vitamin A, and vitamin D, further information about the pharmacodynamics of these cod liver oil components can be found by searching for fish oil, vitamin A, and vitamin D on DrugBank.