Do you really want to know?
Those of you who know me in real life will know that I have a Fellowship in Clinical Nutrition from the USA.
Nutritional therapy is gaining recognition these days. In fact the USFDA approved omega 3 fatty acids as a drug in 2004. Reliant pharmaceuticals has come up with a drug called OMACOR. No prizes for guessing why they chose to name it OMACOR. Zocor, Lipitor, Crestor anyone?
But I'm beginning to realise it is useless having this knowledge in Singapore.
Singaporeans would always question you when you advise them on lifestyle modifications, diet modifications, nutritional modifications either via natural foods or supplements. They would question how it works, why it works etc. But most of these people have no real interest in the answers. Or for the matter, most of them have so little background knowledge that they simply will not be able to understand the biochemical pathways to how these nutritional therapies work. So why ask? But if they ask I have to answer right?
And of course you will have the objections.
"Fish oil is for kids. Not for adults!" (good for kids = bad for adults?)
"My doctor said I have high cholesterol levels and taking fish oil will raise it further!" (could your doctor be out of date?)
"Take so much fish oil? The salesgirl in the health food shop says take 1 capsule a day enough already!" (so the salesgirl knows more about health right?)
"Yuck I hate the taste and smell of fish oil!" (gee I guess medicines taste really good eh?)
But if you told them to take a medicine, the majority would never question how it works. Even if you tried to give them some information, they would say "Sorry I am not a doctor, I won't understand all this"
So I'm quite glad that OMACOR might be making its way to Singapore. Now I don't have to feel like a cheap salesman anymore. I can be a simple salesman.
"This is a medicine that you need. Take 3 a day. Have a nice day."
Simple and sweet.
posted by Dr Oz bloke @ 7:22 PM
5 Comments:
wah like that also can. They probably heard your cries for help because it is not getting through to the patients. haha.
"However, increases (worsening) in low-density lipoprotein levels ("bad cholesterol") by 5-10% are also observed (dose-dependent with effects likely to occur at 1 gram per day or greater of omega-3 fatty acids). Therefore, for individuals with high blood levels of total cholesterol or low-density lipoprotein, significant improvements will likely not be seen, and a different treatment should be selected."
From Medline Plus herbs and supplements. Its under Hypercholesterolemia paragraph. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-fishoil.html
Hi anonymous,
You don't get it do you? OMACOR is meant for patients with hypertriglyceridemia. Not high LDL levels.
As it is the increase in LDL levels is accompanied by increases in HDL levels as well in a ratio of about 4:1 respectively. There is ongoing debate as to whether this results in an increase in cardiovascular risk at all. In fact most studies have shown that the cardiovascular risks of patients taking higher levels of omega 3 FA are lower than those who take lower amounts of omega 3 FA.
The big questions has always been are we treating numbers or are we treating patients? Is high total LDL levels the only risk factor for coronary heart disease? What about the LDL subfractions? Anyway I digress.
There is also a similar debate about eating egg yolks. While LDL levels go up, HDL levels go up as well. The American Heart Association as such has removed a restriction on the number of egg yolks a patient can eat a day.
Anyway the last point I am about to make is probably the most realistic and biggest reason why the information was presented the way it was in the OMACOR product insert.
If you have high TG levels, you should be taking fibrates. But what if you have both high LDL levels and high TG levels? Combination therapy of statins and fibrates is generally not well promoted due to elevations in liver enzymes and myopathy risks.
Reliance Pharmaceuticals is probably going to market that OMACOR and ZOCOR/LIPITOR/CRESTOR be combined to treat both high TG levels and high LDL levels. They would probably indirectly advise that if you are on OMACOR then you need LIPITOR. Notice the "OR" in the names?
Very smart. Very good marketing strategy. Brilliant!
Hi Dr Oz,
Thanks for your reply.
I was not trying to criticize you or anything. Was just raising a fact which I thought was contradictory to what I thought you were saying, and hopefully learn from an exchange of facts with you.
Yes, I did not "get it" because there was no mention of lowering TG in the blog, just a generic mention of lowering cholesterol. Now that, that is clarified.... I get it. Thanks.
Hi anonymous,
I have to apologize to you. I was curt in my response. I thought that you might be one of those anti-nutrition doctors that are in abundance in Singapore.
Anyway if you are interested you might want to check out this website.
http://www.enc-online.org
in particular :
http://www.enc-online.org/dietc.htm
Post a Comment
<< Home