Fish oil has received a lot of attention both in the alternative medicine scene and in the mainstream news. This is fortunate as cod liver oil and fish oils are incredibly important supplements to understand for acne sufferers. In fact on AbsoluteAcneInfo.com we recommend very few supplements. For our main focus is proper diet and restoring proper conditions to the body which allow the body itself to take care of acne.
We are also against nearly every topical remedy (cream, lotion, etc.). Our main focus is diet. So why now this big focus on these oils, a supplement? There are two reasons:
So what important nutrients are contained in cod liver oil and fish oils? The category heading would be "Omega-3 Fatty Acids" but this would be divided up into two smaller nutrients, DHA (Docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid)
.The importance of these for fighting acne is difficult to overestimate. The general population is very deficient in this type of fat. This might be surprising to some, because everyone knows how overweight in general the Western population is. So you might think that to supplement with a fat would be a poor choice. In fact, all overweight people need Omega-3 fats desperately and these may even help them lose weight.
Good fats are essential for any proper diet. If you completely do away with any one of the three major groups (Omega-3, Omega-6, or Omega-9) you will have serious health problems in time. It just so happens that the standard western diet is devoid of the Omega-3 fats. None of these 3 fats are evil! On the contrary, all are essential! If our diets had excessive Omega-3 but no Omega-6, we would have different health problems but they would remain significant ones nonetheless!
So essentially what we want to do is restore balance between these three fats. I'm not going to burden you right now with proper ratios of these fats. What the person struggling with acne needs to understand is that cod liver oil and fish oil supplementation is critical.
Now there are a lot of brands of cod liver oil out there. If you get the wrong one you'll be breathing fish oil for hours and trust me that is NOT enjoyable. So go with Carlson's brand of cod liver oil. Make absolutely sure you buy the one that is lemon flavored. This kind tastes extremely good and has absolutely no fishy aftertaste. The liquid is better than the capsules. The liquid needs to be refrigerated. The capsules do not.
If you do buy the capsules I would suggest biting them and swallowing the liquid and then spitting out the capsules. You really don't want to eat 300 or more gelatin capsules a month. Their only purpose is to retain freshness.
