PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Food and Drug Administration permits makers of fish oil supplements to use a carefully worded health claim on their packaging as long as the supplements meet certain standards.
When it comes to fish oil, the doses of EPA, or eicosapentaenoic, and DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, need to be of certain concentrations. According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, only 19.2% of fish oil products contained the FDA-approved health claim.
In other words, by not making the FDA-approved claim and using one of their own, they may or may not have the FDA-recommended dosing.
It might be worth talking with your pharmacist the next time you buy fish oil supplements.
Get more medical reports from Dr. Brian McDonough.
KYW Newsradio's Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
