Something's fishy

Being a male in his 50's, I have to worry about all kinds of things. Many of these things are health-related. I have to worry about health related things because, I gather, otherwise I will DIE. I don't particularly want to die, though I don't really know anything about what it would be like to do so. But since it's inevitable I'll eventually find out what it's like anyway, I might as well do the other thing for as long as I can.

This means several things, some of which I do, some of which I kind of do. They don't do a lot of studies on kind of doing things, so I know I'm on shaky ground in some instances.

One of the top things men my age need to worry about is cholesterol. Actually, I long for the day when it was as simple as cholesterol. Now there's good cholesterol and bad cholesterol. There's also something called triglycerides, which I don't think is exactly cholesterol but I've heard it's bad. I have no idea what my triglyceride level is or should be, but I had a friend visiting recently who was under doctor's orders to lower his triglycerides. He was to do so by exercising more frequently and by taking fish oil.

I've taken fish oil in the past because it's supposed to be good for you. In fact, if you use the internet, it's very easy to find many many many things that fish oil is good for. There's only one problem. Fish oil comes from fish. This may seem obvious, but in nature, for example, calcium comes from a number of sources, but it can be made (or purified anyway, I don't think you can technically "make" calcium) in a lab into a pill. Fish oil, on the other hand, comes from fish, or more accurately from things fish eat via the fish. And that's it. They can't make it or get it from anywhere else.

This means that if you wish to take a fish oil supplement, it comes in a capsule full of, yes, oil from fish. This has some downsides, of course. First of all, in order to get the purported benefits, you need to consume a fair amount of the stuff, which means taking 3 or 4 very large capsules every day. Even if that's not a problem, fish oil tastes like, yes, fish. Maybe not when you first take it, but once the capsule part dissolves, you've got it. The typical way you get it is affectionately known as fish burps. Re-peats will do as well. These can go on for a while, so even if you take it with a meal, as recommended, within a half hour you'll think you had fish for dinner.

As a result, I am now taking what is referred to as "Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil," otherwise known as the very expensive fish oil. The kind I'm using is about $40 per month and I know there are more expensive kinds. I've only taken it once, but so far I am fish burp-free and I can feel my triglycerides dropping as I sit her.