Question 1: What is the best way to take GLA to achieve the optimum dose without having excess that is metabolized into excess arachidonic acid. In the Omega RX Zone, Dr. Sears gives a few options -- slow cooked oatmeal two-times a week or weekly GLA supplementation to achieve a 1 to 5 mg per day ideal amount. If one were to take supplementation 1 time a week, would the excess GLA of that day, not utilized that day to create “good” eicosanoids, be converted into arachidonic acid? Would it be better to take small amounts of GLA daily? Does it matter at all? Question 2: In the chapter on building a better athlete, the supplementation recommendation is 10 mg / day. I’m assuming this extra amount is due to the increased fish oil supplementation. If this is so, than for any condition where one is taking above the maintenance level of fish oil supplementation, should the GLA dose also be increased? Once the TG/HDL ratio is ideal, should one maintain this higher dose of GLA? Thank you for your assistance!

In the old forum Dr Sears was suggesting a higher dose of GLA for some athletes. I believe the dose was due to the body's higher level of usage when engaging in exercise. From memory his recommended dosage was cycled with the higher doses being followed by a much lower dose for a week or two. I think you should be very cautious taking more than one 500mg capsule of evening primrose oil every five days or so. Beyond this, you are likely to overproduce bad eicosanoids. I don't know if this 45mg dose in one day will result in a spillover but I doubt it. I think it takes considerably longer to get to the spillover point. In his original experiments it took over 3 weeks with quite high doses of GLA. In one book Sears suggests PMS patients take one 45mg capsule of GLA (500mg evening primrose oil) every week. Taking smaller doses would obviously be preferable. I hope this helps. Kindest regards, Andrew Cavanagh

I eat 1 cup (cooked) steel cut oatmeal nearly every day. Can I tell if this is too much (GLA-wise)? When I got my blood test results back this year, my "good" cholesterol was down 54 (was 59 just before the Zone). I was wondering if the oatmeal could cause that since there is little other that I can figure out. I started in the Zone just before Christmas 2002, began regular Nordic Track (35 mins per day) in April 2003 so by all accounts it should have gone up. I also take 3 capsules of the Veggie DHA oil (can't remember the dose of each right now, but I can find that out if it matters. I wasn't able to afford the AA:EPA test in addition to the other blood tests I had in December 2003, but would that tell me if I had too much GLA anyway? This is where the Zone gets a bit confusing to me.... Thanks for any help you can give to clear this up for me! Robbin

To work out your cholesterol find the triglycerides and divide that by the HDL. That should give you a number somewhere between 0.1 and 12. Between 0.3 and 1 is ideal. You can use an ordinary cholesterol test from your doctor. If you are following a zone diet it is normal for HDL ("good cholesterol) to go up and triglycerides ("bad" cholesterol) to go down. But it is possible for both to go down. It's the ratio (triglycerides/HDL) that's really important. Put simply you want that number as low as possible if you have problems with cholesterol. In theory an excess of GLA could cause the production of too many bad eicosanoids resulting in poor cholestrol readings and Dr Sears does say that even the oatmeal could be too much GLA for some people. Keep in mind that your body produces its own GLA. Sears suggests you eat 2 bowls of steel cut oatmeal a week. I hope this helps. Kindest regards, Andrew Cavanagh