I started the Zone diet many years ago to manage my reactive hypoglycemia. It has worked very well for me. I have kept it under control fairly well for a long time. Until the last month. A couple of months ago I started taking 8 caps. or 2 tsps of fish oil for my shoulder pain (I switched to liquid because I hate taking that many pills). The last few weeks I have had a severe quick hypoglycemic reaction within 1-2 hours after taking the fish oil. I have eliminated all other possibilities and am sure it is the fish oil. For instance, I would be fine when I woke up in the morning, I had 2 eggs and 2 turkey sausage patties for breakfast with a small (half cup) of vegetable juice with the fish oil mixed in. Within an hour and a half I was on my way to a major slide in my blood sugar and had to eat. Normally that type of breakfast would easily hold me for 4-5 hours. This happened mutilple times with different breakfasts that I have previously not had problems with. I have the Zone liquid fish oil and started with the Zone capsules.

How does the fish oil impact your blood sugar? Could the liquid impact differently than the capsules?

Thanks for any info you can provide. I know this is a strange question. I definitley have problem with things that others do not, for instance Glucosomine/Chrondrotin really impacts my blood sugar also.

Hi Cathy,

Since you've addressed your concern to Tech Support I will ever to Tech to offer you guidance, but I want to let you know you are not alone, because I also experience unusual symptoms with certain amounts of fish oil (and it's after much smaller amounts than you mentioned). God luck as you try to work this out.

*defer (not "ever").

Sorry for the typos; my smartphone's guesses are as bad as my typing!

Sue,
I'm open to answers from anyone that can help. I just addressed it to Tech to try to get some scientific answers also......

thanks,
Cathy

BTW...I tried to have only 1 tsp of the liquid Zone fish oil this morning and the same thing happened, an hour and a half after taking it I had hypo symptoms. Guess my next experiment will be with a couple of fish capsules to see how it goes.

Now that I think about it when ever I eat fish as my protein it dos not stay with me any where as long as beef, chicken, pork or eggs. I usually have to eat again fairly quickly after a fish meal.

Cathy, OK, I misunderstood. First, one qn. You described your symptom(s) as hypoglycemic and have focused with your focus bring in terms of the meal not lasting; by any chance do your symptoms include any of these: lethargy, spacy feeling, lack of focus, and/or faint feeling?

Hey Sue,
Many years ago after having quite a few medical problems my reactive hypoglycemia was diagnosed with a Glucose Tolerance Test that had to be stopped at 3 hours because my blood sugar dropped to 45 at that point.

After many years of trial and error I generally recognize when my blood sugar is not behaving. So a few weeks ago I was really exhausted and knew it was from something messing with my blood sugar. Then after a week of the exhaustion, the exhaustion got worse and my blood sugar would drop rapidly and I would get the dizzy, jittery feelings. During this time I was double checking everything that I was consuming to try to determine what set it off. A little over a week ago it came down to the fish oil so I completely stopped it. It took a few days to recover (as it normally does) but I got back to feeling good and having no issues, tiredness or dizzziness. Until I took that tsp of fish oil this morning.

Sorry about the long answer. Hopefully I answered your question.

Hi Cathy,

My experiences have been similar to yours. Tiredness, dizziness, etc. are also symptoms of tipping your eicosanoid balance in the direction of too many good eicosanoids.

Barry Sears himself helped me work out an appropriate Omega Rx dose. I had been trying to take the average dose of 4 capsules of Omega RX daily (I’d tried 3 other brands prior to Omega Rx with equally poor tolerance to them). First he had me stop all Omega Rx for 3 weeks in order to let it dissipate from my system. Then he had me begin again with a very small dose. In my case that was 1 capsule per day, which was still too much (this was obvious on the first or second day). Next he had me take 1 ml. per day (with a baby medicine dropper), still too much. Eventually through this process of trial and error, with Barry’s help the dose I could tolerate without causing the symptoms was established to be about 1 capsule of Omega Rx every third day. It was 10 years ago this month that Barry Sears began helping me and it was not until November of that year when we finally hit upon the correct dose for me. Several years later when he developed Eico Rx (essentially Omega RX with a little GLA) we experimented with me taking that in the hopes I’d be able to tolerate it better than Omega Rx because of the added GLA. At first I tolerated it much better than Omega Rx, even up to the amount of 3 capsules daily without symptoms, but eventually within the first year of taking it I began experiencing what is referred to as the “spillover effect”, which has a negative impact on your eicosanoid balance; basically it pushes you toward increased cellular inflammation. My current fish oil dose is still 1 capsule Omega RX every third day. Recently, I began also taking a partial capsule of Eico Rx (I pierce it and squeeze most of the contents into my mouth) once or twice a week , on off days from my Omega Rx dose, just to get a little more EPA into me without ingesting too much GLA. Hopefully this will not prompt the spillover effect again. In case you’re wondering, a telltale sign of spillover is constipation.

My suggestion is to stop Omega Rx for 3 weeks, then begin it again at a lower dose. If you have no symptoms, stay at least a week or two at that dose before you try to increase.

You can also call a Zone coach for help, using the number at the top of this page.
Please keep us updated.

Thanks Sue...I will give that a try.

I did try the Eico about a year ago and had the same problems with it fairly quickly.

Thanks for the help and have a nice evening.

Hi Cathy,

I think Sue hit the nail on the head. Stop and gradually add back in. I think because the exact thing happened with Sue, she can walk you through it.