fish oil and eye floaters.

[driscodos]

Basically i've been having a horrible past 6 months with depression and anxiety etc. However the past fews weeks or so i'd made some improvements with a combination of exercise, taking vitamins and a cod liver oil supplement and teaching myself some cbt therapy.

The problem however has been that pretty much as soon as i've been feeling these improvements i've had an onset of eye floaters and static vision. There are loads of these eye floaters and they're making it unpleasant for me to stare at a computer screen let alone go outside. I've visited a eye doctor and he reassured me that my eyes were healthy but didn't give me any idea of whats caused them.

Basically i'd like to know if taking fish oil can in any way be causing these floaters? i read somewhere that if your liver cannot absorb and digest these vitamins and fats then it stores them and then can create problems in your body. Also i am only 19 and these floaters appeared suddenly and not gradually which is why i think that something in particular must be causing them. These are not something i can simply ignore either, everything i look at i can see them float by, i've got so many.

 

[dcraver877]

I don't think fish oil itself can cause eye floaters. I've been taking 3 caps a day for the past 4 years. I do have one theory however. If your fish oil is not "molecularly distilled" then there is a high probability of it containing high levels of mercury.

here's a quote I found from a mercury poisoning site: "I developed huge fields of floaters in both eyes. For those of you lucky enough not to have them, floaters are debris in the clear jelly-like part of the eye (the vitreous) that are near to the retina. They look like strings, worms, dirt, or debris that "floats" in the visual field (i.e., when you turn your eye, they don't move one-to-one with your vision -- instead they move slowly, catching up to your visual point of reference and then settling there -- literally, floating)."

http://www.mercurylife.com/mercurylife/how_could_things_get_worse/

I would definitely stop taking that fish oil if its not molecularly distilled. I hear r-lipoic acid or alpha lipoic acid is very good for detoxifying heavy metals such as mercury from the body.

 

[driscodos]

cheers for the response. That's pretty worrying, however i'm not totally sure that i'm suffering from many of the other symptoms. The fish oil/cod liver oil i was taking were rather cheap though. I would of liked to take them though to help with my anxiety, depression and concentration issues.

One of the things that really annoys me about these floaters though is the lack of real information i have on them and why they've suddenly come, the doctors aren't helpful at all as they quickly dismiss me and don't really sympathise with me. It really feels like i'm on my own here and i don't want to live with these for the rest of my life. I've checked various online sites and forums and the response that i usually get is a copied and pasted link to what floaters are, which although i do appreciate, i already know this after reading for hours on the subject. Over the time i've had them i've gone through tons of theories as to why they've come, stress, drug usage, fish oil, supplements, weight lifting etc. It feels like i'm alone with this problem as i find it hard enough to put how i feel into words as it is.
I'm sure there're many more people with this problem but at the moment i just feel lost as to what to do.

 

[EndlessSummer]

Maybe you are just noticing them now because of the reinvigoration the fish oil brought about?

I can't "see" (lol get it?) them causing eye floaters in their own right.

 

[driscodos]

Maybe you are just noticing them now because of the reinvigoration the fish oil brought about?

I can't "see" (lol get it?) them causing eye floaters in their own right.

sorry, not quite sure what you mean there. The reinvigoration?

 

[dcraver877]

sorry man, but toxins from the fishies (which is very common these days) is likely contributing to the problem even if it's not the sole cause. You really need molecularly distilled fish oils or else you are getting a whole slew of nasty contaminants.

"Taking common fish oil that has not gone through molecular distillation may probably result in complications worse than the ones you want to ward off to begin with.

The reason is this: Based on the origin of the fish that the oil is taken from, the fish oil may contain such dangerous chemicals as mercury and PCBs. These chemicals may have leached into the fish, and as a result the oil, because of environmental contamination, presents a threat to your well being."

 

[euphoria]

Maybe try quitting the fish oils for 2-3 weeks and see if your eye floaters go away or decrease at all. That would be my first move.

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

I've taken Fish oil before and I didn't notice that it somehow increased what are called floaters or flashers.

Seeing floaters and flashers are common. I've seen them for awhile and I wear glasses and contacts so when I get my eyes checked I remember asking the optometrist about them and I was told by more than one optometrist that they're normal and common and it's just the vitreous material in your eyes going against the lens of your eye.

I found some links to some sites you should read, on the one site it said how it's common to see them after or during exercise.

http://www.mdsupport.org/library/floaters.html

http://www.aboutfloaters.com/flashers.htm

http://www.aboutfloaters.com/floaters.htm

 

[Adison]

Hi All,
I have been using fish oil since last 6 months and never experienced eye floaters.
Fish oil is great to reduce weight, improves vision and prevents from heart and cardio disease. Fish oil reduces cholesterol level and prevents from joint pains.

 

[driscodos]

Unfortunately i can't see them going away at this rate. I'm still at a loss as to why they've come in the first place, which is very frustrating. Seems everything in daylight i look at now i see them.

 

[michael]

i have used fish oil on and off for a couple years now. i don't think it has had an effect on my eye floaters at all (which i had anyway).

 

[dannymac]

Well are you taking fish oil or cod liver oil? They are two completely different things. Fish oil is just for the EPA and DHA fatty acids which are very important for our health. Cod Liver Oil is mostly used to provide extra vitamin A and D. Vitamin A overdose can cause major problems.

There's no way it would be mercury. Consumer Reports did a test on a bunch of different fish oil brands and none had any levels of mercury anywhere near the limit. It's taken from smaller fish or salmon, which don't accumulate mercury they way something like tuna does.

If you are taking cold liver oil I would dump that. Very few of us are low in vitamin A. Vitamin D deficiency is very common though, so take a supplement for that. Cod liver oil is bad, they used to give that in schools and tons of kids suffered problems from vitamin A toxicity.

 

[doppelganga196]

driscodos I totally hear you my friend. I had floaters come on suddenly after a flu bug when i was about 14 or 15 & it pissed me off so bad i wanted to stab i needle into my eye & suck the fuckers out. I know how annoying it is to look at a blue sky & instead see all this SHIT in my 'field of vision'.

My tip to you would be that wearing sunglasses outdoors will help mask them a little.

However, & i know you wont really like hearing this, but you will get used to them to the point that you dont even consciously take notice of them anymore. Like right now i asume you're wearing cloths. Can you feel them on your skin? Well you can now, but after a while you forget they're there. You become ajusted to them.

Also i have found that after a heavy night of drinking when i go outside it is much worse than normal.