Fish Oil and Centrum Silver Multivitamin/Multimineral

[Old Salt]

Anyone with a 'Junior Doctor Kit' or an 'Almost a Doctor Certificate?'

I have been taking Centrum Silver Multivitamin/Multimineral Supplement for donkey's years -- it's special for us over 50s to ensure we get most of the vitamins and minerals we need.

Well I recently started taking, with meals, Fish Oil Omega-3 1200mg softgels trying to ease the pain in my joints. Several of my friends swear by fish oil.

This morning, over breakfast, I was looking at the label on the Centrum Silver bottle, and it says,

"IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Long-term intake of high levels of vitamin A (excluding that sourced from beta-carotene) may increase the risk of osteoporosis in adults. Do not take this product if taking other vitamin A supplements"

I hope you've been paying attention, cause here comes the question. The cod oil tablets I used to take said they contained A & D vitamins. The label on the fish oil bottle makes no mention of any vitamins.

Any thoughts, ideas, ruminations, notions, pearls of wisdom, or viewpoints, will be much appreciated.

Thank you, on behalf of someone struggling to live in the modern world, which passed-him-by years ago.
Old Salt

[LazyGun]

To clarify - you are concerned that taking the omega 3 fish oil capsules and your multivitamin tablets in combination may inadvertently cause you to take a potentially dangerous daily intake of Vitamin A. Is this assumption correct?
Proceeding on the basis that it is, a couple of points / comments.
1. Cod Liver Oil ( and I am also making the assumption that this is what you mean when you talk about cod oil tablets) is a supplement containing high levels of Vitamin A, D and the essential fatty acids EPA and DHA. Used in adults principally for its seeming benefits in rheumatoid arthritis etc, and in kids usually as a convenient source of vitamin D to prevent rickets.
2. Centrum Multivitamin tablets - contain approximately 70% the RDA of Vitamin A, although a significant proportion of that is as beta carotene , a precursor to vitamin A ,which the body then converts - so its essentially harmless.
3. Omega 3 fish oils contain no vitamins, just EPA and DHA. Their principal health claim and the best evidence available for any sort of clinical effect is for cardiovascular health. They are also claimed to be beneficial in reducing pain in rheumatoid arthritis, although there is less direct evidence for this. More recently, there have been some claims regarding attention defecit disorder in kids, but the evidence to date is poor.

So , if you were taking centrum supplement pills and cod liver oil - then there is a chance that you were close to or even exceeding your suggested maximum recommended daily allowance.
Now however, taking centrum multivitamin tablets and omega 3 efa fish oil capsules ( which contain no vitamin A) you are well within the maximum suggested daily limit.

RDAs are theoretical, and the suggested maximums are also theoretical. It is not an exact or even particularly exact science, and is extremely dependent on the status of he individual with regard to their general health, nutrition, weight,

[LazyGun]

Bah this lack of preview facility is really irritating.

The last paragraph of my previous post should read

"RDAs are theoretical, and the suggested maximums are also theoretical. It is not an exact science, and is extremely dependent on the status of he individual with regard to their general health, nutrition, weight, gender, metabolism, fitness etcetc."