To my patients,

I have been promising many of you for several months that we are planning to offer a high quality Omega 3 supplement through our office. This is especially helpful for our patients with Dry Eye, difficulty wearing contacts for long periods of time, or for those with Macular Degeneration in themselves or their family. However, from the research I’ve done in my quest to find a good Omega 3 supplement both for myself and for my patients, I’ve come to the conclusion that almost every patient can benefit from Omega 3‘s just like taking a regular multi-vitamin.

Well, the wait is over and we now offer an Omega 3 supplement that I believe is the best that can be found. If you would like to do something for the health of your eyes or just for your overall health, give our office a call at 512 339-2020 or come by and we will be happy to get you started, or answer any questions you may have.

NO NEED TO READ FURTHER IF YOU’RE STRICTLY A “GET TO THE POINT” EMAIL READER.

THE REST IS JUST EXTRA INFORMATION.

For those of you interested in the specific brand we chose to carry, how we made the decision and what it is that’s so much better about this Omega 3 than others you may have looked at or used already, read on:

I started out like many of you would, looking at my local grocery store, pharmacies, nutritional supplement store (you know the one, next to my office, just goes by 3 letters) and high end Organic grocery store. The first thing I noticed was that most of the bottles suggested a dosage of 3 to 6 capsules per day, usually in 2 doses. So I thought I’d just find the one that required the fewest number of capsules because I’m not great about remembering to take them. I was amazed at the difference in price per bottle, but some of that was explained when you divide the number of capsules in the bottle by the daily dose of different brands.

Having recently attended some lectures on dry eye and Omega 3 supplements, I knew that the numbers to look for were the amounts of DHA and EPA, not just the amount of oil in the capsule. I also knew you could get Omega 3’s from fish oil or flaxseed oil, but I didn’t know which was better. So like many of you, my next step was to look online as well as talk with colleagues and other experts. I learned that flax seed is not the best source of Omega 3’s for several reasons, including (admittedly conflicting) suggestions that it may contribute to prostate cancer in men.

Then while attending a meeting of optometrists I was introduced to PRN Omega. I learned about yet another quality to look for in Omega 3’s, which is whether it is in the “Triglyceride” form or not. Now you may think, “Triglyceride = Cholesterol and Cholesterol = BAD” but in this case the Triglyceride form is better because your body is more readily able to absorb the Omega 3’s. Omega 3 supplements are actually used in the treatment of high cholesterol. Most Omega 3 supplements are left in the low quality form that they take after going through the process of removing the mercury and other contaminants using alcohol. Very few companies, PRN included, take the time and extra expense to convert it back to the natural Triglyceride form.

Part of PRN’s demonstration was to have you actually chew the capsule to demonstrate the lack of rancid fish flavor in theirs compared to most fish oil capsules. Now I wouldn’t recommend chewing even PRN’s Omega 3 capsules because it doesn’t taste great (like taking a spoonful of vegetable oil, not my favorite snack) but they’re right that it doesn’t taste like rancid fish. I took their word for it that others do. I’ve heard from patients that some notice the “fish burp” taste in the back of the throat when they take fish oil capsules so it makes sense that a fishy tasting oil would be worse about that. Another suggestion I’ve heard to avoid the “fish burp” is to keep your capsules in the refrigerator so the gelatin coating stays intact until it gets further down your digestive tract before melting away.

So although I didn’t set out to sell nutritional supplements in my office, it seemed a good idea rather than sending patients out into the confusing marketplace to just offer one here that I know is good. PRN is only sold through doctor’s offices and rather than having to come in to buy it as you run out, they set you up on a program where the supplements are shipped to you on a monthly or quarterly basis, whichever you choose. It’s easy to start and even easier to cancel or suspend the program. If you find yourself with more than you need, you just call the phone number on the bottle and ask them not to send the next shipment or suspend it until further notice or cancel altogether. Please, please, please let my office know if you ever have any trouble doing that because it is important to me that this program never be a hassle for my patients to deal with.

Thank you for your interest and especially thank you for being a patient at Parmer Eye Care. As you may have heard, we are moving our office soon, so stay tuned to the emails for more information about that!

Sincerely,

Dr. Sundra Lemanski