Fish Oil is Good for Your Eyes… And Apparently your Feet too

Written by Dr. David Evans   Last modified on August 6, 2018

On a recent trip to Chicago to attend the American Academy of Ophthalmology, I came down with a severe bout of plantar fasciitis. If you’ve ever experienced it, you’d know that the last thing you want to do is walk on it. But one of my goals at the meeting was too learn more about advancements in ocular nutrition — Omega 3 fish oils are now being heavily promoted for eye health, because of their oxidative properties, and this ingredient is major component in the newest eye vitamins. — so I limped around speaking to folks from various companies hoping to learn more (or at least distract myself from the searing pain).

A friend of mine, who is a wholesale distributor of nutraceuticals, told me that fish oil is great for the eyes, and — as luck would have it — it would help with the inflammation in my feet. I told him I was already taking fish oil, but then he told me something that the other companies didn’t. Most fish oils are not really oils at all. In fact, the vast majority of fish oil capsules sold in the United States are ethyl esters, i.e. alcohol based. As it turns out, labeling the ethyl ester forms of EPA and DHA (the active ingredients in fish oils) as fish oils is legal in the US and other countries, but it is a misnomer, since they are not really oils.

The real fish oils are only manufactured by a few companies around the world, mostly in Norway using Norwegian salmon. These “true” fish oils are better for ocular nutrition than the ethyl ester based ones. And, my friend told me that they helped clear up his plantar fasciitis.

Well, I switched to a different “fish oil” a week ago. So far the jury’s out on what that means for my eyes and feet.

To read more about the technicalities of ethyl esters versus true fish oils, click here.