12 years of fish oil — what my blood test actually showed

I'm in the supplement industry. I've been in network marketing for 23 years. For 12 of those years I took fish oil daily — usually two capsules, sometimes three. I assumed I was doing the right thing.

Then I got tested. The result rearranged how I think about everything I'd been recommending.

What I assumed

Daily compliance = covered. Take the capsules, check the box, move on. I never asked about Totox. I never added up EPA + DHA per serving. I just took what was easy and assumed the dosage on the label translated into the effect in my body.

What the test showed

My omega-6 to omega-3 ratio was 18:1. The range associated with lower inflammatory markers is closer to 4:1. Twelve years of daily capsules — and I was still well into the typical Malaysian range that the research observes as inflammatory.

Three things I learned from that single test

1. Dosage was the problem

My old supplement gave me 180mg EPA + 120mg DHA per capsule. Two capsules = 600mg combined. That's just barely above the EFSA floor for general adult function. To meaningfully shift a 12-year diet pattern, the dose would need to be 2-3× that.

2. Freshness was the silent killer

I had no idea what Totox was for the first decade. The brand I trusted didn't publish it. Some of what I took was likely oxidised — meaning I was paying premium for cellular stress, not benefit.

3. The diet around it mattered more than the capsules

Twelve years of capsules can't outpace daily palm-oil fried food, regular hawker meals, and minimal oily fish intake. The supplement was a rounding error against the dietary signal my body was receiving from everything else.

What I changed

• Switched to a higher-dose, lower-Totox option
• Added sardines or ikan kembung to the weekly rotation twice
• Swapped sunflower oil for olive (cold use) and a more stable oil for high heat
• Stopped eating out 4-5 times a week. Cut to 1-2.

What happened next

I tested again 90 days later. My number had moved meaningfully. Not magically — but a real shift in the right direction. People commonly report similar timelines when they change the inputs.

Why I'm writing this

I sold supplements without doing this math for over a decade. Most sellers still don't. If you're taking fish oil daily and have never tested where you actually are, you might be in exactly the spot I was — paying for the appearance of doing the right thing, while the underlying number doesn't move.

The most expensive supplement I ever took wasn't the premium one. It was twelve years of cheap fish oil that I never measured. The cost wasn't the bottle. It was the time.