Who should use Omega 3 / QH Premium CoQ10?

If you are over the age of 40 years your levels of CoQ10 start rapidly declining. CoQ10 is critical for heart health and needs to be replenished as we age. Also, if you are on a cholesterol-lowering medication such as a statin, it is crucial that you supplement with CoQ10. This is because the metabolic pathway that enables your liver to manufacture cholesterol is blocked by statin drugs. That same pathway is also used to enable the liver to manufacture CoQ10. So the production of CoQ10 has also affected with the result that your body uses up its reserves of CoQ10 and serious health issues can then evolve from that.

What is so special about the Ubiquinol form of CoQ10?

The ‘normal’ CoQ10 is called Ubiquinone which is oxidized. The body has to convert it to the non-oxidized form called Ubiquinol in order to use it.

The advantage of using the non-oxidized Ubiquinol form is that it is 5 – 8 times more potent than the other form. However, it has two drawbacks. One is that it is a lot more expensive than the standard Ubiquinone and secondly that it is very unstable and requires specialized handling during the manufacture of the soft-gels. Xtendlife pioneered the technique of blending the Ubiquinol into the oil under a nitrogen blanket which avoids any oxidation and thus degradation.

Would vegetable-based oils give the same benefits?

Sadly no. Oils such as flax oil etc whilst very good do not contain either DHA or EPA. The omega-3 in these oils is ALA which is a simpler oil with only 18 carbon bonds versus 22 for DHA and 20 for EPA. The body cannot manufacture DHA or EPA and must get it from external sources. A main component of the brain is DHA.

ALA from vegetable oils is very difficult for the body to change to DHA. Experts believe less than 5% can be converted, and in the elderly group, there is generally none at all. This is why you cannot rely on vegetable oils to provide DHA or EPA.

Are fish oil soft gels easy to swallow?

Our soft-gels are an industry standard 1000mg soft gel, which is quite easy to swallow. However, if you have any difficulty swallowing soft gels of this size, we also produce a mini version of 500mgs.  If you still have some difficulty, you can always puncture the soft gels and squeeze the fish oil onto cold food. This method will not compromise the product's efficacy, provided the food is consumed right away to avoid oxidization of the oil

Where does the Hoki and Tuna Fish come from?

NZ Hoki is sourced from the pristine waters of the Southern Ocean off the coast of New Zealand. The Tuna is also sourced in the oceans of the Southern Hemisphere.

What is the soft gel made of?

The soft gels we use in our omega-3 fish oils are made of highly purified bovine non-hydrolysed gelatine (Halal certified).

Why do you focus on DHA rather than EPA levels in your fish oil?

We focus on the DHA levels in our Omega 3 fish oils as this is in the best interest of our customers. Research confirms that it is the most valuable component of Omega 3, especially for the brain and nervous system. In addition, it is difficult for the body to convert EPA to DHA because two carbon bonds must be added. On the other hand, the body only has to 'drop off' two carbon bonds from DHA to create EPA. Most manufacturers focus on EPA as it is easier to concentrate, but it is not as 'usable' by the body.

How do you concentrate the tuna oil?

This is one of the exciting parts of Xtendlife’s omega-3 fish oil blends. The concentrated component of the blend is able to be produced without the intense heat needed by 99% of all the other concentrated fish oils on the market today. Even better it does not have to be converted to an ethyl ester and then processed to reconstitute it back to the triglyceride form. (which can be considered synthetic)

It is concentrated using a combination of molecular distillation and enzymatic action. This avoids the extreme heat which is used in other concentration methods. But it is a lot more expensive, but the benefits warrant the additional cost.

Why use tuna oil rather than smaller fish like sardines or anchovies, which have less bioaccumulation of heavy metals?

The benefit of tuna oil is that it is naturally rich in DHA. Smaller fish may tend to have less accumulation of heavy metals, but this is not an issue with Xtendlife fish oil because of the careful way the Tuna is used. The Tuna oil is produced using molecular distillation and enzymatic hydrolysis. Our standard for heavy metals is one of the most stringent in the industry, more than government requirements. There is no purer oil.

Also, the parts of the Tuna we use are by-products of tuna harvested for food and are from a controlled and sustainable fishery.