Cod liver oil

Cod liver oil is predominantly manufactured, marketed, and used by the population at large as a general nutraceutical dietary supplement . Historically, cod liver oil was often given to children because the vitamin d content in the oil had been shown to prevent or treat vitamin D deficiency and condition of rickets associated with it . Over time, this common use in children growing up may have conferred upon cod liver oil its identity as a healthy and useful all-purpose dietary supplement. However, since cod liver oil is a composite of several other nutritional compounds including the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) as well as vitamin A and vitamin D , the presence in varying amounts of all of these compounds at once makes it difficult to recommend or use cod liver oil as an appropriate supplement to confer any one particular health effect or for any one particular nutritional deficiency. Regardless, because it does contain a combination of a number of important and healthy nutritional compounds, cod liver oil has sometimes been recommended in the literature for conferring the health effects of some of these compounds, such as the potential use of cod liver oil supplements in post-heart attack patients for secondary prophylaxis associated with the use of omega-3 fatty acids .

• Deficiency, Vitamin A
• Deficiency, Vitamin D