What are the Benefits of taking Evening Primrose Oil?

Why should I take Evening Primrose Oil?

Evening Primrose Oil (EPO) is one of the UK’s most widely taken supplements. Made from the seeds of the - you guessed it - evening primrose flower, you’ll find these capsules on the shelves of health stores and pharmacies the length and breadth of the UK.

You’ll also find it here on the Sealions website, but we’ll come back to that later.

So why do so many people take a daily capsule of this plant seed oil? What are the benefits of Evening Primrose Oil? And should you add it to your daily supplement regimen?

Let’s take a look at this flowery supplement and just what it can do for your health and wellbeing.

Evening Primrose Oil - a quick history

Before you put anything in your body, you’ll want to know what it is and where it comes from. Nobody ever got healthier taking things from who knows where!

The Evening Primrose plant is native to North America, where it’s grown wild for as long as anyone remembers. You’ll find it in Newfoundland way up in Canada, down to the coast of Florida in the USA. And everywhere it grows, the Cherokee, Iroquois, Ojibwe and Potawatomi people of the continent would harvest the plants for food and medicinal use.

Europeans brought back the plants to fill botanical gardens way back in the 1600s, but we soon realised something the native Americans had learned long before. The seeds of the flower were packed with beneficial compounds. Squeeze the seeds, and you get oil. Evening Primrose Oil.

But what does that oil contain?

What’s in Evening Primrose Oil, and what does it do?

EPO is packed with omega-6 fatty acids, especially gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). This GLA has been used to treat a whole range of symptoms because of its anti-inflammatory effects on the human body.

Evening Primrose Oil is often used for:

PMS and menopause symptoms - Because EPO can help support your hormonal balance, many people report it helps with a whole range of PMS and menopause symptoms, including cramping and tenderness, water retention and bloating, and irritability. It’s no surprise then that EPO is taken by far more women than men. But don’t worry, there are unisex benefits here too.

Acne and skincare - That GLA we mentioned before is an anti-inflammatory, and that means it’ll help reduce skin inflammation. So people use it to reduce acne, pimples, blackheads and all sorts of other things. Some people even use it to treat their eczema.

Arthritis, cholesterol, and more - But that’s not all. Many people also believe that as an anti-inflammatory, Evening Primrose Oil can reduce arthritis symptoms. They use it to lower high cholesterol, and they add it to their supplement regimen to help their overall general wellbeing.

But how do you add EPO to your wellbeing mix? How often should you take it?

How much Evening Primrose Oil should I take?

EPO is safe for most people to take every single day. While some people take larger doses, the majority of people find that what works for them is 500mg of Evening Primrose Oil per day. So that’s the dosage in our softgel capsules.

Take one a day with your food, and you’ll be able to see just why those Native Americans grew this flower everywhere they went.