[Marlene]

John was on fish oil after treatment. His counts took a very long time to recover. His doc suggested stopping it to see if there was any impact on his platelets. So we did and there was no change. I think you have to look at it a couple of ways. First the actual platelet count. Does it impact the production of platelets? In John's case,no. Second is clotting time. We found that John's clotting times were very good even when his platelets were at 20-30K. And the amount of fish oil he was on did not get to the 6,000 mg dose talked about in the article.

We also found that his own platelets worked very well. That may not be the case for those with MDS.

I think the bigger question for us on fish oil is quality. Making sure they are purified to remove any heavy metals/toxins like mercury. The bigger the fish the more toxins in their fat.

Right now, John is taking a blend of flax/nut oils to get his omega fats.

What I find interesting is that you can have very low platelets but still be prone to blood clots. This can happen with some autoimmune diseases like lupus.

It's all very complex and I think most doctors will err on the side of caution. Not a bad thing.