Fish Oil and platelets

[Marlene]

I finally found the study on fish oil dosages and thought I would post this for informational purposes. I am not advocating the use of it, just supplyng information.




fish oil & plt.pdf

[bailie]

I have been taking fish oil pills for four years. My doctors immediately took me off the fish oil pills following my diagnosis of MDS (RAEB II)/AML.

[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.

[curlygirl]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1001140957.htm

Ohio State University also discovered in 2012 that the DHA & EPA in fish oil lengthen Telomeres by reducing Interleukin 6 inflammation.

Also, if you google DHA, EPA, and cyclosporine together, it turns out that there are a ton of studies dating back to 1991 that show that taking fish oil with cyclosporine protects the kidneys from the effects of cyclosporine without degrading the immunosuppresant effect of the cyclosporine.

I wish it wasn't 7 months post ATG by the time I looked all of this up and found it out, but people's doctors don't know this. A lot of websites refer to taking cyclosporine and fish oil together but it is almost always Kidney transplant websites.

After talking to my son's doctor 4 weeks ago we added an EPA and DHA supplement derived from anchovies and sardines to his daily pills. It appears from research that marine-derived EPA & DHA works better than plant-derived EPA & DHA. She wasn't against it - her exact words were, "it can't hurt." He is receiving 640mg a day. It is not a huge dose but would come out to about 1g a day for an adult.

[Cheryl C]

I also am interested in the topic of Omega 3 and whether it can help platelets. Interestingly a few weeks back I started taking Flax Oil (1 dstspn per day) and my last platelet count was 151, highest since I was diagnosed with MDS and up from low 100's in previous months. It could be an aberration so I'll see what my result is in a week or so when I have my next test.

Re clotting times, etc do any of you have low fibrinogen associated with low platelets? I was interested to learn that my APTT is also lower than normal. My specialist has only been having this tested the last couple of months.

[Marlene]

Curlygirl...interesting information. Thanks for posting it. I too wish I knew what I now know back when John was first diagnosed. Like you, I learned quite a bit by looking beyond bone marrow diseases. John had such severe neuropathy and as I researched it, found that many nutritional approaches for it were also applicable to bone marrow/blood disorders.

Cherly C...John's hematologist never tested for fibrinogen. Another doc did & said it was high, suggesting John blood was prone to clotting too much. That was back in 2008 and we did not pursue it at the time. They messed up a few of his blood draws causing some false results and other things were a priority at that time. Inflammation can cause the increase and John was dealing with really high iron at the time.

[curlygirl]

Marlene,

I thought you may like this article. I found it fascinating:

NIH Director's Blog:
Secrets of a Supercentenarian’s Genome
http://directorsblog.nih.gov/2014/04...arians-genome/

It's a great read if you're a regular on these boards because they tested her blood, stem cells, and telomeres, and if you read the threads on here you know what the article is talking about.

Also, not noted in the article, she gives the answer. Hennie "attributed her remarkable longevity to eating raw salted herring, to drinking orange juice, and—with a twinkle in her eye—“to breathing.”"

And later in the article "A post-mortem exam, conducted immediately after Hennie’s death in 2005, revealed that her brain was free of beta-amyloid plaques, which are characteristic of an aging brain and plentiful in Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, the arteries that supplied her brain with blood were supple, not hardened as is often seen in older brains. Intriguingly, when Hennie’s mother died at the age of 100, she also had no signs of age-related dementia."

Given the anti-inflammatory properties of fish oil, it wouldn't be surprising to me that a daily intake of a small, raw, oil-rich fish would keep your arteries healthy.

[Marlene]

Thanks for sharing this Curlygirl. I cannot imaging being 115 yrs old. I was also struck by the comment about her bloods cells having 450 acquired mutations over the years which surprised the researchers. She never had any blood cancers or blood disorders. I guess the mutations she had are not linked to cancers.

Don't think I could eat raw salted herring though.

[Chirley]

Can I ask why my post was deleted?

[Marlene]

When was it posted? I'm sure it's just a glitch.

[Neil Cuadra]

Originally Posted by Chirley

Can I ask why my post was deleted?

None of your posts have ever been deleted. My guess is that a post you tried to submit didn't make it to the forum system.

[Chirley]

Thanks, I thought I must have done something wrong. I did post and it looked like it was there but today it was gone. The post was just an anecdote and not important.

I'm not always (hardly ever, truth be told) tactful or politically correct so I thought I might have been out of line.

[curlygirl]

I just happened to find these abstracts/articles. It looks like Aparna Prasad & David O Carpenter of University of Albany (with co-authors) published three papers in 2010 & 2011 showing the Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids kill thymocytes, at least in mice, and that the effect is lessened if you add Vitamin E. (A lot of companies add Vitamin E to their fish oil to reduce oxidation/rancidness, but it looks like if you want full effect you don't want to take vitamin E with your fish oil.) As a disclaimer/warning, both thin the blood at high doses. You don't want to take very high doses of either fish oil or vitamin E individually or together if you have very low platelets. I find this fascinating. I'm tempted to email the authors to see why they decided to study this and see if they respond. I'm not advocating that people try using fish oil instead of ATG and Cyclosporine for Aplastic Anemia. Instead, it would be very exciting if the EPA & DHA in the fish oil can protect your kidneys from the nephrotoxic effects of the Cyclosporine WHILE enhancing the effect of the ATG.

Role of calcium and ROS in cell death induced by polyunsaturated fatty acids in murine thymocytes.
http://www.researchgate.net/publicat...es?ev=auth_pub
Full article available for free.

Omega-3 and Omega-6 Fatty Acids Kill Thymocytes and Increase Membrane Fluidity
http://www.researchgate.net/publicat...ty?ev=auth_pub
Full article available for free.

Mechanisms of cell death of thymocytes induced by polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and trans-fatty acids.
http://www.researchgate.net/publicat...ds?ev=auth_pub
Only abstract available.

[curlygirl]

Here we are, finally "discovered", from 3 July 2014:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0703162338.htm
Biochemical cascade causes bone marrow inflammation, leading to serious blood disorders
"The molecular cascade leading to inflammation was not occurring directly in the bone marrow cells that produce blood cells, but in cells of the bone marrow microenvironment, especially in endothelial cells that line the capillaries -- tiny blood vessels -- inside the bone marrow. This was a key discovery, Dr. Carlesso said."
i.e. inflammation. My son's Henoch–Schönlein purpura (HSP), which occurred immediately preceding his Aplastic Anemia, is inflammation of the capillaries in his legs. I am convinced he has HSP of the bone marrow (it can settle in other organs. When it settles in the kidneys it is called IgA Nephropathy.)

Important for reading the previous article.
myeloproliferative disorders:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myelopr...note-Tefferi-2
"The myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), previously myeloproliferative diseases (MPDs), are a group of diseases of the bone marrow in which excess cells are produced. They are related to, and may evolve into, myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia, although the myeloproliferative diseases on the whole have a much better prognosis than these conditions."