Plavix versus Fish Oil

[kboshane]

My 60 year old father just recently had a stent put in his right artery for 99% blockage.  Everything went well.  He has about 30% blockage on his left side but they left that alone.

the doctors prescibed him plavix ( 75 mg a day) and one 325 mg asprin per day.  both for the next year.

I am not a pharmacist but previously owned a pharmacy.

I have been doing a lot of research on fish oil, especially Omacor.  

My father is making some serious life changes.  Cutting out red meat, pork, butter, high fat high sugar food, and he is switching to lots of veggies, seafood, and healthy complex carbs.  He is a non smoker and has a few glases of wine a week.  he also plans to start an exercise routine when given the green light from his doctor.

I have always believed in a natural approach to health and healing and i am glad he is taking all these positive steps.

my question is, I would love to see him not having to take plavix and from things I have been reading, all signs and data support the idea that Fish Oil can be just as effective to keep his platlets from clogging and sticking to his stent.

Obviously this is my fathers life I am talking about here so i do not want to harm him.  Its so hard to get unbiased info when doctors are trained to prescribe medicines  and since the pharmacuetical companies cant patent fish oil there is no money in it for them..

Can fish oil  and the major life changes I mentioned above be a safe alternative to plavix for someone with a stent?

http://www.ehow.com/way_5275727_fish-oil-alternative-plavix.html

[joanincarolina]

All the aforementioned information I believe to be accurate. I have not only been an avid fish eater all my life but added a good daily dose of OTC fish oil which I took for many years. NO changes in my lipid profile. My Emory cardiologist changed me to Prescription Lovaza which used to be called Omacar. With no other changes, I had dramatic results in 3 months on 2 grams Lovaza. And when I thought it could be better, he increased it to 3 grams a day instead of 2 grams. Again, another big change in my lipids.I cannot exercise so a statin and niacin ( RX Niaspan) were later added with even more positive results of T chol 131, HDL 82, LDL 36 and trig. 102. My coronaries are clear ( by cath 3 caths) so I'm in the fight to keep microvessels clean due to coronary MVD. Go for the RX fish oil!  

[cblmn7]

also plavix is a blood thinner so you dont get clots forming in your stents which i dont believe fish oil thins the blood so i would keep with the plavix.

[ed34]

If fish oil was a better option or equivalent for plavix then I'm sure that this would be given to patients so they don't have problems when bleeding. Plavix is proven to work with DES and there is a lot of controversy over fish oils. I have seen independant studies in the UK that showed out of 100 subjects, 50 ended up with higher cholesterol and 40 had no change. Research is showing more and more that supplements are not readily absorbed by the body, they need to be in natural foods. To obtain that much omega oil you would have to eat around 300 mackerals or sardines a day. I would stick to the plavix because a year soon passes and you dont want restenosis in the stent.