Alcohol and coumadin

[Barry]

My understanding is that it's best not to drink at all when you're taking Coumadin, and if you do drink your limit is 2 drinks: 2 4-oz glasses of wine, 2 12-oz beers, or 2 shots of whiskey.

And my basic understanding is that the biggest risk with getting drunk while you're taking Warfarin is that the alcohol + Warfarin combination may not itself kill you, but when you fall down (as drunks tend to do) you're likely to bleed out. Which won't exactly make you the hit of the party.

First question: Is that right?

Second question is a bit more complicated: I know that alcohol interacts with Warfarin and raises your INR. My question is how long that effect lasts - does it go away after your body has metabolized the alcohol out of your system, or does it persist so that alcohol today will affect your INR tomorrow?

 

[hensylee]

It is natural that this question comes up rather often. I can't answer but others will.

 

[Guest]

My rule - 2 then O'Doul's

Warfarin inhibits the action of vitamin K in producing clotting factors. This takes several days to be evident. So the drinks on Friday night are evident in INR measurements on Monday. Saturday's > Tuesday etc. If a guy has an INRin the 5 range on Tuesday, I will ask - were you drinking Saturday? The answer is almost always, "Yes."

I was an expert witness in a case where the host of a party was charged with second degree murder when a guy who was drunk fell down three steps and hit his head. It was not enough of a bump to make a mark on his head as reported by the EMT, ER doc, neurosurgeon and coroner. However, it was enought to jolt his brain. This happened on a Friday night. By Sunday morning he had a severe headache and called the EMTs. By Sunday afternoon he had lapsed into a coma. By Tuesday he was brain dead. He never shed a drop of blood nor developed a bruise - just jolted his brain and caused a slow leak of blood into it.

 

[Barry]

Thanks, allodwick. So I guess getting blind drunk this weekend so long as I stay in bed is out...

Your story is an interesting cautionary tale.

I've always had to be careful with alcohol, anyway - I come from a long and distinguished line of alcoholics.