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Harpoon

Dare I ask....

What's "wrong" with Boost and Ensure???


I'm asking because that's what they were giving to me (Boost) all the time when I was on the feeding tube.

I hated the stuff, still not happy when I see it on a store shelf...

I was taking something else for a while before that and for a while after I got of the tube they gave me cans to drink. Just wondering why everyone here seems so against it.
 
Boost and Ensure have 40% of vitamin K in them which could keep your INR low. Otherwise, it is a healthy supplement to drink if you need extra calories because you are not eating well otherwise.

Christina L.
 
Oh ok. =)

Well the docs couldn't get enough vitamin K into my system so I guess that's fine.

I still try and chomp down as much as I can on high potassium stuff. More potassium and less sodium makes a healthy heart or at least that's what my cardiologist has said....

I guess it's different for others, but my levels aren't right.
 
Boost and Ensure contain a great deal of vitamin K, and for those on Coumadin, it's poses a big problem. Hospitals routinely don't have a clue about this, and why, I have no idea. All you have to do is look at the container and see the amount. They really do have an effect on INR.

Many times people in the hospital have a hard time getting to the therapeutic level with their Coumadin, and sometimes, it's the Boost or Ensure that is causing some of the problems. I don't think any hospital would deliberately set out to sabotage Coumadin patients, but that is essentially what happens.

Other things also have vitamin K, and should be checked out. Luna bars have 100 percent per bar, and most of the other nutritional supplements have a large amount also. Things like Carnation Breakfast and most of the Slim Fast products. Most or all of the diet bars have it. Read all labels on nutirtional things.

And V-8 has it, although they are not required to show it on the can.

It has been argued by some dieticians that, "oh well, many things have vitamin K, and the Coumadin should be adjusted accordingly", but this is different. There should be no artificial obstacles to a patient trying to get to therapeutic levels. It costs money to have a couple of extra day's hospital stay, and that is what can happen, especially if you are new to Coumadin.

Check out Al Lodwick's site to find out many of these things.

warfarinfo.com.
 
I should make a note of my INR and such and talk to my doc about it....

I've been bleeding a lot after seeing the dentist and I wonder if that's related.

Kinda new to the coumadin thing, that's the biggest change for me since surgery, all the other stuff hasn't been that much of an issue, even the water retention though that's new in the last two years too.

For the record, I was at the Cleveland nic and I'm fairly certain they knew what they were doing. I was getting vitamin K shots a few times a day, plus the Boost and such.
 
I'd certainly want to know why if your on Coumadin. Vitamin K defeats the whole purpose behind anticoagulation.
 
I'm not sure why you were getting vitamin K shots while on Coumadin, as Ross said, it defeats the purpose. It doesn't make sense. Vitamin K shots have been given to my husband when he needed surgery fast, to get his INR down fast, also to stop a post surgical (gallbladder) bleedout which was life-threatening.

Were you in the midst of a bleed when you were getting the vitamin K shots?

Or could it have been something else, such as K-Dur, which is a potassium supplement?
 
Isn't vitamin K a "potassium suppliment"???

Vitamin K IS potassium.

Potassium is an element on the periodic table, it's symbol is K....


Ok, now I'm confused....


Quite frankly, I wasn't really "coherent" until the last maybe two weeks or so of my stay at Cleveland Clinic. I had a very rough time and spent a month on life-support...

I'll have to ask my wife about it now, she knows much more than I do about most of this because she remembers it, I don't really.
 
Vitamin K is not potassium, but K-Dur IS potassium. If you were retaining fluid with CHF, I bet you were on some pretty heavy duty diuretics, and thus had to have a lot of potassium supplementation.

My husband has been in that situation. He was on some real diuretic bombs when he spent a month in the hospital, and they could hardly keep up with his potassium level.

If I were a betting person, I would bet that it was K-Dur.

From what you say, that they couldn't give you enough of whatever it was, it couldn't be vitamin K. You'd be so clotted up, you'd probably turn to stone.:p

You were on Coumadin at the same time, so it couldn't be vitamin K.
 
Oy!!!


Well I passed it by my father, he's a biology professor and tends to be REALLY helpful when it comes to scientific questions.

And questions about the car.


Anyways, I asked him what vitamin K was and he said he didn't know.


DOLT!

So then I asked him if it was potassium and he said no.

OK, now we're getting somewhere.

he volunteered to look up Vitamin K in his references at the office tomorrow but I like to hunt and kill things right away when I can so I hopped on the computer and looked it up on-line.

OK, vitamin K is some funky phyllosineined something (that is NOT spelled right) stuff that has nothing to do with potassium, it's in a bunch of foods and yeah, it counteracts coumadin.

Ok, got that settled, I think.


Now it's on to figure out just what and what not to do while on coumadin so I'm going to put together my list of questions and follow up questions and go bug my doctors, I may even fire off an email to the folks at Cleveland Clinic, but I haven't decided on that one yet.


Really should have gotten a Christmas Card and family photo out to them before Christmas.......
 

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