Controlling vitamin K intake

[netrom]

Hey guys,

This may be a silly question, but i'm gonna ask it anyway

I have a question regarding vitamin K and its effects vs warfarin.

I'm wondering how you guys control your vitamin K intake? In my case, it has had a huge effect if I ate salate for lunch three days in a row. Do you guys have any control steps? Like only eating a certain amount of green vegetables during the day/week?

Best Regards,
Morten

 

[Ross]

Here is how you do it, eat what you want to eat and normally always eat, dose that diet, don't diet the dose of Coumadin your on. Most of us like to keep our INR at the high end of the range so that if we want to eat some extra K items, it doesn't take us low and out of range. Diet plays a very small role in INR management. Try to be consistent, but honestly, I'm anything but consistent and still manage to keep in range. The best control is no control.

A salad shouldn't be doing much of anything to you. Could you maybe be taking a hidden source of K like Nutrional drinks, energy bars of something along that line?

 

[netrom]

Thanks for the good Advice Ross

Hmm, salads don't have that much effect you say. Interesting. When I think of it, it could have been the soy sauce from eating sushi two nights in a row... soy sauce has alot of vitamin K, correct?

 

[Magic8Ball]

As Ross said, do whatever you want and dose to stay in your range.

I eat anything and everything, spinach, veggies et al but all in average quantities.

I don't think i'd eat a massive plate of dark green spinach but then why the hell would you want to

I like to keep myself around 2.7 or above to allow me to do this, 5mg a day seems to keep me there.

 

[Valve-Viking]

Hei Morten,

You do not have to consider what you eat so much in terms of sallads
etc. But in my personal case, if I eat quite a bit of broccoli or brussels
sprouts,spinach, it will bring down my INR if it is unusually high, if it is
in the normal range, it has a less effect. If your warfarin is controlled
by your doctor, it is better to let them handle the dosage and try to be
consistent just in what you eat. It may be hard to give any advice though
as if I eat sushi & soy, haven´t seen it reflect much in my INR. You may
need to see how you are reacting and it can all be individual. Somebody
might get an excess INR from a few beers, some may not see a change from
the double. So try to establish your own "profile" by thinking of what you
eat and drink and you will soon adopt to it and get a stabile INR without
thinking too much about it later.

As you I also had to change valve due to endocardities, please hang around
this webpage and you will learn tons that will give you valuable knowledge for
a long time coming.

Greetings from neighbouring Sweden!

Martin

 

[Ross]

Yes soy has a fair amount also. Your darker green leafy lettuce contains more then say iceberg lettuce, but still, unless your really pigging out on these things, there shouldn't be a big noticeable drop in INR.

 

[netrom]

Thanks for all the good advice!

And hello to a fellow scandinavian!

Ross; we do have spinace leafs in the salad at the cafeteria at work. Could be the cause perhaps. I measured my INR on monday morning, and it was 3,2. On thursday morning, it was 2,4. All I did in between was to eat sushi/soy, and salads with spinace leafs.


Morten

 

[Ross]

Once you get comfortable with your machine, you'll get the grasp quickly. Home testing makes all the differnce in the world.

Morten could you post your weekly dosing, how often they've been checking you and how often they've changed your dose on you?

 

[netrom]

Since surgery in 2006, ive been using 65mg per week.

2 months ago, the doctor changed it to 67,5mg per week because of some generally low values. (2,0-2.5)

Im usually checked every 2 weeks, sometimes more often because my INR is out of range. The problem i've had is that the doctors office need to send the blood sample to a lab, and then we get a result 3 days later.

I'm sure you all can understand how glad I am to be on home monitoring now

 

[Ross]

Sure can. You can't manage INR like they're doing. You'll gain so much more control over it now. If you can afford to do it, I'd advise weekly testing.

 

[Lisa in Katy]

I eat lots of salad with little effect, but as Ross said, I've always done that so my dose is adjusted. There is also Vitamin K in most salad dressings, and soy is definitely high. I avoid soy, not because of the Vitamin K, but because it is a reminder of the terrible soy burgers they used to feed us in school. Soy sauce is my only exception!

 

[Cooker]

I eat salad every day (almost) although you would not think so by this weeks weigh in ?.As everyone has said and will continue to say the key is being consistent??.Eat the way you always have and adjust the dose to the diet?..I do not restrict what I eat, ever.

 

[halleyg]

The seaweed used to wrap sushi is actually high in vitamin K. Just FYI, not to tell you not to eat sushi. I eat lots of sushi, salad, tons of spinach, broccoli, pretty much everything green and a lot of soy products, since fish is the only meat in my diet, and I have soy milk in my cereal every morning. I go by what the others have said, dose the diet and eat what you want! The important thing is to consistenly monitor your INR.

 

[Gnusgal]

I would say the seaweed in sushi would have more effect than the soy sauce... But even then I doubt it would be much. The fluctuations may not even be diet related. It may just be exercise or the wind blowing! I'm like Ross. I eat what I want. If I'm ever out of range, it's just barely and always on the high end. I home test, though, so I'm much more comfortable with this!

Good luck!

 

[Karlynn]

It may be the salads or it may be the "just because" answer.

I doubt that soy sauce, in the amount it's ingested, would have an affect. However products that use soy as their protein content - such as pre-packaged diet foods and health foods can have enough to lower an INR. Been there, done that. It really is the only thing I try to stay away from eating on a regular basis. I eat as much salad and green veggies as I want.

My range is 2.5 to 3.5. I like to keep it any where from 3.0 to 4.0 and don't think about what I eat (see the Throw-Down thread and that will be more apparent. )