excercise

[LeoLillac]

hi al , yes i totallly agree excercise lowers the INr .
Its ironic know that i am better and more active MY INR is lower .
I Have 2 outstanding cardiologists they never mentioned a word to me about this . I was told that excercise is good for the heart go figure . I am greatfull to be alive but am frustrated by this
drug . Dara
Tricuspid valve replacement feb9th 2001
DR . Fuster ( my angel)
Dr Poon PS i hope for anew drug soon

 

[Igor]

This week my INR dropped by 0.2 after it has not reached even needed 2.5 level. The coumadin nurse said it might be due to increased exercising ? last week I started walking on treadmill everyday for about an hour on much higher speed. I am too wondering if the real exercising will decrease my INR level when I start either jogging or swimming later on.

 

[KristyW]

Exercise = Good

Exercise = Good

Leo & Igor,

Please don't stop exercising because your INR goes down! Your heart needs the exercise!

It's quite normal that you will need to increase your warfarin/Coumadin dosage as you get better. Your body gets stronger and exercise speeds up your metabolism, so your liver processes the warfarin/Coumadin faster and more efficiently.

So...don't worry about it. Your doctor should adjust your warfarin/Coumadin to keep you within the theraputic INR range. Please don't panic or view it as a failure if you have to take more...we have members here who take 19mg a day and are doing just great!

 

[MarkU]

Interesting. I normally go to the gym five days a week and stick to a pretty consistent diet. I just went on vacation for two weeks and I only got to exercise a couple of times. I was attending a family wedding and although I watched what I ate pretty closely, I had more alcohol than I normally would. On the surface you would think that those factors would bump up my INR, but when I got back I found out it had dropped from 2.7 down to 2.2, the lowest it has been since my surgery 17 months ago. Go figure. I guess that's why I get tested every six weeks...

 

[Guest]

You are correct about doctors and even cardiologists not knowing about exercise affecting the INR.

I had a letter to the editor published in Americal Journal of Cardiology concerning this about two years ago. Nobody every wrote to challenge my theory.

I get a kick out of telling people, "Oh, you are getting better. Then I'm going to have to increase your warfarin dose." When you stop and think about it, the same thing probably happens with other drugs, it is just that we cannot measure their effects so accurately as we can with warfarin.

 

[Missy]

I was always told that exercise would probably increase my inr. I have also read that although I cannot remember where right now. I know I have read it more than once. I wonder why we hear so many conflicting stories.
I personally think my inr increases with exercise. I do not have a protime machine so I don't know with absolute certainty.
Missy

 

[Guest]

Warfarin is only metabolized from the blood that is in the liver. The more efficiently your heart beats, then the more passes through the liver the blood makes. Therefore, more exercise should cause the warfarin to be metabolized more efficiently.

The metabolism takes place very quickly, so the blood flowing very slowly through the liver should not increase metabolism.

There can be other factors such as do you eat less when you are exercising in an attempt to lose weight. If so, you mioght be taking in less vitamin K and thus causing the INR to go up more than the exercise can cause it to go down.

There are so many conflicting stories because there are so many variables. The only reason that I have a lot of information is that I have been doing warfarin monitoring for over 5 years. I have had face-to-face visits on over 13,000 occasions. Everything I know, I learned from somebody else -- there is no magic to it.