Garcinia supplemental and INR

[Igor]

Just wondering if anybody had any experience taking Garcinia - natural appetite suppressing herbal supplement. I am trying to loose a few lbs and noticed that this product probably works for me. According to the search i made on internet it should not effect INR at all nor anything else.

 

[Guest]

I haven't heard ot it. If you decide to take it, let us know what happens with your INR.

 

[Igor]

Sure. I started on Saturday and will be checking my INR once a week.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Pretty sure herbal supplements raise your INR. Good luck to you. If you find it's a mircle pill and works with the Coumadin....please let us know

 

[Blanche]

Igor:
An acquaintance had good success with a pure extract of Garcinia. I was interested in trying this myself (I don't take Coumadin). I found a number of products that contained Garcinia also contained other ingriedents, such as green tea, chromium, ginger, fennel. These are things that sould be used with caution by those who are on anticoagulation therapy. I also noted some warnings that cause me pause. For example, some of the products noted that those with high blood pressure should avoid the supplement. I also saw that some products said that they contained significant amounts of vitamin C. Additionally, I wondered about the statement, "Garcinia has been used as a heart tonic." My experience is that something used as a heart tonic usually either involves prothrombin or platelets. Other statements involved antioxident properties.

Disregarding anticoagulation for now, great care should be used with choosing diet remedies because many of them still contain MaHaung/ephedra, which are stimulants. I had great success on one natural diet supplement, until my friends insisted that I go to the emergency room because my pulse and I were both racing. Appears the MaHuang caught up with me and my blood pressure was 200/90. The emergency room docs conjectured that my problems were caused by too much caffine or a hangover--both not possible since I don't do caffine or alcohol. But, low and behold, my natural diet pill also contained caffine. Caused me and my cardiologist one hell of a scare.

I have always been a firm believer in the power and benefit of herbal medicine and natural remedies. It is important, however, to remember that many poisons are "natural" too. Also, with someone on anticoagulation, an INR may not tell the whole story because some natural things also effect the platelets in ways similar to aspirin and plavix. These effects do not show up on a prothrombin test.

I am not trying to discourage anyone from trying something that seems to have benefit. I do, however, strongly suggest that one should be informed about ALL of the components in a preparation and aware of the possible effects of those components on their health conditions and current medications.

Kind regards,
Blanche

 

[Guest]

Ma Huang or ephedra are especially bad. Please look at my web page http://www.warfarinfo.com/ephedra.htm

There are two other problems with many nautral products. Since they are not regulated as drugs, there is no law that says that they have to contain what they say is in them. There have been several articles in medical journals where they tested natural products off the shelves in stores and a significant portion of them contained 0% of the "active ingredient"

Every week the FDA recall list shows a bunch of "natural" products mainly imported ones that contain prescription drugs such as furosemide, thyroid etc are what really makes them work. To me this is an admission by the manufacturers that they knew that the natural product was going to have no effect and they knew that the only way they could make people think that the junk worked was to put a real medication in it.

 

[Igor]

Thanks for all your concerns. I was aware of all the issues associated with the diet pills and am trying this just because it is a pure extract from Gardenia and does not have anything else.
I checked my INR on Thursday and it was 2.7 .

 

[Blanche]

Igor:
Let us know how the Garcinia works for you. http://www.herbalprovider.com/garcinia-cambogia.html?src=ggl&w=garcinia is a site that deals with the pure extract.
Blanche