If it were only that simple - I'd be out of business.
Actually greens appear to play only a minor role in maintaining the INR. In my experience, exercise and things that affect the thyroid (please see
http://warfarinfo.com/iodine.htm ) play a much more important role than greens. I saw a woman who ate a whole bag of cole slaw mix during the two days before I measured her INR. It went down to 0.2 units from the previous month and two days later was back up those 0.2 units. Almost a pound of cabbage in excess of her usual diet made practically no difference. I have finally convinced the dietitians and nurses at my hospital to quit scaring people with the green vegetable legends. People seem much more at ease about taking warfarin if they have not been threatened with death if they eat two extra forks of lettuce.
If someone who has been in good health comes to the clinic with a broken ankle, however, I can almost guarantee that their INR will be high because they are not getting the usual amount of exercise.
I do agree that being constant in what you do is the biggest factor. The easiest people to manage are those with barely the mental capacity to live alone. Every day they get up, eat a bowl of cereal, wash the bowl, watch TV until lunch time, eat a peanut butter sandwich, wash the dishes, watch TV until suppertime and then have a bologna sandwich, wash the dishes and watch TV until bedtime, take their warfarin and go to sleep. They seldom exercise or go anywhere else. Their INR is always the same and their warfarin dose never varies. The hardest to manage are the street people. The do not sleep set hours, never know where their next meal will come from, and rarely take anything such as medication on a set schedule.
