So stop skimping on the Vitamin K already

[pellicle]

https://www.ecu.edu.au/news/latest-...idence-of-vitamin-k-benefits-for-heart-health

... ignore the ill advised agitation about not eating properly, and just dose the diet for goodness sake

 

[Chuck C]

Agreed. I typically eat two large salads per day and never worry about counting my vitamin K intake.

When given a choice between a salad and a "big" salad, go for the big salad.

 

[almost_hectic]

Do so gradually and watch your INR... don't go whole hog on the greens and then be surprised when youre dangerously below your INR range.

 

[Astro]

I agree with Pellicle, I eat a lot of salads and try to be fairly consistent with frequency and amount. My warfarin doses reflect my salad intake, rather than avoiding to salads to protect a warfarin dose.

 

[ClickerTicker]

I heartily agree about dosing the diet not dieting the dose. Having relatively recently become aware of the benefits of Vitamin K and the risk of calcification if it's low, I've been taking Vitamin K supplements for some months.
My INR target range is between 3 and 4 as I have a mechanical Mitral Valve.
I take 200mcg of Vitamin K2 MK7 daily, my multivitamin also has 75mcg of K1.
Very little affect on my INR. In fact I'm sure I read somewhere that taking a regular Vitamin K supplement acts to stabilise your INR - bit like a flywheel I suppose.
Anyway, bring on the salads and spinach!!

 

[dick0236]

For the first 10-15 years after my surgery, I was not aware of a vit K issue.......so I ate and drank without concern. Then a "Coumadin Cook Book" came out and the overreactions to vit K began........from simply being aware of vit K dietary intake to abandoning Vit K foods altogether or measuring out the vit K of foods they ate. Now the general feeling is to eat a balanced diet, and include vit K routinely.......just don't pig out............works for me

 

[pellicle]

...I eat a lot of salads and try to be fairly consistent with frequency and amount. My warfarin doses reflect my salad intake,

Personally i cant find any variance in my dose that corresponds to salads.
I've gone a week of spinach in everything, to a week of only meat, potato, oats dairy and bread.

Can't see a difference.

 

[pellicle]

In fact I'm sure I read somewhere that taking a regular Vitamin K supplement acts to stabilise your INR -

Me too, pretty sure I post that here from time to time too...

 

[pellicle]

may as well put these here then

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27346552/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16305294/
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00990158

 

[Astro]

Personally i cant find any variance in my dose that corresponds to salads.
I've gone a week of spinach in everything, to a week of only meat, potato, oats dairy and bread.

Can't see a difference.

That’s an interesting idea. Does vitamin K from greens really have a strong effect on INR? The mechanism is plausible because warfarin blocks formation of the active form of vitamin K that is required for blood clotting factors. Just because it is plausible doesn’t mean that it works. Are there any randomised trials to confirm this effect?

ClickerTicker’s and Pellicle’s idea about the flywheel stabilisation of INR is also interesting.

Sounds like we need a randomised controlled trial with 3 arms:
1) Low greens diet
2) High green diet
3) Low dose vit K supplements

The trial would look at the resultant warfarin and INR levels and importantly the stability of the INR levels.

 

[pellicle]

Sounds like we need a randomised controlled trial with 3 arms:
1) Low greens diet
2) High green diet
3) Low dose vit K supplements

I've already conducted my own personal trial on that a few times and found that there was nothing significant to observe. Its worth noting that the amount of Vitamin K required to make a dent in your INR (based on reversal guidelines and my own experiences) is about 1000 times more than you're likely to get in daily food.

None the less, such a trial would be good however getting that orgainsed would probably only happen here and require rigorous execution and measurement. So that's probably unlikely.

My mantra is always "measure and know thyself" , said in parallel with "proper scientific process".