I need a list of food restrictions for person taking the medicine called coumadin or warfarin?

Answer 1

Well, Vitamin K is the big one....but you can eat as much of it as you want as long as you are CONSISTENT with it. I am on both Coumadin and aspirin and eat a diet high in Vitamin K.

Vitamin K and warfarin can be thought of a sitting on opposite sides of a teeter totter. What you do to one side will affect the other side. However, this does not mean that you cannot bring things back into balance.

Foods that are high in Vitamin K include asparagus, leaf lettuce, broccoli, cabbage and others. What a person taking warfarin needs to do is avoid making large changes in the consumption of these foods. If you routinely eat large amounts of these and start taking warfarin, you will need a higher dose of warfarin than if you did not eat as much of the high vitamin K foods. Remember, it is not the dose of warfarin that you take that is important, it is your INR.

Almost everyone will go out to a dinner and occasionally eat much more vegetables that they normally consume. This will cause the INR to decrease (increase your risk of getting a blood clot) in about 36 to 72 hours. Is this important? It could be, but in most cases, you will, "get away with it". This is because you will return to your normal amount of vegetable consumption after this one meal and your INR will not be down for very long.

Where the major risk occurs is when a person taking warfarin decides to go on a diet and increase their eating of salads. This tends to decrease the INR for longer periods of time and puts them at significant risk of developing a blood clot. If you are going to switch to this type of diet, discuss it with the person monitoring your warfarin. so that your INR can be checked and the warfarin dose adjusted accordingly.

Another source of vitamin K which is frequently overlooked are the supplements such as Carnation Instant Breakfast, Ensure and Boost. These contain significant amounts of vitamin K. The TV advertising does not adequately warn the consumer of this. Physicians often overlook this also. When I see a thin, elderly lady whose INR is suddenly low, the reason she often gives is that her doctor told her to start taking one of these supplements. It is usually necessary to increase the warfarin dose after these products are started.

Many people do not consider taking vitamins as taking "drugs". They start and stop without much thought. If they lack energy, they start vitamins. If they lack money, they stop vitamins. This probably the single largest reason why people cannot get their warfarin dose regulated. They do not consider these items to be important. However, they are very important. Taking vitamins on an occasional basis will cause the INR to fluctuate so that the warfarin dose cannot be regulated.

What about the opposite, decreasing your intake of vitamin K. This usually happens when someone becomes ill and cannot eat. If you are unable to eat your normal amount of vegetables for two or three days, your INR will begin to increase (increase your risk of bleeding). It is important that you have your INR checked and your warfarin dose adjusted if this happens. This is hard to do because you are feeling so bad that you do not want to go out of the house, but it can be important. Stomach flu and cancer chemotherapy are two of the reasons that this happens.

People also use "fruitsandvegetables" as if they were one and the same. You will notice that when I listed foods that were high in vitamin K, there were no fruits listed. Whenever, I asking someone about changes in their eating patterns and they say, " I haven't been eating many vegetables, BUT, I have been eating a lot of fruit," I know that their INR is most likely high. You need to consider fruits and vegetables as two separate things as far as warfarin is concerned.

The dried leaves of green tea contain a large amount of vitamin K. Unless you eat the leaves, as they do in some cultures, this is usually not a cause for concern. Brewing tea results in only a small amount of vitamin K in each serving. There has been at least one case reported where a person lowered their INR by drinking about 1/2 to 1 gallon of green tea daily for about one week.

http://www.warfarinfo.com/foods.htm

You cannot eat green vegetables while taking warfarin? Does this person think that no vegetarian ever took warfarin. The more vegetables you eat, the higher your warfarin dose will need to be because you will be taking in more vitamin K which is the antagonist of warfarin, but so what. Don't you need to eat a healthy diet?

In the same aspect, you need to carefully of foods and medications that will increase your INR such as cranberry juice, antibotics, etc.

So, be consistent with EVERYTHING that you do and take, right down to the brand name.

I have given you a mess of sites below to help you weed through interactions...as it isn't only food you need to be concerned with.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

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Answer 4

Foods To Avoid With Coumadin

Answer 5

Warfarin Foods To Avoid

Answer 6

Lots of foods can affect coumadin levels. It's actually more important to have a consistent diet that doesn't vary much from day to day. For example, grapefruit can raise the INR level with coumadin. However, if you eat a grapefruit every day as part of your diet and your doctor is aware of it and adjusts the medicine accordingly, it's okay. However if you change your diet (i.e. adding eating a lot fo grapefruit when you don't usually or cutting it out if you used to eat it every day for example), it could throw off the level down the line. Discuss this with your doctor.

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Answer 7

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Answer 8

Best thing to do to find out what food restrictions are for someone taking warfarin is to go to Google.com and type in the name of the medicine. It will give you a list of sites that you can go and check the information out. Some sites do have list of food restrictions

Answer 9

All fruits are fruit and vegetables. A "vegetable" is a plant, any part of which can be used for food.

Answer 10

In the superstore, fruits are usually picked out far too soon. Some are rocks, many are bad. Some of the fresh vegetables are generally right (zucchini, onions, garlic, lettuce, greens, and a few others) so I'd have to go with vegetables.

Answer 11

Dear Pumpkin,

Coumadin and warfarin are blood thinners. These drugs are usually given to people who are prone to clots or have restricted blood flow. Any food that causes dehydration or loss of water from the circulatory system is dangerous. Caffeine in coffee and soda are most likely restricted. However, I would consult your physician to be safe.