Posted on 09/08/2020 7:54:02 AM PDT by ConservativeMind
People taking blood-thinning medications have been told in the past to limit their vitamin K intake. Some researchers now say that may not be the best advice.
Patients taking blood-thinning drugs such as warfarin are told by doctors to reduce their intake of vitamin K because it’s believed too much of this vitamin can decrease the drug’s effectiveness.
This is due to the belief that the vitamin interacts with the body’s clotting process and can interfere with the drug’s blood-thinning properties.
But what if this advice is wrong?
According to a new clinical trial, people taking these drugs should actually be told to increase the amount of vitamin K they consume.
This clinical trial is the first randomized controlled trial testing how people taking warfarin responded to dietary changes aimed at increasing vitamin K intake.
Six months after the study began, 50 percent of the participants who were taught to increase their vitamin K intake were all able to maintain stable anticoagulation levels.
Only 20 percent of those receiving general nutritional counseling achieved a similar improvement.
Guylaine Ferland, lead study author and professor of nutrition at Université de Montréal and scientist at the Montreal Heart Institute Research Centre, said the findings suggest patients on warfarin would significantly benefit from consuming at least 90 micrograms of vitamin K per day for women and 120 micrograms per day for men.
The bottom line
Warfarin is a drug prescribed to patients at risk of dangerous blood clots.
It can slow the body’s production of clotting factors, which are produced using vitamin K.
New research finds levels of vitamin K in a person’s diet can improve, rather than impede the effects of warfarin.
However, there are other vitamins and medications that will affect people taking warfarin, and care must be taken when using them.
(Excerpt) Read more at healthline.com ...
We continue to not help stent and other patients with their long term coronary calcium concerns. I have heard some blood thinning medicines can allow Vitamin K activity to work more normally, and will try to find further information on that.
The science is settled.....We had consensus...............
P
15 years. Dose the diet, don’t try to diet the dose. If you eat greens and a salad 3x a week keep doing it. The dose will be titrations to match. It simple and I haven’t had a problem.
I had a stroke last year, and reduced my Vitamin K after my doc said it could interfere with my meds. Now I’m wondering if that’s the right course. Always fun trying to figure out med interactions—especially when dealing with doctors who are not versed in supplements.
He is now a candidate for "The Watchman", a small implant which stops the pooling in his heart which is where these clots begin and causing him some bleeding.
45 days after the implant (size of a quarter) he can get off of warfarin.
I'm sooooo hopeful for him.
I was on Eliquis for a couple of months AFTER my quad by-pass in April. It’s expensive as hell! But you don’t need to keep doing blood tests.
I was on warfarin while I was in the hospital, and they did so many blood tests I felt like a pin cushion!.............
I had an Mitral heart valve replacement thirty years ago and have always been on warfarin. I Monitor my blood monthly.
In 2006 I had a stent in the heart and now take even more warfarin, also monitoring it very closely.
If I don’t take enough warfarin I start having “mini-strokes”.
Only time I add extra Vitamin K or greens is if I have too thin blood, INR 5 or above. They want me between 3-4 INR.
Not long ago one of the doctors recommended Eliquis instead of warfarin. On the package of Eliquis it stated “Not for people with artificial heart valves.” So it was back to warfarin.
A woman I worked with had the same valve replaced in her heart. On Warfarin, someone told her she could just use aspirin so she did. Dead a few months later of a blood clot.
I get my health care from the VA. I’ve been on warfarin for five years and they’ve always told me not to adjust my vitamin K intake. Rather they have altered my dosage to work with my vitamin K level.
Anyone with an artificial heart valve needs warfarin period. When taking warfarin vitamin K consumption need to remain steady. DO NOT change your vitamin IK consumption without alerting your provider
One thing I NEVER DO with warfarin is self diagnose. I stick to what my physician says to do.
You are very wise
If one is on a blood thinning medicine, you think it is ok to take supplements that have blood thinning properties? It is amazing how many supplements thin the blood.
My father was on a blood thinner.
It was really annoying to him since he really liked to eat, especially green onions, cabbage, etc.
I think he was on for maybe 30 years, until his death in his latter 80s. A stroke sent him downhill fast.
I don’t know if it’s ever been proven Vitamin K causes any problems with stents or if Vitamin K should be removed from the diet if on warfarin, but one thing warfarin does as it thins the blood is it also causes people to bleed like crazy at damaged sites, while Vitamin K specifically causes coagulation at sites of bleeding.
As for taking extra blood thinning agents, like certain enzymes (nattokinase) or Omega-3 oils, those should generally be told to your doctor to likely reduce your prescription needs.
Thanks C.M.
“As for taking extra blood thinning agents, like certain enzymes (nattokinase)”
In 2018, along with other problems, I had a stroke, from which I am pretty thoroughly recovered. I was told to take baby aspirin (80mg). I have been using nattokinase instead.
I have also been supplementing with vitamin K. The reasoning for the Vitamin K was that it helps you to regulate calcium in your bones and in circulation in your blood stream, and would help to prevent calcium from depositing in your circulatory system.
Note that a person has a limited number of vitamin K receptors to fill that produce blood clotting. Once you satisfy the amount of Vitamin K in these sites, additional Vitamin K will NOT produce additional clotting. The excess remains, for a while, in circulation in your blood, where it regulates your calcium levels.
(Does not apply, of course, to hemophiliacs.)
I have afib and a brain bleeding disorder that has caused two subdural hematomas, The bottom line is that I had to stop all blood thinners (tried plavix and warfarin, got brain bleeds on both).
I looked into the watchman — it is a device that goes into the sac in the heart that sometimes develops blood clots because it is not well flushed each heartbeat when one has afib. In my case, I had a procedure on the outside of my heart so they clamped this sac and while it reduces heart blood flow, I also have no blood clotting from this source.
So far so good. But I do get told about this little clamp every-time I have a chest x-ray. Yup, its still there.
I now have afib but can tolerate it and try to control heart rate using meds. Good luck to you friend. KC
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