[Tina]

Hi,
I've been taking Coumadin for a DVT. Thankfully, I just have to take it for a few more months.

My question is--How do you lose weight???
Since I am limited to the kinds of fruits and veggies that I can really eat, I'm not losing anymore.
I've been told I can at the high vitamin k ones, in very small amounts. How can anyone eat a leaf of lettuce and one floweret of brocolli.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Tina

[HopefulAgain]

It's not that you cannot eat any veggies with high vitamin K AT ALL. This is a common misconception.

It's that you want to keep your intake of these veggies CONSISTENT.

For example, if you always ate spinach twice a week or broccoli every other day, you don't want to change that. You don't want to drastically REDUCE or INCREASE your intake of these veggies. That is what will affect the action of the Coumadin and in turn, your INR levels----A change in intake.

Besides that, there are lots and lots of veggies that can be still eaten that won't affect Coumadin.

Check this factsheet out from the National Institute of Health:
http://ods.od.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/coumadin1.pdf

Good luck!

[mercuryblue]

I think that is more of a question to ask your doctor. Just so you know for your own peace of mind. Vitamin K helps our blood clot, an abundance of vitamin K in the body makes the blood too thick. Coumadin thins the blood and helps to reduce the activity of Vitamin K, so eating a lot of leafy greens (dark leafy greens, like kale and spinach for example) will counteract what the coumadin does. Im sure your coumadin dose is to keep within a therapeutic range. You can eat that stuff, but probably once a week. but since you should be eating a balanced diet, everything should be in moderation anyhow? so asking your doctor how much stuff like that would affect your coumadin is a good question for them to answer. You should be going to get your blood drawn weekly or every 2 weeks to see what your INR is, and then your medication would be adjusted for that. Even smoking is bad for when taking coumadin, since a lot of the things we eat or do can effect blood in some way. I say just keep your meals balanced.

In the case of vitamins, Ive seen people taking handfulls of them at the same time and it gets me wondering. Don't take them all at once. Because some vitamins and minerals interact in a way that depletes absorption rates. Do not take calcium with multivitamins or zinc and iron supplements since calcium blocks their absorption. Fat soluble vitamins--A, D, E, and K--should be taken with food containing some fat. I know you werent really asking about the vitamins, but it just shows how these interact together aswell.

[Tina]

HopefulAgain and mercuryblue, thank you so much for your posts.
I have asked my doctor and he said to eat a little every day but didn't tell me how much. The nurse that reports my pt/inr readings said I could eat 1 1/2 cups a week but implied I should have 3 days of 1/2 cup servings.
Thanks for the website, too.
Whatever I'm eating is keeping my level within range. I'm just not losing weight right now.