Guidance required please

[Haglington]

Hi, I have recently suffered a massive PE in my lungs which has been dealt with as I was tnrombilised ( lucky I know). I'm now on warfarin indefinitely and I unsure about safe leveles of alcohol I can have and the best way to control my diet to keep my inr level stable. Oh and any other advice would be very welcome.

Thanks in advance

[Beancounter Volunteer]

Hi Haglington and welcome

Many of us are on warfarin, all I would say is don't change your diet, eat healthily and let the warfarin adapt to your diet, don't adapt your diet to the warfarin.

You only really need to avoid cranberry juice, and binging on anything dark green, note I said binging nothing wrong with eating spinach and brocolli, the dosage of your warfarind can be adjusted to take account of what you eat. it doesn;t matter if you are taking 3mg or 12mg, it's always just enough to counter the Vitamin K in your body and give you the anti-coagulant effect,

As for booze?, obviously no binge drinking, sorry but the days of a bottle of wine are gone, but a glass? every day, or even maybe 2 occasionally?. Go for it

Be well

Ian

[BobD Volunteer in reply to Beancounter]

I agree. Make warfarin fit you and your life style NEVER make allowances for it. Many people obsess about the amount of warfarin they have to take but this is not relevant only your INR. I manage on 4.5mg daily but I know of people on 13 mg. It all depends on your metabolism.

Good luck.

Bob

[Haglington in reply to BobD]

Cheers Bob, maybe I'm being over cautious because it's all new to me.

[Haglington in reply to Beancounter]

Thanks. there's no chance of me over doing broccoli and the beer will be a treat every now and then I think

[MarkS]

Hi Haglington,

As you are potentially on warfarin for life, I would recommend a Coaguchek INR monitor. It costs £300 but the test strips should be free. It's the best £300 I've ever spent. It will cut your risk of a future embolism or bleed. Oh and I wouldn't worry too much about alcohol, it has little affect on my INR. Get a monitor and you can eat and drink what you like (within reason!).

Mark

[Haglington in reply to MarkS]

Wow I didn't know about that. I will look into it. Thanks very much

[Tobw]

As far as food goes, I can only echo what others have said. When it comes to alcohol, I followed the advice of no binge drinking and so never had more than two pints of beer or glasses of wine in one "session". I did this for my first three years on Warfarin and never had a problem until I decided to stop drinking alcohol completely in April 2012.

I should say that I also knew of someone on Warfarin who had been taking it for ages and continued with his Saturday night binge drinking as if nothing had changed - he did this for years without suffering any obvious consequences from the risk he was taking. I've lost contact with him in recent years, so I don't know whether he is still having his six pints or so on a Saturday night - I suppose his case could be seen as proof that you can keep on boozing on Warfarin if you were so inclined, but I prefer to think that he was just lucky and was playing a very dangerous game indeed.

[Haglington in reply to Tobw]

Thanks I think I will steer clear of the beer maybe a couple on special occasions