Newbie to community. Any such thing as a warfarin diet sheet that also accounts for a diabetic diet?

[Halifaxed]

Am insulin dependent. Diets for diabetic damage repair and weight loss contain many foods with high Vitamin K content. Vitamin K intake should be kept to a minimum while on Warfarin. Has anyone seen a combination of diets reducing Vitamin K while trying to repair damage done by diabetes? I would appreciate link to such a diet. Thank you, all.

[Hidden]

Hi Halifaxed and welcome to the gang. Let me begin by saying that most of us, me included, are not doctors but are patients like you so can only relate from our experiences and do not carry the authority of a well trained clinician.

I am no expert on diabetes but I think I understand your question although I am not sure of the difference between managing diabetes and repairing the damage caused by diabetes. Anyway you are quite correct that a high vitamin K diet will counteract the therapeutic effects of warfarin to some extent. I found the two links below which might be of some help but do look for other websites too.

livestrong.com/article/2721...

livestrong.com/article/4834...

You haven't mentioned why you are on warfarin or if it is for the long term. If you are on long term warfarin then I have two other comments which may help.

Firstly it is not the absolute content of vitamin K in your diet which is so important as the variability of it. A diet that is fairly high in vitamin K need not be impossible so long as you keep a regular diet and regular Vitamin K intake and adjust your warfarin dose accordingly. Changing from High level vitamin K intake to low and then back again will certainly give you fluctuations in INR so keep it steady and keep your warfarin at the right level to stay in therapeutic range of INR.

Secondly, if you do have a diet high in vitamin k and it is prone to change then "self monitoring" your INR with your own test machine will allow you, like me, to test more frequently than is likely with NHS monitoring and then you can adjust your warfarin dosage more frequently if necessary. Let me know if you wish to know more about self monitoring and I will let you know.

All the best with it and do please let us know how you get on; there must be many more out there who are diabetic and are on Warfarin and are interested in your outcome.

[Halifaxed in reply to Hidden]

Dear Mr. Birt, thank you for your very prompt and interesting reply to my query. I have learnt quite a lot from you in that Vitamin K intake needs to remain fairly stable. I have also looked at the links and again thank you. Just for information, I had a DVT in May and am on a six-month course of Warfarin. I have been diabetic for 17 years and recently discovered that my treatment is designed to slow down the many ways in which the disease damages the body. Only recently, I found books and websites that claim to have ways of repairing the damage, one of which is through weight loss. However, none of those sources provide low-vitamin K diets and in fact many diets are very rich in it. I will continue my research and if I can keep the INR up and repair some damage, I will post my findings here. Kindest regards, Ed Halifax

[olddodds]

HI.

Just to reiterate as to what P.Birt said. Like you i am on Warfarin, & have been so since. 2005. I think you can get hung up on what to eat & drink, as to what affects your INR. Yes a high vitamin K intake { such as dark vegetables & liver } will have an effect on your INR, as does most foods, & drinks. But if you keep a regular diet, & do not binge on anything, you should be okay. { CRANBERRIES A NO NO } More to the point, if you are on any other medication, always ask your GP how they will affect your INR. Then always let your Coagulation/dosage controllers know. There is a lot of information available in a quarterly magazine called the INReview { ACE} It is £ 10.00 a year, & is well worth subscribing to. Lots of help & info for Warfarin users, i would certainly recommend it.

I hope this helps you.

Regards

Peter

[Halifaxed in reply to olddodds]

Dear Peter, I'm very grateful for your taking time to reply. Thank you. My INR was steady for several weeks around 2.5 but then it suddenly dropped to 1.3 and I think it may be because I changed my regular diet to one that claims to repair damage done by diabetes. So, I started eating a lot of spinach and greens that I suddenly discovered are high in vitamin K. I suspect that caused the drop. What I'm trying to do is repair diabetes damage while keeping to a good Warfarin diet. I posted the question hoping someone may have combined the two diets. It seems there is a gap for such a diet so I'll continue to research the idea. thanks for the tip to avoid cranberries. I will.

[Halifaxed]

Dear Peter, I'm very grateful for your taking time to reply. Thank you. My INR was steady for several weeks around 2.5 but then it suddenly dropped to 1.3 and I think it may be because I changed my regular diet to one that claims to repair damage done by diabetes. So, I started eating a lot of spinach and greens that I suddenly discovered are high in vitamin K. I suspect that caused the drop. What I'm trying to do is repair diabetes damage while keeping to a good Warfarin diet. I posted the question hoping someone may have combined the two diets. It seems there is a gap for such a diet so I'll continue to research the idea. thanks for the tip to avoid cranberries. I will.