New Wafrin "patient"

I am 67 year old wife, mother and granny, recently broke my femur and complications like pneumonia set in. Have been prescribed Wafrin and very unsettled as to the seriousness of this medication. Do not want to consume ANYTHING I shouldnt🤔 I have established here that I may have an egg to eat. Tomatoes...? Beetroot? .....adding to my woes😄I am on low/no carb diet.😂......thanks for allowing me to chat. I wish You All Well🌻

[Hidden]

Hi Tanager,

Do not panic .... sorry gotta keep this short as i'm going to work ... look up on line say .... Warfarin and diet, and regardless of what website you end up on you'll get some idea of what you can and cannot eat with Warfarin.

Also, if you are a bit Tech savvy, and if you can afford it, consider the purchase of the Roche Coaguchek XS. Do check out the Roche website. This will enable you to self test your warfarin INR levels at home ... at any time you like .... thereby enabling you to monitor, regularly and precisely what your INR levels are, compared to where they should be.

The main thing to remember with a Warfarin diet is to be consistent in all you eat. Try and moderate intake of green leafy veggies though ( although I still eat them).

Not sure about tomatoes but I would think beetroot is out. Doesn't bother me I hate the stuff anyway

I've been on Warfarin for nearly 10 years ( I was 65 at the time) - and there are some on this forum who have been on much longer with very little problems. I have had two surgical procedures, one a knee replacement, where I have had to stop Warfarin and then restart it again. No problems.

I wouldn't think staying on a low/ no carb diet would be a problem, so long as you are consistent.

I must say, I've have made very few concessions to Warfarin, including alcohol ( Not sure that's anything to boast about though )

John

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

I don't like beetroot much either nor grapefruit so it was no loss when they said not to have grapefruit with prescribed medications.

[cheritorrox]

Warfarin acts on vitamin K so you need to try to keep foods high in vit K consistent - if you're not sure what those foods are, check out in the link below (which is also v helpful for lchf if you want to check carbs etc)

tools.myfooddata.com/

NB If you do the ranking and use 100g as the amount, dont choose "all foods" as it'll give you herbs and spices at the top when obviously we don't eat that quantity - better to look at "fruit" or "veg"

I do lchf and only avoid broccoli and other dark green veg (partly coz don't like em much!) You can eat anything and your dosage can then be adjusted to keep your INR in range - eg I eat blueberries and kiwi fruit nearly every day.

Also please DONT PANIC if your INR fluctuates from one control to the next, especially when just starting ... they will probably test more frequently eg every fortnight until it settles down.

[siouxbee19 in reply to cheritorrox]

That's the key word...consistency! You don't have to stop eating anything (except perhaps grapefruit), just remain consistent with your intake.

And I like your advice about not to be overly concerned about "minor" fluctuations in INR. I've been on Warfarin for a year and 4 months now, and I've still had it fluctuate after many checks of being normal. I didn't make any changes in meds or eat more greens, they aren't sure why the high INR. So fluctuations can happen, they just want it between 2.5-3.0.

Best to you!

[cheritorrox in reply to siouxbee19]

I'm actually on sintrom but it acts like warfarin - here in Spain the "allowed" range is 2-3. On very rare occasions when I've gone below 1.5 a couple of heparin injections sorted it out! As you say, they don't know why fluctuations occur .... fortunately for now mine seems to have settled down x

[MazzyB]

Hi, I’ve been on warfarin for a few years now, I eat eggs tomatoes and beetroot! I have eggs almost every day didn’t realise that you shouldn’t the only thing I thought was Cranberry. Hope you get on ok.

[Shar28]

Hi. My husband has been on Warfarin for about 20months now. He eats virtually anything and everything, except for cranberries. So plenty of broccoli, cabbage etc. He takes Ubiquinol (a form of Q10) too. His INR settled over time as he healed up from his heart surgery and he stays within range now, being tested every couple of months or so.

It seems to depend very much between individuals. Hopefully in a few months’ time things will have settled and you’ll feel more confident with it.

[Shar28]

Oh I should have said... he was told by the Warfarin clinic/GP to eat a healthy balanced diet and maintain the supplements he takes (like Ubiquinol), drink alcohol to government guidelines if he wants and let the Warfarin dose be adjusted to his diet, not the other way around. If he changes anything significantly then he should get his INR tested more frequently to be on the safe side.

[cheritorrox in reply to Shar28]

Sounds like the way they look after it here - hope all this is reassuring Hidden !!! x

[moo196]

Dose the diet, don't diet the dose..... Was the best advice I was given when I was on warfarin.

I'm a vegetarian and regularly eat at least 3-4 of the "banned" foods daily eg chickpeas curry with broccoli or a nice spinach, avocado and blue cheese salad.

It meant I needed higher doses of warfarin but kept my intake of other vitamins at a good level (and my spirits up).

I'm glad I didn't invest in the coagucheck machine.... It would have been a worry. INR will naturally fluctuate. Consistency of diet is the key. If you regularly eat vitamin K rich foods you can adjust the dose of your medication.

[Jomomo]

It's two years later. How did you do on warfarin??