Taking Warfarin? You MUST Read This!
All drugs come with a long list of side effects and a fair share of warnings.
Don’t take this drug with that one.
Don’t eat grapefruit while taking Lipitor.
Don’t drink alcohol while taking Xanax.
But if you’ve been taking the blood thinning drug warfarin, there’s one warning you should COMPLETELY IGNORE.
Warfarin (brand name Coumadin) is a blood-thinning drug people take when they have a problem with blood clotting. Technically it’s called an anticoagulant.
If you’re taking warfarin, you’ve most likely been warned not to eat leafy greens like spinach because they have a high vitamin K content.
Vitamin K is known for its role in helping the blood to clot (in fact, the “K” in vitamin K comes from the German word for koagulation).
So it would make sense that eating spinach could counteract the effects of warfarin. At least, that’s what doctors, researchers, and the entire medical community thought.
But a group of researchers put this medical belief to the test, and as it turns out…
They were completely wrong.
Scientists studied 46 patients between 32 and 85 years old who were having trouble maintaining healthy anticoagulation levels.
Half received dietary counseling, while the other half received dietary counseling that specifically promoted adding green vegetables and oils with vitamin K to their diets.
After six months, only 20% of the people not instructed to consume more vitamin K had maintained stable coagulation levels.
Compare this to a full 50% of the people instructed to actually eat more foods with vitamin K.
Imagine that!
These results fly in the face of the mainstream’s advice for people taking warfarin… and actually suggest that consuming MORE vitamin K will lead to BETTER results!
These results have led the lead researcher to actually start recommending that people on warfarin get between 90-120 micrograms of vitamin K per day.
Talk about a 180!
Bottom line: The results of this preliminary study suggest that more vitamin K in the diet is actually good for you. The important point is to keep vitamin K intake high but steady in order to maintain warfarin’s efficiency. It’s also a good idea to discuss this with your doctor.
