Question? Alcohol & Blood Thinners

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Yeah, I did check do see if the numbers were consistent with the lastest CDC statistics.

Diseases of the heart is #1 overall cause of death, however if you look in the 0-44 age group, accidents (unitnentional) is the #1 cause of death. Compare the two numbers, side by side not just the overall numbers.

Age 0-45= Accidents
Age 45-85= Disease of the Heart

I'll split it with ya! :)

Age 85 and over: If you notice the numbers almost double in this category for diseases of the heart.

One thing I might add if Diseases of the Heart was the #1 killer in all age groups then the next generation is in big trouble.
 
stats are missleading

stats are missleading

The 10%-20% stroke risk per year is theoretical. There has never been a controlled study of mechanical valve patients not recieving any kind of anticoagulation that Im aware of anyway. The percentage of mechanical valve patients that will form a thrombus on the valve is higher than the 10%-20% stroke risk if anicoagulant is stopped. Just because you get a thrombus (clot) does'nt mean you will have a stroke. The human body has it's own natural ability to rid itself of a clot to a certain extent. All of our body's are different. Some do it better than other's.

Let's say for example that your therepuetic range is 2.5-3.5 but your physician maintains you at 1.5-2.0 (shame on her/him). You could go for months with a small thrombus(clot) on the mechanical valve sewing ring but your body's natural ability keeps the clot from getting bigger and not breaking away and traveling to the brain. Then you are instructed to stop your coumadin for 3-5 day's for an elective procedure (cataract removal, screening colonoscopy, dental procedure, etc). Well the bad news is that the clot will probably get bigger as your inr drops (to big for the body to handle on it's own in most cases) and the thrombus breaks away and travels to the brain (embolic stroke:( )

Then you take the guy who has the mechanical valve and hasn't had anticoagulation for years. Can't remember his name. Just because he didn't have a stroke doesn't mean that he hasn't had a clot on his valve at one time or another. It may be that his body's natural ability to rid itself of clotting works better than most of us.

The point being, everyone's body is different and if your the unlucky one statistics just don't matter. The numbers game (statistics can be very missleading). Lets say for example that Bob's body has the ability to rid itself of clots better than Bill's body. Both of them are on coumadin for a mech mitral valve and both are scheduled for an elective procedure. Both are instructed to stop there coumadin for 4 full day's. The statistic experts would say that the chances of either of them having a stroke are exactly the same when in fact Bill's chance of having a stroke would actually be much higher.
 
catwoman said:
Also:
Alcohol causes dehydration.
Dehydration raises the INR.
If you tie one on without compensating with additional water/nonalcoholic fluids, the concentration/percentage of warfarin in your blood will increase.

One thing I do when I drink alcohol is consume lot's of water. I may drink more water than alcohol that night. I try to drink at least 64oz. of water everyday.

One thing I use to do when I drank lots of alcohol, back in my younger years, is have 1 (8oz.) bottle of water every for 3 (12oz.) beers I drank. This helps you stay hydrated and minimizes the hangover the next morning :)

P.S. I do not drink that much alcohol now :)
 
My Point

My Point

If you drink, you may be walking around with a 2.5 INR already. Is this really thin blood or a false reading. If you drink and take waferin, are you really increasing your INR or is the waferin alone increasing your INR. I'm not talking about drinking a 5th a day, I'm talking about drinking 4 or 5 beers on a Saturday night with the boys then going to the lake on Sunday and drinking 8 or 9 beers over the course of the whole day. You go in on Monday and get a high INR reading. I think my point was misunderstood.
 
dk,
I didn't misundertand your post. Consistent moderation is the key here. Don't drink for 5 days then drink a 12 pack or more in two days.....

I don't think that qualifies for consistent or moderation.

IMHO it would be better to drink a beer or two (or a large glass of red wine would really be optimal) everyday. Then have 3 or 4 on Saturday with the crew and then 3 or 4 spread out all day on Sunday. That could be both relatively consistent and relatively moderate. Oh and not driving on Saturday night after the 3 or 4 exhibits maturity and responsibility.
 
Warrenr

Warrenr

Glad to see you're still dropping in.

Don't mean to hijack this threat, but ...
I remember your posting about a deposition hearing with the doctors in your dad's case. Anything come of that yet?
 
catwoman said:
Mike:

Check out the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's stats -- latest I could find were for 2003, released 4/19/2006.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_13.pdf

short version: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm

According to the CDC, there were 2,448,288 deaths registered in the U.S. during 2003. Of those, 685,089 (#1 on the list, 28% of the total) were due to diseases of the heart and another 157,689 (#3 on the list, 6.4%) were due to cerebrovascular diseases. I don't know how strokes due to clots related to anticoagulation failure/mismanagement would be classified.

Coming in at #5: accidents (unintentional injuries), 109,277, 4.5% of the total.

Among infant mortality causes: #1 was malformations, #10 was circulatory. I'm not sure if a cardiac malformation would be listed under malformation or circulatory system.


I'm pretty sure that cardiac malformation (CHD) falls under #1 since it is the leading cause of death in children, actually twice as many children die from CHDs as ALL forms of pediatric cancers combined (but ped cancer gets 5 xs the funding as chd) which always surprises alot of people since everyone has heard about childrens cancer but most have never heard about CHDs unless someone they know has it. Lyn
 
There is no such thing as an artificially high INR. If your INR is above 5, you are at risk for bleeding. The older you get, the more likely it is to happen.
 
Unless you are an alcoholic, alcohol consumption does not affect your INR level. There is not a single study saying that it does.
 

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