Can I have tea?

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MNmom

I read somewhere on my list of cant haves that I should have no Green Tea. What about black tea? How crazy is it that all healthy things like soy protein, green leafy vegetables, and GREEN TEA have to be moderated or reduced or eliminated. Crazy. Anyone else have other kinds of tea?
 
I read somewhere on my list of cant haves that I should have no Green Tea. What about black tea? How crazy is it that all healthy things like soy protein, green leafy vegetables, and GREEN TEA have to be moderated or reduced or eliminated. Crazy. Anyone else have other kinds of tea?

You can have anything you want, anything......just be consistent.....I'm not much on green tea although I do drink it from time to time but I drink GALLONS of black tea (iced).......dose the diet, never diet the dose....."still stable after all these years" (INR wise that is:p)
 
I read somewhere on my list of cant haves that I should have no Green Tea. What about black tea? How crazy is it that all healthy things like soy protein, green leafy vegetables, and GREEN TEA have to be moderated or reduced or eliminated. Crazy. Anyone else have other kinds of tea?

Of course you can have black tea, there's no Vit K in it, or not enough to matter. You can have green tea, too, if you drink it on a regular basis, though you may have to adjust your dosage of coumadin upwards if what you drink actually has lots of vit K in it. Some do not.

There is nothing you can't have, including soy and green leafy veggies. Dose the diet, don't diet the dose, and if you are knowingly adding in extra vitamin K sources to your diet (green teas, lots of spinach or brussels sprouts, etc.), or otherwise changing things around, be sure to test weekly. The only thing you need be concerned about is sudden splurges or sudden withdrawal from your vitamin k sources or activities, and then it just means adjustments to dosage if you test regularly.

Sometimes they fill us full of nonsense in the hospital, and with the written materials, because not very many medical providers really understand managing coumadin/warfarin. The key is reasonable consistency. We have a fair number of vegetarians/vegans on coumadin, and you don't see them starving to death. In fact, if you try to eliminate Vit K from your diet, or minimize it, you will have a much harder time stabilizing your INR.

Go visit Al Lodwick's site. See the stickies up top of this forum! Eat!
 
I am vegetarian so I eat soy products including soy milk. I eat greens etc...EVERYTHING...NO RESTRICTIONS. I take 5 / 6mg warfarin alternate days. Only become unstable when I am ''unstable'' (ill, or more ill than usual).!!!
 
Perhaps your not hearing us. You can have anything you want and the coumadin will be adjusted to include that in your diet. You must be fairly consistent.

Dose the diet-Don't diet the dose X Infinity.
 
A few years ago a friend of mind gave me some really lovely mint tea from mint she had grown. I had a few cups a day and then one day took my INR. Oh wow, was it low! I realized it was the home grown mint tea. Since I knew I wasn't going to make a daily habit of it, I decided to just make it a rare occasion treat. And I keep it on had for very high INRs.

I don't drink black tea because of caffiene. Been off "the stuff" (caffiene that is) for years, so it really sends my heart racing. But I do drink decaf black tea.
 
I have always eaten green leafy vegs +/-6 days a week, every week of the year since my surgery. Ditto for black tea. I've never tried green tea. Adjust your warfarin to YOUR NORMAL LIFESTYLE !!!:D
 
Who gave you a list of "can't haves"?

There are lists of things that will lower your INR and those that will tend to increase your INR.

I love licorice and that will affect the INR -- don't remember which direction. I got a box of the licorice gumdrops this weekend while I was in St. Louis. My niece & her hubby treated me to dim sum (sp?) yesterday at a really Chinese restaurant on Olive Blvd. in St. Louis. I loved the seaweed salad!!! That will drop the INR, but so what? If I were staying on that type of diet, I'd be needing to adjust my dosage upward.

I eat lots of dark green things. I just try to be fairly consistent with my eating habits.
I had a chicken dish Friday at TGI Friday's at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport that had some nice pieces of broccoli in it. On Saturday, I had a small caesar salad at lunch and an Italian salad at dinner. I had the seaweed salad yesterday, so I'm going to skip salad tonight.

I don't stay away from things just because I'm on warfarin.
 
ok ok

ok ok

So I am catching on, dose the diet. It is easier said that done when I am paranoid about my 1.6 INR and aunt leaving tomorrow, so no more professional shot givers! She did teach my husband, who successfully shot me this evening. Yeah. Its actually getting better (the shots). I think it is 80% mental. They dont hurt as much, bleed as much, or bruise as much as they did at first. Or maybe its just becoming too common. Anyway, I am going in tomorrow without hope of getting off the shots, that way I wont be disappointed and angry when they tell me to keep them up. Its kindof a game now: how many MGs will it take? I have been walking in the evenings, and im sure that will have an effect too, but if I waited to walk until my INR was in range, then it wouldnt be in range anymore! So I am trying to get on with my life and recover as if I didnt need to worry so much about my stinkin INR.
Thanks a lot for all the helpful information and support!
Ingrid
 
When I was being released after surgery, I was given an 'Anticoagulation Program' book, put out by Baystate Medical Center, the hospital I had my surgery in. It states:

'You should avoid green tea, herbal teas that include tonka beans, woodruff, and melilot because of their significant effect on the PT/INR.'

When I asked a nutritionist about this, she laughed and said, 'but you don't EAT the tea leaves, you just drink the steeped liquid. I doubt that should make much of a difference, being so diluted.

I still drink green tea...the choice is yours!
 
By golly Ingrid, you are catching on.:D You will soon learn how to manage this "stinkin INR" stuff just like the rest of us. Although some in the medical profession think its "rocket science", it really isn't. If it were, an old Kentucky hillbilly like me wouldn't be able to handle it. :eek::eek:
 
Of course you can have black tea, there's no Vit K in it, or not enough to matter. You can have green tea, too, if you drink it on a regular basis, though you may have to adjust your dosage of coumadin upwards if what you drink actually has lots of vit K in it. Some do not.

There is nothing you can't have, including soy and green leafy veggies. Dose the diet, don't diet the dose, and if you are knowingly adding in extra vitamin K sources to your diet (green teas, lots of spinach or brussels sprouts, etc.), or otherwise changing things around, be sure to test weekly. The only thing you need be concerned about is sudden splurges or sudden withdrawal from your vitamin k sources or activities, and then it just means adjustments to dosage if you test regularly.

Sometimes they fill us full of nonsense in the hospital, and with the written materials, because not very many medical providers really understand managing coumadin/warfarin. The key is reasonable consistency. We have a fair number of vegetarians/vegans on coumadin, and you don't see them starving to death. In fact, if you try to eliminate Vit K from your diet, or minimize it, you will have a much harder time stabilizing your INR.

Go visit Al Lodwick's site. See the stickies up top of this forum! Eat!


Ya, I'm eating and drinking everything I use to. I'm on month 3 now since my surgery valve replacement and in the process of stabilizing my INR..I figure if i don't drink and eat anything I want right now and my INR would be stable. But I'm eating and fine tuning my doses of WARFARIN for what im eating..
 
The person who tells you things that you cannot eat is in effect saying, "I have determined what warfarin dose that you are to take. Now it is your duty to change your lifestyle to prove that I know what I am doing."
 
Can we make a plaque of that statement and send it to every Coumadin Clinic/Manager in the world?
 
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