Food diary.....do you use one?

[coffeelover]

anyone keep track of their vitamin K intake

 

[pellicle]

Hi

I always watch what I eat ... keeps me from spilling it on my shirt.

I did extensive careful vitamin K rich analysis with measurement of INR twice weekly for 3 months. Even eating 500g ( thats over a pound) of spinach in one sitting made no observable difference to my INR. So now I just eat what I want and measure once a week and leave it at that.

PS: you do however observe you have eaten 500g of spinach next morning at the loo...

 

[skeptic49]

> So now I just eat what I want and measure once a week and leave it at that.

And that is how you manage your INR. Period.

Jim

 

[dick0236]

I also eat what I want. I am mindful of the vit K content of my food and try to stay fairly consistent .....but it has never occurred to me to use a diary. If my INRs are running a little lo, I lay off the greens a little....and if they're hi, I eat an extra salad or two. I have never been able to closely correlate my INR to diet......but I do think you can "treek" it with diet.

 

[ajc1991]

I also eat what I want. I am mindful of the vit K content of my food and try to stay fairly consistent .....but it has never occurred to me to use a diary. If my INRs are running a little lo, I lay off the greens a little....and if they're hi, I eat an extra salad or two. I have never been able to closely correlate my INR to diet......but I do think you can "treek" it with diet.

This is exactly what I've been doing. And it's been working for me.

 

[Bina]

No problem at all with my INR and i have learned not to obsess about vitamin K.
My meals are all prepared at home and are healthy.... Broccoli 2x weekly, organic spinach leaves 3x weekly, and a mix
of carrots, peas, beans, brussel sprouts, etc. on random days. LOVE my veggies.

 

[tom in MO]

Not I. Coffeelover, why do you ask? The food diary is old school and when I was looking around 3 years ago, it was only in "historical" literature.

 

[Cooker]

I eat what I want and then I eat it again .... dose the diet ...

 

[DebbyA]

I came back to check this thread because I was thinking I'd have to be resigned to keeping track of vitamin K. My INR was 3.8 last week and 1.8 this week. I've had some periods of stability in the past year, but it seems to get out of whack with antibiotics, travel, who knows what. Bina, your diet sounds stable even though you don't monitor it. We'll have a day where we hike with a cheese sandwich for lunch, then come home tired and order pizza for supper. Another day was a pot luck that included baby kale salad. And some of you appear to think diet doesn't influence INR anyhow.

Has the test strip problem been straightened out? Maybe I should see if I can be approved for self testing, if I can stay stable long enough.

 

[Bina]

DebbyA, some members have reported that long usage of antibiotics can affect their INR and others have also reported that travel can affect INR.
I don't travel and I don't take antibs more than 1 dose for the dentist visit, so I can't help there, but otherwise make sure that any dose changes that you make are warranted and kept track of
on your calendar. Home monitoring is the way to go. NO problem with my test strips for the Coaguchek XS in Canada.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

I've been on antibiotics for some years now, I've not personally found that it effects my INR (when compared to the pre antibiotic period). Naturally YMMV.

DebbyA, if you wish to discuss your INR variance please email me (me = pellicle) at hotmail ... happy to discuss a few points which may be of use.

 

[DebbyA]

Thanks Pellicle--I'll do that soon.

 

[tom in MO]

Antibiotics will affect your INR in that they can affect the activities in your intestine. For me, the antibiotics that I take for dental work produces a drop in my INR, but it rebounds on its own w/o a dose adjustment. For me the effect depends upon the dose, length of dose and the antibiotic. For example, when I had a dog bite, the initial antibiotic injections plus pills dropped my INR, but it rebounded and the longer term pills did not seem the have an effect.

A similar thing can happen if you get the flu and violently evacuate your bowels and stomach, this will also change your INR as your digestive system comes back to a steady state and your bowels reestablish the "colony."

Sometimes I think my INR changes with travel, but it's not really consistent and the change was not huge, so I now ignore it and keep to my regular schedule.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

Antibiotics will affect your INR in that they can affect the activities in your intestine.

as I reported in my case it would appear that they did not ... so the only out-take I can be sure of in this is it may effect your INR and the only wise thing is to do is test test test

 

[tom in MO]

Sure, some antibiotics or doses won't have an effect. I should have written a "can" instead of a "will" : ) I was instructed to tell my warfarin nurses any time I take a new medication. With antibiotics, not all but some, I will be asked to test in a couple of days to see what the effect actually was. The dosage adjustment has not been more than a day or two's change.

 

[Lisa2]

Hi

I always watch what I eat ... keeps me from spilling it on my shirt

PS: you do however observe you have eaten 500g of spinach next morning at the loo...

I like your humor. That's a lot of spinach! I eat 2 or 3 times a week but no way I'm eating a pound at one sitting just to test out a theory Cheese. Give me cheese.

 

[Jamey T]

Hi

I always watch what I eat ... keeps me from spilling it on my shirt.

LOL!
That is exactly what I do also. No more than that. I eat what I want, when I want, and I test myself weekly. After 3 years, warfarin is nothing more than a pill in the morning that I never used to have to take. It has made no other changes in my life.

 

[Boomanchu]

Its reassuring to read all these comments. I'm pretty new to all this at 13 weeks or so post op and everyone seemed to be telling me that kale was the devil and spinach his top minion. My INR is rock steady so I've been getting cocky thinking I would start experimenting with my beloved spinach. I was told I could have small portions of it if I was consistent about it.......I won't be so I gave it up. I will never eat it regularly but I love it so much I could surely down a large bowl sauteed in olive oil and garlic and go for seconds.

 

[Jamey T]

I should have added that I don't care for the vegetables that are high in vitamin K, so now I have an excuse to not eat them.

 

[pellicle]

I should have added that I don't care for the vegetables that are high in vitamin K, so now I have an excuse to not eat them.

Eggs Zactly

I often say politely now (when someone passes the salad) "oh no thanks, I can't have salad now I'm on warfarin" (when having my steak ...)

(but I do like spinache and frequently use it in my curries)