Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
Hi all,
I was just scanning through some websites for some advice on my diet while on warfarin - looking for low vitamin k foods etc. While doing this, I noticed a couple of sites saying spices such as curry and cayenne are high in vitamin k. My diet is probably >70% spicy food and am starting to think that it may have contributed to my PEs - After all they do say you are what you eat! The doctors never mentioned spices to me as a problem food but to just avoid the main foods like green leafy veg, cranberries and grapefruit. Has anybody else come across this before?
I was just scanning through some websites for some advice on my diet while on warfarin - looking for low vitamin k foods etc. While doing this, I noticed a couple of sites saying spices such as curry and cayenne are high in vitamin k. My diet is probably >70% spicy food and am starting to think that it may have contributed to my PEs - After all they do say you are what you eat! The doctors never mentioned spices to me as a problem food but to just avoid the main foods like green leafy veg, cranberries and grapefruit. Has anybody else come across this before?
-
Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
-
We all have 24 hours in a day. How we spend these hours is important. Watching a little bit of a video about how sitting affects us made me aware of how much sitting and laying down I do. Gonna have to work on that.Your turn. Tell me another truth.
For me, I eat the broccoli & cauliflower..1-2 times a week as a rule and salads occasionally. The pharmacists told me that was fine and not to worry about it. They were more concern with BIG changes in ones diet. They can accommodate for your diet as it is but if you would go from a regular diet to say a total vegetarian diet, that might require a change or adjustment in your medicine.
I would suggest talking to your doctor or pharmacist just to make certain they know and see what they have to say.
Hang in there! I am just about 6 weeks post PE's in both lungs plus a clot in my left leg. I have good days and bad days. It all takes time.
My understanding is that while VitK is part of the clotting process in the body, it doesn't, by itself, cause clots. It's actually quite necessary for the body to run properly and (as far as I know) there's nothing showing that vegetarians or vegans (who eat tons of K) are at higher risk of blood clots. There's nothing showing that people who routinely eat spicier foods are at higher risk of clots. (I mean, it isn't like the folks in India have got twice the clot rate of the rest of the world.)
The problem with VitK is that it causes warfarin not to work as well. So, too much Vit K can lead to not enough warfarin, which can then result in clots. It's isn't the VitK itself causing clots.
But, yeah, if you eat 70% spicy foods and you continue to eat 70% spicy foods, then your warfarin dose will automatically counteract that amount of VitK and you'll be in range. The problem with VitK foods, IMHO, is that if you suddenly decide to become vegetarian or suddenly start drinking tons of cranberry juice, you'll see issues. Avoid major diet changes and it's a lot easier to regulate your INR.
Really, there are two schools of thought with regulating INR. One is to either limit your VitK completely or be very regimented about eating the exact same amount every day. I did this the first couple times I was on warfarin (easy, since my diet was pretty bad) and it worked find.
BUT, when I became a lifer on warfarin, I realized that I couldn't just go the next 50 years with no veggies. I eat pretty much what I want now and my INR is really pretty steady. HAven't been out of range for a while now. I think most of us really eat pretty steady diets with most of the same foods from week to week. Now, I'm part of the other camp of warfarin management ... eat your regular diet and let your doc adjust your dose to match. I mean, you eat a lot of K, you'll have a slightly higher dose, but you still get to eat your favorite foods.
And that's one plus, too, about eating regularly and letting your dose match your life ... you don't feel like being on warfarin is changing your life quite so much.
I'm in the same camp as Toss- I eat my regular diet. When you do that, your doc will be able to dose you appropriately so you aren't needing to make major dietary changes.
My coumadin clinic gave me pretty exhaustive information about Vitamin K and food and I was simply told "maintain your current diet and get your INR checked frequently." Never had a problem with my INR throughout the duration of my anti-coagulant treatment. I didn't adjust my Indian food intake down at all - including my beloved Saag Paneer (cooked spinach) which is a blockbuster Vitamin K food. And if you need more encouragement, spicy foods like this are typically anti-oxidant, and that might help you recover from what your body's been through. Hope this helps!