Dad can't eat greens because of blood clotting

[Raisingplenty]

Can anyone give me some advice as to how to help my Dad(and Mom)? He has major blood clotting issues and green veggies are high in vitamin k which contribute to clotting. He was told he could only eat some every now and then and not a lot when he does. He can eat regular lettuce though. How messed up is that? I am encouraging him to eat more raw foods but it's hard when you can't eat the best stuff for your body, kwim? So far I have
Gorilla Sandwiches
Cooked red bell pepper with raw veggies inside with rice
Sushi
cereal(oats, raisins, almond milk, and maybe some buckwheaties if I can mail it to him)
Salads(once in a blue moon)
Some snack stuff(granola, dehydrated chips, I am hoping to mail him some essene bread)
Anyone got anything else that wouldn't be a ton of prep? Anyone have any experience with the blood disorder thing? By the way, he had a total knee done and ended up throwing 2 pulmonary embolisms. That's why they are so cautious with him. Thanks everyone in advance! Oh, and he lives far away from me so it would be hard to prep a bunch of food for him and my mom, unfortunately.
Crystal

[jurence]

Are you SURE an increase in V. K will contribute to more problems? Sounds like an excuse mmmm

[adiebabe]

Can anyone give me some advice as to how to help my Dad(and Mom)? He has major blood clotting issues and green veggies are high in vitamin k which contribute to clotting. He was told he could only eat some every now and then and not a lot when he does. He can eat regular lettuce though. How messed up is that? I am encouraging him to eat more raw foods but it's hard when you can't eat the best stuff for your body, kwim? So far I have
Gorilla Sandwiches
Cooked red bell pepper with raw veggies inside with rice
Sushi
cereal(oats, raisins, almond milk, and maybe some buckwheaties if I can mail it to him)
Salads(once in a blue moon)
Some snack stuff(granola, dehydrated chips, I am hoping to mail him some essene bread)
Anyone got anything else that wouldn't be a ton of prep? Anyone have any experience with the blood disorder thing? By the way, he had a total knee done and ended up throwing 2 pulmonary embolisms. That's why they are so cautious with him. Thanks everyone in advance! Oh, and he lives far away from me so it would be hard to prep a bunch of food for him and my mom, unfortunately.
Crystal

It's been a long time since I was on blood thinners....but I thought it was only specifically dark green, leafy vegetables (I remember the M.D. specifically mentioned spinach in large amounts) and onions?

There are things that thin the blood too, so a balance is needed, especially if they have him on thinners. I remember having an absolute run on bruising all of a sudden...I had started taking Horsetail or Bottle brush (think it was Horsetail) as a supplement and it was too much combined with the Coumadin. I was covered in bruises!

[SharonC]

Sorry about your Dad... I am also working hard to keep my Mom and Dad healthy!

What your Dad was told is WRONG! Not surprising coming from the medical establishment. My sister in law is a pharmacist and this kind of misinformation drives her crazy because she works so hard to educate patients about eating healthy - especially greens!

No surprise, they have discovered that patients do better when consuming MORE vitamin K. Just have to keep the amount consistent so that it does not fluctuate too much from day to day. (Article explaining below).

My husband took an anticoagulant (coumadin, warfarin) VERY briefly right after his knee replacement and continued with green juices and green smoothies the whole time, even in the hospital. A nurse tried to tell me that he needed to limit his greens, and I let her know that she was harming people by telling patients to limit such important foods, and that she should be telling patients to eat more greens, not less! Also, let her know that he would be keeping his consumption of greens consistent, and she said, Oh well that's fine then - most people do not understand, and it is easier just to tell them not to consume them at all. Those people are so frustrating!

As far as taking the drug in general, if it were my Dad, I would encourage him to work on improving his health and look into natural ways to prevent blood clots. This is something that most doctors know nothing about. Vitamin K has many important functions in the body other than regulating blood coagulation. Blocking vitamin K prevents it from doing it's job of keeping our bones and arteries healthy. Drugs work against the body - to be truly healthy requires working with the body to not only prevent blood clots, but every other health problem as well.

http://www.clotcare.com/clotcare/vitaminkandwarfarin.aspx
So how does my intake of vitamin K affect my warfarin therapy? A significant change in your intake of vitamin K can result in a significant, and potentially dangerous, change in your INR. For example, if you reduce the amount of vitamin K in your diet, your INR will increase. Also, reducing the amount of vitamin K in your diet may make it more difficult to manage your warfarin therapy. Patients who have a low intake of vitamin K have been found to have more fluctuation in their INR, which is the test used to measure the effect of warfarin and to adjust the dose of warfarin. For more information on the INR, please review the Understanding the PT-INR Test section of ClotCare.

Why would a diet low in vitamin K make my INR more difficult to manage? Suppose you have a diet that is extremely low in vitamin K. Now suppose you eat a spinach salad at dinner one night. Spinach salad is high in vitamin K, so you have just increased your vitamin K intake for the week. Because your diet is so low in vitamin K, this increase in vitamin K intake represents a huge change in your vitamin K intake for the week. For example, maybe eating the spinach salad increased your vitamin K intake by 50%. The result of this significant increase in vitamin K will be a significant drop in your INR. On the other hand, say you have a diet that has a moderate intake of vitamin K. In eating the spinach salad, you may have increased your vitamin K intake for the week, but rather than increasing your intake by 50%, you increased it by only 5%. The bottom line is that if your diet is extremely low in vitamin K, then any changes to your vitamin K intake represent large fluctuations in your vitamin K intake, which may translate to large fluctuations in your INR.

So, if I am on warfarin, should I avoid eating foods that contain vitamin K? By now you should know that the answer to this question is "no." It is a common misconception that people on warfarin should avoid vitamin K. As is indicated above, reducing your vitamin K intake can cause your INR to increase and may make it more difficult to control. Rather than avoiding vitamin K, you should maintain a consistent intake of vitamin K by maintaining a consistent diet. In other words, from week to week, you should eat the same types of foods.

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/eating-a-steady-amount-of-vitamin-k-when-you-take-warfarin-coumadin

[Cerellia]

There are a number of wild greens and other wild plants that even thinnen the blood: http://www.herbalremedies.com/blthansu.html

[RawKnitster]

My Mom was told by the Doctor to limit lettuce to no more than 1 cup a day because she was on blood thinners. Her blood was being tested weekly and the medication adjusted accordingly. I didn't understand, if the Doc wanted her blood thinner, then why not eat more greens (consistently), and use less medication. :confused:

The Doctor's advice about food was only when it had to do with the medication he prescribed. She was fighting cancer. He should have told her to stop eating refined sugars and artifical sweetener.

Best Wishes to you and your Dad. He is lucky to have you advocating for him.

[Raisingplenty]

Thanks everyone. I am going to give them the link to this post so that they can look things over. A lot to think over. I really want him to be as healthy as possible and all these meds just don't feel right. But "fear" of what might happen without these meds can be debilitating. Sometimes I hate science. It's so complex. Other times I am grateful for it-I still have my Dad. Balance is the key.

[SharonC]

Thanks everyone. I am going to give them the link to this post so that they can look things over. A lot to think over. I really want him to be as healthy as possible and all these meds just don't feel right. But "fear" of what might happen without these meds can be debilitating. Sometimes I hate science. It's so complex. Other times I am grateful for it-I still have my Dad. Balance is the key.

Just in case, wanted to make it clear that the issue of eating greens or not is a completely different issue than taking the drug or not. There is really no dispute about being able to eat greens consistently.

Also, I completely agree that in life threatening situations, drugs do save lives. Although, the opposite in some cases. Regardless, emercency care is where modern medicine can help the most. It is ongoing maintenance 'care' that I have the most problem with.