You Need Your Vitamin K: Dangerous Side Effects of Vitamin K-Blocking Blood Thinners

I'm a volunteer at an organic community farm and an organic food co-op.  I work for food. But I'm always being told by people that they can't eat greens because they are on blood thinners. Greens are a superfood for skin and health. They are chock full of nutrients that affect all kinds of factors that lead to acne such as magnesium, beta carotene & sulfur phytochemicals and sulfur containing amino acids. I hate to see these people avoid healthy food and essential nutrients while taking harmful drugs.  Especially when they take them as a 'preventative.' And especially when these drugs can actually cause the end result they are trying to prevent: Plaque buildup, hardened arteries, coronary heart disease & stroke! Consider carefully whether you need these prevention drugs or if you can manage your health via diet and lifestyle.

Vitamin K Deficiency, Calcium, Hardened Arteries & Stroke

There are many forms of vitamin K.  K1 comes from greens and is responsible primarily for the coagulation of the blood while K2 is responsible for calcium metabolism within the body and cardiovascular health. Deficiency in vitamin k leads to misuse of calcium & thus osteoporosis and calcification of soft tissues such as arteries & pineal gland. Vitamin k along with vitamin D regulates the recycling of old bone tissue into new. A deficiency of vitamin K means too much old tissue is broken down and the calcium is sent into the blood stream where it binds to soft tissue like your arteries and pineal gland which affects your ability to sleep.

Coumadin (warfarin) blocks all forms of vitamin K causing a deficiency. In fact, these drugs are used to induce arterial calcification in lab rats!

Vitamin k2 can undue the calcification of the arteries & other soft tissues. This form is made by E. coli bacteria in our small intestines (so stop killing it) or obtained via the diet, from animal products like full fat dairy, egg yolks, liver, etc

Other ways to Thin Blood

All kinds of plant foods & healthy lifestyle habits help regulate blood coagulation.  Ginger, chamomile tea, omega 3 foods, quercetin (onions, garlic, apples), ginkgo billoba, curcumin (turmeric), cayenne, high salicylic foods (cranberries, prunes), anti-inflammatory diet habits, exercise, nitric oxide which is formed and spread throughout your body whenever you inhale deeply through your nostrils.  And other pharmaceuticals that might have other side effects.

Monitoring Blood Coagulation

The issue is, you can't monitor your blood coagulation yourself as easily as you can your blood pressure or sugar.  Home monitors are available, but expensive at $700 - $1000. You might consider this money well spent as compared to the cost of the drugs and the cost if they cause the heart disease rather than prevent it.  Perhaps all the new drugstore clinics offer this service at an affordable price.  Prothrombin time (PT) and international normalized ratio (INR) tests are used to monitor blood coagulation.


Other preventions:
Manage blood pressure, diabetes, weight, stress. Avoid cigarette smoke. And be active.


Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_K
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/jan2009_Vitamin-K-Protection-Against-Arterial-Calcification-Bone-Loss-Cancer-Aging_01.htm

http://people.ku.edu/~jbrown/ecoli.html

.http://www.shapesociety.org/images/pdf/Coronary-Calcium-Scan-Can-Help-Predict-Prevent-Heart-Attack-HarveyHecht.pdf


Dietary Intake of Menaquinone Is Associated with a Reduced Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: The Rotterdam Study  Dutch Study: http://jn.nutrition.org/content/134/11/3100.full describes not only their study on humans & K2 rich diet, but also studies on lab rats on/after warfarin treated with the varying forms of K2 to repair the damage.

http://www.wellsphere.com/heart-health-article/food-sources-of-vitamin-k2/218694 - describes the varying forms of K2 & research.

http://www.stoptheclot.org/medical-messages/article286.htm - Home monitoring