Disclaimer

*Results may vary. The information in this site is NOT to be construed as medical advice. Cirrhosis of the liver is a serious condition and if you have it, you should see a doctor. I am not a doctor and am not able to dispense medical advice. My husband saw a doctor (many of them) and they were able to do things for him that I could not. However, they were unable to recommend alternative treatments, and in MY OPINION they were VERY beneficial to my husband, so I am providing some of that information here. My husband and I tried all of these alternative therapies at our own risk, and if you try them you will be doing the same. At your own risk. No promises are made in this blog. I am not saying there is a cure for cirrhosis or any other condition. However, I believe most people can get well, like my husband did. My husband is alive, happy, productive, functional and has his energy back. He no longer worries about having to go on disability or getting a $577,000 liver transplant. Cirrhosis is a serious condition. He is currently in the fibrosis stage (Stage 2 liver disease), which is still serious. I cannot guarantee you will have the same results. I just want you to know about what worked well for my husband. I hope you will share what you learned with others, and share your story with us as well. This blog was made for YOU! Thanks for visiting!

Sunday, November 19, 2017

If you or your loved one is BLEEDING.... Please read this

I just got a message from a woman who's sister is having severe bleeding (even from her eyes) and I want to be sure people who come to this site are educated about how serious it can be to have a low PT or high INR. I want you to know what  it means, and what you can do about it.  Basically, a low PT or high INR score means your blood isn't clotting well, and you can have serious bleeding issues because of this. People can also have bleeding issues due to portal hypertension which is caused by too much scar tissue in the liver (and in my opinion this CAN be reduced if you do the right things). Alao, I learned that lactulose is a blood thinner that can increase your INR (NOT saying you shouldn't take it, but you should know the side effects of ALL your medications).

I can't give medical advice, but want to state at the top of this post that if it were my husband or Mom, I'd be making sure they were taking Vitamin K2 and also CoEnzyme Q10 or Qunol, which are known to improve clotting. I can't say what would work best for you or your loved one, this is just what I would give to my own family, and what I'd take myself (provided I was monitoring the situation and it didn't seem to be making things worse). I can honestly tell you that I've never seen a single person have any negative side effects from either of these supplements. Not saying it could never happen, I've just never seen or heard of it. 

From Google (regarding Vitamin K and Coenzyme Q-10):

You can see the link HERE.



Please note that there are a lot of things that can thin the blood, including healthy supplements, like circumin / turmeric, ginger, oregano oil, astragalus and more, so you have to be careful how much you consume of any supplement. When you have cirrhosis, you have to monitor everything that goes into your body like a watchdog!
 
https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2006/11/28/Vitamin-K-supplements-could-improve-anti-blood-clot-control

FYI I also wrote another post about how Geranium oil could help with clotting, which you can read here: http://healing-liver-cirrhosis.blogspot.com/2018/04/geranium-oil-something-you-may-want-to.html


I recommend reading this article about PT and INR, so you can better understand your blood test results.


http://www.clotcare.com/ptinr.aspx

Understanding the PT-INR Test

Marie B. Walker
January, 2004

If you have ever undergone oral anticoagulation therapy, you have most likely heard of the PT-INR test, but you may not understand what it is and/or what it means. This article will attempt to explain the PT-INR test.

First let's talk about the PT test. PT stands for prothrombin time. It is a measure of how quickly blood clots. The traditional method for performing a PT test is to have your blood drawn and sent to a lab. At the lab, a substance called a reagent is added to your blood. The reagent causes the blood to begin clotting. The PT result is the time in seconds that is required for the blood to clot.

There are a variety of reagents that can be used when a PT test is performed. Since each of these reagents works a bit differently, a PT result obtained with one reagent cannot be compared to a PT result obtained with another reagent. 

To account for the different reagents, the result of a PT test must be converted into standard units that can be compared regardless of the reagent used. These standard units are known as INR units. INR stands for International Normalized Ratio. As its name suggests, one INR result can be compared to another INR result regardless of how or where the result was obtained. So, the INR is really just the standard unit used to report the result of a PT test.

There are a few things worth mentioning about the INR. First, an individual whose blood clots normally and who is not on anticoagulation should have an INR of approximately 1. The higher your INR is, the longer it takes your blood to clot. In other words, as the INR increases above a given level, the risk of bleeding and bleeding-related events increases. On the other hand, as the INR decreases below a given level, the risk of clotting events increases.

The ideal target INR range will vary from person to person depending on a variety of factors such as the reason for taking anticoagulants, other medical conditions, and a number of other issues. Your anticoagulation clinician will determine the appropriate INR range for you. The most common INR target range for someone on warfarin is somewhere between 2.0 and 4.0. INRs of 5 or more typically are avoided because the risk of bleeding increases significantly at INRs above 5.

Once your clinician has established an appropriate target INR range for you, he/she will adjust your anticoagulation therapy to keep your INR in the target range. If your INR rises above the high-end of your range, your risk of bleeding and bleeding related events may start to increase. If your INR falls below the low-end of your target range, your risk of forming a blood clot may increase.

Numerous factors can affect your INR, so it is important that you keep your clinician up-to-date on any changes in your life. For example, you should notify your clinician before starting new prescription or non-prescription drugs, including herbal remedies. Also, you should notify your clinician of changes in your diet, exercise regimen, alcohol use, tobacco use, etc. Good communication with your clinician will help you keep your anticoagulation therapy on track.

 


Here's another link:
https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2006/11/28/Vitamin-K-supplements-could-improve-anti-blood-clot-control







Vitamin K supplements could improve anti-blood clot control

By Stephen Daniells
 - Last updated on  GMT
Daily supplements of vitamin K could help to control
anticoagulation in over half the people taking the blood thinning
medication warfarin, scientists from the UK have reported.
The result is particularly important because daily dietary control of vitamin K intake is difficult to maintain and even small changes in vitamin K intake are reported to translate into large variations in the production of clotting factors.
Additionally, because vitamin K is known to participate in blood clotting, people taking blood thinners like warfarin are usually recommended to avoid supplementation with the vitamin.
However, researchers from Newcastle University and the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle, have built on previous research that reported that unstable control of anti-coagulation is linked to low vitamin K intake (Thrombosis & Haemostasis , Vol. 93, pp. 872-875).
"We hypothesised that supplementation with oral vitamin K would improve stability in patients with previously unstable control of anticoagulation," explained lead author Elizabeth Sconce in the journal Blood .
Vitamin K is traditionally less well known than vitamins A to E, but this increasing body of research, as well as increased marketing and advertising from supplement makers, is raising public awareness of vitamin K.
There are two main forms of vitamin K: phylloquinone, also known as phytonadione, (vitamin K1) which is found in vegetables such as lettuce, broccoli and spinach, and makes up about 90 per cent of the vitamin K in a typical Western diet; and menaquinones (vitamins K2), which make up about 10 per cent of Western vitamin K consumption and can be synthesised in the gut by microflora.

Lead researcher Farhad Kamali told NutraIngredients.com: "There is evidence to suggest that vitamin K is not only essential for the production of functionally active clotting proteins required for normal haemostasis but it is also needed for bone mineralisation and vascular health."
The new randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study looked at the effects of a daily vitamin K supplement (150 micrograms, about twice the RDA) or placebo on anti-coagulation in 70 warfarin treated patients with unstable anticoagulant control.
Kamali and co-workers compared the levels of anticoagulation control for six months before the study was started, and then for a further six months under supplementation/placebo conditions.
Fluctuations in anti-coagulation control, measured as a function of standard deviation, were found to have a significantly greater decrease in the vitamin K supplementation group than placebo, despite a significant reduction in the placebo group (decrease of 0.24 versus 0.11, respectively).
Out of the 35 patients receiving the supplements, 33 had significantly improved anticoagulation, with 19 of these fulfilling the criteria for having stable control of anticoagulation.
On the other hand, only 24 out of 33 patients in the placebo group had some improvement, with seven fulfilling the stable control criteria.
"Concomitant supplementation of vitamin K, perhaps through reducing the relative day-to-day variability in dietary vitamin K intake, can significantly improve anticoagulation control in patients with unexplained instability of response to warfarin," said the researchers.
The research could also have benefits on a wider scale, they said, by reducing the frequency of visits to monitor a patient's control, reducing the associated costs of medication, and improving a patient's quality of life.
The researchers called for further study in a larger unselected warfarin-treated patients to "demonstrate whether vitamin K supplementation leads to improved stability of anticoagulation control and subsequent reduction in the frequency of adverse events associated with warfarin therapy."
Source: Blood First Edition Paper Published online ahead of print, doi 10.1182/blood-2006-09-049262 "Vitamin K supplementation can improve stability of anticoagulation for patients with unexplained variability in response to warfarin" Authors: E. Sconce, P. Avery, H. Wynne, and F. Kamali

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