Question about vitamin supplements

[gritsar]

I'm going to ask my doctor about this on Monday, at my regular appt., but would like some feedback here.

DH's diet is horrible. He eats out once a day during the work week. He likes meat, potatoes and rice and grains (breads,etc.). He also loves breakfast foods. He really doesn't like that many vegetables and cannot have any dark green veggies while he is on coumadin therapy for the blood clots. During his hospitalization for pulmonary embolisms the doctor started him on a vitamin D3 supplement, 5,000 IUs. I've been taking the vitamin D3 for years.

I've been working on improving my diet for a couple of months now. I can't have gluten or dairy products. I don't like the gluten free stuff, so I just do without. In the last two weeks I had confined my meals to no pre-processed foods. I'm only eating meat, fresh veggies, fruit, oatmeal, rice, eggs and nuts. My one concession is Lay's potato chips. The plain ones only.

I got it in my head that perhaps a B-complex supplement with be beneficial for both DH and I, but now I wonder.

Considering that we both eat meat and free range eggs, is a B supplement really necessary? We both also take one gram of vitamin C through the winter. I've been doing this for the past 20 years and strongly feel it helps keep winter colds at bay.

 

[Mattemma]

Could you do a blood test to check the stats for all your levels? I would do that to see what supplements were actually needed.

My ds has a limited diet,so I encourage gummi vitamins. My dd eats better so I just have her take gummi vits once in a while. I will let them take extra vitC since you pee out what is not needed. My dh does not like taking any extra pills,but I can get him to take supplements in gummi form,lol.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I am going to ask about the blood test, at least for me, at my appt.

 

[maple]

My heart dr. told me to eat healthy and to ignore the nurses and everyone else because he would alter the coumadin as needed-- I ate veggies and all, it's the vitamin K that is the vitamin to watch for while on coumadin---but I ate what I wanted and was tested regularly as everyone is being on coumadin and they upped the dose of coumadin as needed.

My reg. dr. told me it wasn't a bad idea to take a general mulit-vitamin and we found out that I too was low on Vitamin D and she supplemented me with a high dose for 6 months and now I'm on over the counter dose and the multi-vitamin does not affect anything I'm taking for my heart and I'm not getting too much vit. d, no chance in over doing it.

So I guess my input would be...a multi-vitamin would be beneficial and not affect other meds but as always confer with dr.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Thanks Maple. The only reason I mentioned the coumadin therapy is because of the dark green veggies restriction while taking it. Dark green veggies - collards, turnip greens, spinach - being about the only veggies DH does like.

 

[Judy]

I've been on Coumadin for a year. My Dr never told me to limit any veggies. When my PT/INR wasn't as high as he wanted once, he asked about dark green veggies, which I eat almost daily. He mentioned they can keep the level down, but did not ask me to change my diet. I even asked, and he said no.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
At DH's last appointment with the workmans comp. doctor (the one who is handling his coumadin checks) I asked again, since it's been almost a year that DH has been on it. The doctor and WC nurse both said emphatically NO! It stinks because again the dark green veggies are the only ones DH really likes, but his coumadin level has been very stable and they don't want to mess with it.

ETA: When DH was discharged from the hospital the last time they gave him a sheet on the do's and don'ts while taking coumadin. The very first don't was don't eat dark green veggies.

 

[Whispering Winds]

If it were me, I would go to a health food store and ask if anyone there has training in nutrition, and let them help you pick the right combinations. I can tell you for sure a medical doctor would say you get everything you need from your diet, and they don't care how often you eat or what you can/cannot have. They are not trained in nutrition. Another option would be to find a good chiro who also teaches nutrition, or can give you pointers, because they ARE trained in nutrition. Blood tests will show a lot of things to be normal, when they aren't and you really are lacking. I know a lot of people wont' agree with me, but its true. With the prescription drugs you have to be careful about certain vitamins, and if you do get them, get the ones from the health food store. They are not processed and take as many as you can at night, unless they say not too, because they absorb better and you don't "pee" them out, frankly speaking. Good luck.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
I understand where you are coming from, but honestly our doc is different. He's fresh out of medical school. He's very interested in our overall health, i.e., not just treating our current problem(s). I have medical training (degree in medical assisting and was an LPN) and I find him very informative and open to discussions on every health-related issues. It's not unsual for him to spend an hour with a patient.

 

[Judy]

Quote:
At DH's last appointment with the workmans comp. doctor (the one who is handling his coumadin checks) I asked again, since it's been almost a year that DH has been on it. The doctor and WC nurse both said emphatically NO! It stinks because again the dark green veggies are the only ones DH really likes, but his coumadin level has been very stable and they don't want to mess with it.

ETA: When DH was discharged from the hospital the last time they gave him a sheet on the do's and don'ts while taking coumadin. The very first don't was don't eat dark green veggies.

And I did not get a sheet like this among my pile of discharge instructions, nor have I ever seen one (I'm a nurse.) What this may be is simply variations in approaches or philosophies. I've seen something similar with diabetics many times. One end is the approach of managing diet very closely and stabilizing the insulin dose, vs. a more liberal approach to diet and adjusting dose according to sugar checks. I won't claim that either is better, in either case. Just different.