Warfarin Institute of America

DEDICATED TO YOUR HEALTH SINCE 2000

CIGARETTE SMOKING AND WARFARIN (Coumadin, Jantoven)

  There is an interaction between cigarette smoke and warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven). The chemicals that are absorbed into the body from cigarette smoke are largely metabolized in the liver, which can cause the liver to make more enzymes to clear these toxic chemicals. These same enzymes clear warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven) out of the body so if the body is making more of these enzymes to clear the cigarette smoke, warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven) can be cleared faster resulting in a decreased INR and more risk for forming a clot. For this reason, it is always important to tell your health care providers, especially those who are monitoring your warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven) therapy, about how much you are smoking.

© 2003 Josephine Lienert

  There is one other aspect of cigarette smoking that could be important as far as warfarin testing is concerned.  As your lungs become damaged from smoking, they deliver less oxygen to the cells in your body.  The cells then send a message to the bone marrow that they are starved for oxygen.  The body interprets this to mean that there are not enough red blood cells to distribute the oxygen.  So the bone marrow responds by making more red blood cells.  As the person smokes for longer periods of time, this gets repeated many times.  Finally there are so many red blood cells that the blood becomes like sludge. The blood can no longer flow up the strips used for checking the warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven) dose with a CoaguChek tester.  Technically this is referred to as having a hematocrit greater than 52%.  The only choice for these people is to have blood drawn from a vein for testing.

  It is also possible that having a high hematocrit could cause the blood to pool in the person's legs instead of returning efficiently to the heart.  A clot in the legs can move through the heart into the lungs.  Many of these clots are fatal.  My father died before I started doing warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven) therapy.  It is entirely possible that this was the cause of his death.

SEE A CATALOG OF PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE FROM LODWICK CREATIONS, LLC.

LEARN HOW YOU CAN BECOME LISTED ON THE HONOR ROLL OF SUPPORTERS AND TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE BENEFITS

REQUEST A MEDICATION CONSULTATION

© 2003 - 2006 Lodwick Creations, LLC

Home

Contact Mr. Lodwick at allodwick@earthlink.net

Last update May 7, 2006