Coumadin

Coumadin is an anticoagulant medication. An anticoagulant is any kind of substance that prevents the blood from clotting. Some of the other names by which Coumadin is known and marketed by include Jantoven, Marevan and Waran. The chemical name of Coumadin (and all of these other variants) is Warfarin. Coumadin is most commonly used in hospitals as a means of preventing blood clots, thrombosis and embolism in various disorders. Thus, it is usually used for prophylaxis, preventing a condition from becoming worse rather than curing any kind of existing medical condition. Originally, Coumadin / Warfarin was designed as a rat poison, and it acts by interfering with the metabolism of vitamin K, which is involved in the blood clotting mechanism (today, there are much more powerful and specific rat poisons).

What are the side effects of Coumadin? The most common side effect of Coumadin therapy is hemorrhage (bleeding). In one to two percent of patients annually there is a risk of significant bleeding. Coumadin dosing must also be carefully monitored by a trained staff, as the Coumadin vitamin K effect can interact with many other kinds of medication with results that can be harmful. There are several foods to avoid while on Coumadin: it differs on a patient to patient basis, but the proper diet for taking Coumadin should mean avoiding foods that could contain Ginkgo, St. John's Wort, Ginseng, Ginger and Garlic.

The specifics of a given person's Coumadin diet may be more complicated, and other substances can lead to dangerous Coumadin side effects. Coumadin and alcohol are also known not to mix well. Wu-long tea and interaction with Coumadin has also been noted. A Coumadin fact sheet can explain the basic interactions such as Coumadin and grapefruit, but when a patient is on Coumadin the most important thing is that professional caregivers keep constant track of the INR (international normalized ratio) through blood testing to avoid situations such as Coumadin and hematuria.

Coumadin first began to be used as a therapeutic anticoagulant after an incident in 1951, where a man used Warfarin as a suicide attempt but made a full recovery (before that, the substance had been discovered when deaths of cattle due to bleeding were traced back to a material in moldy sweet clover, later identified chemically during the 40s). One of the first famous patients to use Coumadin / Warfarin was President Dwight Eisenhower after his 1955 heart attack.