Does eating broccoli thicken my blood?

#1

My husband tells me his mother can’t eat Broccoli, because it supposedly thickens her blood?

Really? Show me the science.

#2

Partially true. But I would say clotting rather than “thicken”…?

She may have Factor V Leiden or a similar disorder that causes an individual to have an increased tendency to form blood clots. I had a blood clot form in my ankle in 1979, travel to the lungs, giving me a pulmonary embolism. I’ve been on blood thinners ever since. Sometimes a cut can bleed for hours.

Vitamin K is involved with clotting. I was told that if I were taken to the hospital with excessive bleeding, the first thing they would do is administer a mega-dose of vitamin K.

We’re told to avoid dark green leafy vegetables, as they can be high in vitamin K. We can eat them, but then dosages of the medication need to be increased. So if I did eat them regularly and adjusted my dosage, it would be OK. But I wouldn’t want to drastically change my diet on the fly.

However, to answer your specific question – raw broccoli is generally OK, but cooked broccoli might be suspect (a 1 cup serving has more broccoli when cooked vs raw). It will all depend on how much of it she were to eat, how regularly she ate it, and if her medication needs to be adjusted for it.

A lot of seniors take aspirin to help prevent strokes (i.e. blood clots). So I’d assume the dark green leafy vegetable advice would also apply. It wouldn’t make sense to take something to reduce clotting risk and then eat foods high in vitamin K to improve clotting. Aspirin shouldn’t be taken with my anticoagulant medication, as that would make any bleeding worse.

BTW, if she does have the Factor V Leiden genetic condition, your husband should probably be checked for it. He could also have it, or be a carrier of it. If he has it or is a carrier, any children you have should also be checked for it. Factor V Leiden wasn’t known when I had my blood clot. About 10 years ago, my brother got a clot while flying in a plane. He could have been forewarned and been under treatment if he had been tested ahead of time.

(Deborah ) #3

Is she taking a blood thinner? People on blood thinners are told to avoid foods high in vitamin K, which includes broccoli, especially cooked broccoli.
(Broccoli doesn’t “thicken the blood”, but the vitamin K would interfere with the blood thinner.)

(Laurie) #4

Yes, broccoli (as well as some other brassicas/crucifers and some green leafy vegetables) contains Vitamin K, which aids in blood clotting.

I know several people who aren’t supposed to eat broccoli, including people on blood thinners who might or might not be allowed to eat it in moderation, depending on their blood test results.

This is based on anecdotal evidence, plus stuff I found on the Internet.

(Wendy) #5

I’m guessing she’s on coumadin/warfarin. Many people who take blood “thinners” really anti coagulants, believe they can’t eat foods high in vitamin k. My son was on that from age 6 after receiving a mechanical valve in his heart. The truth is that you can eat these vegetable and other greens but you need to be consistent with how much you eat as you can dose the diet. That is probably what she has been told.

(Retta Stephenson) #6

Ditto to what Wendy said.

I’m on Warfarin, and can eat anything I want, AS LONG AS I stay consistent each day as to the total Vit K I get in that one day. Cronometer really helps here, because it will give me the total of Vit K for the day that I ate, and if I’m way low (which is often since I don’t over eat veggies), I take a little more Vit K1 in pill form to get it to about 150 mcg per day, consistently. Hope that helps. Took me a while to figure out an easy system.