Beasley Friends who have just undergone atrial fibrillation surgery should not be too busy stocking up on ginseng and donkey-hide gelatin and stewing large amounts of tonic soup. Most people can fully meet their recovery needs as long as they avoid large amounts of foods that affect the anticoagulant effect in a short period of time and maintain a balanced and light daily diet. On the contrary, excessive supplementation is more likely to put a burden on a newly stable heart.
Two years ago, I met a 62-year-old Uncle Zhang when I accompanied my relatives for a review. He had just undergone radiofrequency ablation less than two weeks ago. He heard from his old neighbor that he should take more vitamins to improve his immunity after the surgery. He ate half a pound of cold spinach every day at noon, and drank a cup of freshly squeezed broccoli and kale juice in the morning and evening. As a result, when he went for a review, his INR value fell directly below the safe range. The doctor adjusted his warfarin dose. It took almost half a month to get back to a stable level. He himself was very frightened. Later he found out that it was not that green leafy vegetables were bad, but that the vitamin K content in these dark green vegetables was too high. The anticoagulant effect of warfarin was originally achieved by antagonizing vitamin K. To suddenly add so much vitamin K to the body was equivalent to "disrupting" the effect of direct drug administration. The anticoagulation strength was not enough, but there was a risk of thrombosis.
There are two completely opposite opinions on the Internet. One says that as long as you take warfarin, you should not touch dark green leafy vegetables at all, and the other says that your diet will not affect the efficacy of the medicine at all. In fact, both of these opinions are a bit extreme. The principle generally recognized by clinicians is "stable intake". If you are used to eating less than half a bowl of fried vegetables every day, you can maintain this amount after surgery. There is no need to have special dietary restrictions. As long as you don't suddenly eat a pound of green leafy vegetables today and not touch a bite tomorrow, Excessive fluctuations in intake will disrupt the balance of anticoagulation. If you really want to eat two more bites one day, you should inform the follow-up doctor in advance and pay more attention to the INR value during the reexamination. There are so many foods that you must not touch. If you are taking new oral anticoagulants, there are even fewer restrictions. The efficacy of these drugs is rarely affected by daily food. You don’t need to pay special attention to your vitamin K intake. As long as you don’t eat three or four pounds of grapefruit at one time or drink a lot of grapefruit juice, which will affect the metabolism of liver enzymes, you will be much freer than people who take warfarin.
There is actually a small detail that you should pay attention to in the first week after the operation. Most people have a trachea inserted during the operation, and their throats will be a little red, swollen and sore. Do not eat anything that is too hard or hot. Drink some warm and soft millet porridge and steamed tender eggs. The soup is comfortable to eat and will not irritate the throat. Do not drink strong irritating drinks such as strong tea and iced Americano, which can easily make the heart beat suddenly faster. The heart that has just undergone surgery is still adapting to the rhythm, so there is no need to put extra burden on it.
There are also many people who are superstitious about drinking big tonic soup after surgery. My relative was forced to drink old hen soup for three days after the surgery. As a result, his blood lipids increased by 0.8 and his weight gained two pounds. Instead, he was told by the doctor. In fact, most of the soup is fat and purine, and the real high-quality protein is in the stewed meat. If you really want to supplement nutrition, it is better to pick two pieces of soft stewed lean meat to eat, which is much more effective than drinking three bowls of soup.
Several friends of mine who have undergone atrial fibrillation surgery three or four years ago now eat shabu-shabu with friends when they should go out, and stir-fry green leafy vegetables at home. As long as they don’t overeat, don’t suddenly rush into certain types of food that they rarely eat, and follow up with doctors for regular check-ups, they are generally recovering very well. There is really no need to check the portions of the recipes every day to figure out whether they can eat it. Relaxing is more conducive to recovery.
