Natural Alternatives to Coumadin

Dr. Sinatra: E-letter subscriber: Dr. Sinatra, I'm 60 years old. I have atrial fibrillation and my doctor wants me to take Coumadin. Can I get off Coumadin and take something else?

Oh, boy! This is where I wear my integrative hat.

Listen folks, if you have atrial fibrillation and our atrium is large or you have the leakage of a valve or two in your heart or if you have a pacemaker in your heart or hardware in your heart or an prosthetic valve, you must take Coumadin. You must take Coumadin because we don't want you to have a blood clot.

Now, if it's just atrial fibrillation and you don't have an increase in left atrial size and you don't have severe leakage of the mitral valve, well, you could have "lone atrial fibrillation"—what we cardiologists call it—where we can put you on an alternative blood thinner that is not necessarily Coumadin. We can use aspirin, we can use garlic, we can use nattokinase, Omega-3 fatty acids; this is what I did in my own practice. However, if your left atrium is large or if your mitral valve is leaking, you must, you must take Coumadin because this will protect you from having a stroke. So, to your question, I would say that if you have those complications, you have to take Coumadin and, unfortunately, this is something that you may have to take for the rest of your life.