Does Your Blood Hypercoagulate

The word hyper coagulation indicates excessive blood clotting. When a person gets a wound, substance in the blood called proteins work with tiny particles called platelets to form a thick mass called blood clot to stop the bleeding.

The process of formation of blood clot is called coagulation. Though clotting of blood is very important when a person is injured and is bleeding as it reduced blood loss, in the case of some blood disorder, the blood clotting takes place inside the blood vessels which is also called as `thrombosis’ or phlebitis. Blood hyper coagulation happens to be one such disorder which is an extreme case wherein the blood clots too much.

This could be very dangerous as well as life threatening.

This excessive clotting of blood usually takes place in the veins which are the vessels that carry blood to the heart. Such clots in a blood vessel are called thrombus which travels in the blood stream and can get stuck in the lungs.

This results in pulmonary embolus wherein the clot stops the flow of blood into the lungs. Sometimes it might block the flow of blood into the brain resulting in a stroke or block a blood vessel in the heart resulting in heart attack. Among pregnant women it might even lead to miscarriages.

There are various reasons for a person to suffer from blood hyper coagulation Sometimes it could be simple things like sitting on a plane or in a car for long hours or having complete bed rest for a long period. It could be also due to complications in surgery, cancer, pregnancy or due to birth control tablets. In some cases, the cause can also be hereditary.

Whatever might be the cause of the disease, the excessive clotting usually takes place due to anti-clotting protein C in the blood not being able to function correctly or the body is not able to produce enough of these anti-clotting protein C, protein S or anti thrombin III.

Usually doctors perform protein tests of the blood among individuals who have excessive clotting problem in their family; has had clots during pregnancy or while using birth control tablets. Tests are also undertaken if a woman has had several miscarriages.

If the protein tests of the blood indicate hyper coagulation in the blood then medicines are prescribed which help in thinning the blood and avoid it being clot. In situations of a likelihood of hyper coagulation like a surgery, long travels in the car or plane or pregnancy, blood thinners are the only medication suggested to the individuals. However, in the cases of severe hyper coagulation, life-long medication is prescribed.

Some of the most common medicines which help in thinning of the blood are heparin and warfarin. Heparin usually works immediately and is administered by injecting it under the skin and then oral warfarin is given which usually takes longer to work. However, warfarin has side effects like more bleeding when bruised or causing birth defects in babies born from women taking this medicine.

Another severe case of blood hyper coagulation is deep vein thrombosis which is quite common in people suffering from cancer. Though potentially serious, it is usually curable and is common in areas of deep veins like in the case of legs or pelvis. Statistics indicate that about 90% of the cancer patients have an increase in blood clotting.

While blood clot can occur in any blood vessel as in the case of hyper coagulation, in the case of deep vein thrombosis or DVT, the clots occur in blood veins which are deep inside the muscles of legs, hips or pelvis. The role of these vessels is to take blood from body tissues back to the heart.

Some of the prominent symptoms of deep vein thrombosis, a type of hyper coagulation, are severe pain, softness and swelling, discoloration and/or warmth in the affected area. Whenever this clot becomes large, then it blocks the blood vessel. This results in limited blood flow to the affected tissues and they are inadequately nourished. Finally these tissues are not able to function efficiently.

As many as 2 million people across the globe suffer from hyper coagulation every year. It can affect anyone, especially those suffering from cancer or have undergone surgery. Other not so prominent causes are trauma, old age, smoking or immobility.

To ease or avoid hyper coagulation during long-distance traveling or immobility, it is usually suggested that people should move about in frequent intervals, wear comfortable and loose clothes, drink lot of liquids or if immobile, have regular physical therapy.