What is the reason for thick blood

It is generally believed that the blood of older people will be thicker, which is what we call thick blood. However, clinical evidence shows that young people today also have serious problems with thick blood. So why does thick blood occur? The occurrence of thick blood can cause the body to suffer from many diseases, so care should be taken to avoid the problem of thick blood in advance. Based on this, we should first have a deep understanding of the causes of blood thickening and then find targeted prevention and treatment methods. So how should we prevent it specifically in our daily life?

Thick blood is called hyperviscosity in medicine. It is common in middle-aged and elderly people and can be diagnosed through blood rheology examination. The main factors affecting blood viscosity are: blood cell factors, such as the number, size, and morphology of blood cells, red blood cell deformability, platelet function, etc. Plasma factors, such as plasma proteins (especially fibrinogen, immunoglobulins), blood sugar, blood lipids, fibrinolytic activity, etc. Vascular factors, such as vessel length, diameter, and endothelial smoothness. Other factors, such as mood, lifestyle, smoking, drinking, etc. If the above factors are obstructed or abnormal, blood viscosity may occur.

Blood viscosity may be a concept in blood rheology in medicine, which is roughly equivalent to a hypercoagulable state. It is related to the patient's age and changes in blood components, and is manifested as an activated state of the coagulation system. Hypercoagulable state is an important risk factor for thrombosis, such as deep vein thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism in patients with thrombophilia. In addition to being related to the hypercoagulable state of blood, the formation of thrombus also depends on whether there is damage to blood vessels (tissues) and whether there are factors that cause blood congestion or slow blood flow, such as rupture of atherosclerotic plaques leading to myocardial infarction, and atrial fibrillation leading to left atrial thrombosis and cerebral embolism. Therefore, thrombosis is closely related to the presence or absence of risk factors for thrombosis. For example, the main risk factors for cerebral embolism are valvular disease, atrial fibrillation, and post-valve replacement surgery; the main risk factors for myocardial infarction are hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and smoking.

Clinical hemorheology examination (abbreviated as hemorheology) actually attempts to simulate the blood flow conditions in vivo through in vitro methods in order to judge the blood coagulation state and predict future thrombosis. However, this method cannot truly reflect the actual blood coagulation conditions in vivo. Even if it can truly reflect, as mentioned above, thrombosis depends on multiple risk factors, especially slow blood flow (congestion) and vascular damage are important initiating factors. Therefore, clinical decisions on who needs to use antithrombotic drugs cannot be made based solely on the results of blood rheology tests, and blood rheology factors have so far been poorly correlated with the occurrence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. In addition, blood rheology is not an indicator for observing whether antithrombotic drug treatment is effective. In addition, although hyperlipidemia and thrombosis have a certain correlation, increased blood lipids cannot be called blood viscosity.

For the prevention and treatment of thromboembolic diseases, we should first control or eliminate the risk factors that easily cause thromboembolism, such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes, and on this basis, use aspirin and other anti-thrombotic drugs for a long time.