You’ve likely read news about the rise of blood clots related to the pandemic in various ways. Many news headlines highlight people who suffered from blood clots, spiking alarms. I’ve heard it from my patients, colleagues and I’ve read those same news reports and recent scientific studies. But fear is not the solution to health. Information that empowers you most definitely is!
By understanding blood clots and the how and why they occur, you can better care for yourself and defend yourself from them. A deeper understanding of what causes blood clots is more helpful and will help you move beyond the fear.
What is the pathophysiology behind blood clots?
- Elevated blood fat from a diet high in radical fats (includes animal and plant fats) lacking in omega 3 but high in omega 6. High blood fat levels prevent proper blood flow.
- Fats and fatty acids bind to the walls of the cardiovascular system, narrowing blood vessels. This obstructs blood flow further.
- A weakened dysfunctional liver with weak bile and poor production levels needed to disperse fats in the blood effectively.
When a person gets a viral or bacterial infection in the blood, and the person has thick or dehydrated blood the body can’t carry toxins and pathogens and their waste byproduct out of the liver properly and as a result, the toxins and waste end up building up in the blood. A combination of high blood fat, sluggish liver, lack of blood oxygen, and the release of multiple aggressive pathogens, are at the root cause of blood clots, A lack of oxygen can worsen these infections. When oxygen is limited the blood gets thick. It starts a cycle, as thick blood can’t carry sufficient oxygen.
Stop for a moment and think about your body from a Chinese medicine perspective. Chinese medicine has been treating people for centuries. And the root of our health, from this perspective, is flow. Your oxygen flow, your energy, your organs, and of course, your blood, which is always pumping through your heart.
Clots create stagnation, like a swamp. If you visualize your blood as it should be, flowing throughout your body, then you compare that to a swamp, which is the start of a clot, you can understand how blood clots break down our body’s health in a very clear way.
Blood clots are not to be taken lightly. The clot can move toward the brain or the heart and cause a stroke or heart attack.
How can we treat and prevent blood clots?
- Begin to reduce fats from diet: I’ve written a lot about using foods as medicine, so this is an easy starting point.
- Liver cleanse: The best and safest liver cleanse that I have researched and recommend to my patients is the 369 Liver Rescue cleanse. This is a 9 day cleanse which is very doable. There are other cleanses that will help the Liver as well like the Mono cleanse and the 28 day cleanse designed by Anthony William, Medical Medium. I have been doing and recommending cleanses in my practice for over 30 years and these are by far the most effective. Here is a good list of foods you can eat that reduce fat in the liver.
- Drink Celery juice to strengthen bile production. I wrote about this here.
- Increase hydration levels to flush your blood. Add lemons and limes to your water to create “living water” and move the water into your cells more easily. Fruits that are filled with living water also naturally help to increase hydration, especially melons, cucumbers and celery that are full of water and are mineral rich.
- Reducing viral load: Viral load is the level of infection in the bloodstream, organs and glands. Knocking down your viral load is about taking out the foods that feed a virus i.e. dairy, eggs and wheat.
The fun step for treating blood clots: Eat!
There are so many foods that help your body flow well, energize and oxygenate your blood and purify your liver, all of which prevents blood clots. For example, asparagus has an aspirin-like effect of thinning your blood. Many herbs combat pathogens and as mentioned above, other foods strengthen the liver. Pomegranates build your blood health, ginger disperses fats and celery juice helps eliminate everything increasing flow.
Anthony William has an important book called Liver Rescue, which I often refer to for more information to encourage liver health.
Here’s a quick list you can use as a go-to-guide:
- Cardamom: Contains several compounds that helps to prevent blood clots from forming in the bloodstream, making it an important medicinal for those concerned with deep vein thrombosis, lupus, strokes, or pregnancy.
- Clove oil: Beneficial for the circulatory system and is a potent platelet inhibitor which prevents blood clots.
- Reishi: A vital supplement for helping to lower cholesterol, reduce high blood pressure, and to prevent blood clots. Reishi is very good for calming the nervous system and bringing balance and stability back to the body.
- Onions: The richest food source of quercetin which is a potent antioxidant that has been shown to lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and triglycerides as well as help to prevent blood clots, asthma, sinus infections, bronchitis, atherosclerosis, and diabetes.
- Grapes: Have the ability to help prevent blood clots due to their ability to increase nitric oxide levels in the blood and therefore provide excellent protection for the heart and cardiovascular system.
- Hawthorn Berry: Widely used to help benefit congestive heart disease, angina (chest pains), cardiac arrhythmia, myocarditis, insomnia, diarrhea, blood clots, hepatitis, arteriosclerosis, high cholesterol, and digestion.
- Pomegranates: Act like a natural aspirin in the body and help to prevent blood clots.
- Eggplant: Thins out dirty blood filled with fats and poisons, which can help stop blood clots from occurring inside our veins and eases the heart, too, allowing it to not overwork as it pumps.
- Sweet violet: Contains significant amounts of rutin and salicylic acid which act similarly to aspirin and are useful in alleviating pain, body aches, and inflammation as well as helping to prevent blood clots and inhibit platelet aggregation.Blood clots are to be taken seriously, however, by staying informed and making slight changes to your everyday lifestyle, you can start living a healthier life today. If you have a question or would like to set up an appointment to learn more, please contact me here.
