Prevent Blood Clots

Grape juice, like red wine, can help prevent blood clots and improve blood circulation.  Resveratrol, commonly found in grapes and other plants, is being studied for its antioxidant properties and its ability to minimize cardiovascular problems.  The “Dr. Sinatra recommended dosage” of Resveratrol is 2–5 mg daily.

Secondly, drinking flavonoid-rich green tea is an easy way to avoid cardiovascular problems and encourage resistance against chronic degenerative diseases, including chronic hypertension, heart attack and stroke.

While plain green tea itself has a delicate flavor, try it in one of the many formulas combining it with lemongrass and other herbs. Add a little honey and lemon, and I think you will find that this healthy heart nutrition tip really is quite delicious. If you can break your coffee habit in the process, you’ll be doubly rewarded, as you’ll also be reducing the amount of caffeine you ingest.

Dr. Sinatra has always told me that, should he suffer a stroke and be unable to communicate, he wants me to get him into a hyperbaric oxygen chamber—also known as HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen treatment).

Dr. Sinatra’s colleague Dr. Mark Breiner and his son Dr. Adam Breiner have one at their holistic medicine center in Connecticut, and some hospitals have them onsite to treat a myriad of health issues. HBOT delivers oxygen under pressure, and also stimulates stem cells to promote healing.
 
And speaking of what we would do brings up the importance of having a game plan for what YOU and your family would do if one of you should start exhibiting symptoms of stroke. We’ve known a few folks, some of them medically trained, who disregarded symptoms of impending stroke and paid the price for it. We don’t want that to happen to you.

The most appropriated game plan is to call 911 and let emergency medical professionals get you safely to the closest  hospital—and it’s actually what I intend to do first if Dr. Sinatra is the patient…and vice versa.

As with any medical concern, prevention is the key. First and foremost, know your heart risk factors. These include:

• Age 55 or older
• Heredity/family history
• Men
• History of heart attack and/or stroke
• Medical conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure levels, vascular disease, atrial fibrillation, and sickle cell anemia
• Drug/alcohol abuse
• Poor diet
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Living in the southeast US (“stroke belt”)
• Low socioeconomic status

Secondly, take steps to prevent heart attack and stroke. This includes following good healthy heart nutrition and getting lots of exercise. Also, if you are diabetic, you need to keep an eye on your blood sugars, and take any medication that has been prescribed for you.

If you have atrial fibrillation, have regular follow-up with you MD. Atrial fibrillation is one condition where Dr. Sinatra firmly believes in taking anticoagulants like warfarin (Coumadin) to prevent blood clots and stroke, so make sure you take it if it’s been prescribed for you and have your blood levels monitored as recommended.

 

Many people trying to prevent blood clots are taking the blood thinner, Coumadin. But…

There’s something about Coumadin and its cousins that elicits an “anything-but-that-Doc” response from about half the folks who are on it. Many of my patients have asked to discontinue Coumadin because, in addition to the side effects and fear of bleeding, they dislike the nature of the drug (it’s rat poison in high quantities), as well as the discomfort and inconvenience of blood tests every 4–6 weeks.

In fact, whenever I lecture, someone in the audience always asks: “Is there some alternative to Coumadin?” So, let’s review anticoagulants like Coumadin and try and allay some of your concerns.

Before I discuss alternatives to Coumadin, let me tell you why this is the most frequently prescribed anticoagulant. In a nutshell, Coumadin has an unparalleled ability to thin the blood and prevent blood clots. More specifically, studies have shown that Coumadin can protect you from a stroke if you have:

• Mechanical heart valves (their surfaces encourage blood platelets to stick to them).
• Suffered an embolic stroke, one of three types of stroke caused by a fragment or clot of blood pumped from the heart to the brain.
• Atrial fibrillation (AF), where atria fail to contract; blood forms pools and becomes sluggish.
• Had an extensive heart attack (scar tissue weakens heart muscle tissue, which in turn weakens contraction of the left ventricle, possibly allowing blood to stagnate and clot).

Like any drug, Coumadin has side effects. Although the major one is excessive bleeding (bleeding gums, eye hemorrhages, blood in the urine and even a few bleeds in the brain), other rare reactions include weakness, cold sensations, itchy skin, fever and abdominal discomfort.

Indeed, blood thinning is a double-edged sword. While anticoagulants help prevent thrombotic and embolic strokes, I have to bear in mind that the risk of a stroke-induced hemorrhage is higher for those on Coumadin.

So now you can see why people trying to prevent blood clots struggle with this popular anticoagulant and often ask to trade it in for aspirin or other blood-thinning alternatives.

How Yolan Chose To Prevent Blood Clots

Yolan, 78, suffered with cardiovascular problems and, consequently, had a heart attack a few years ago. She began taking Coumadin but reported that she just didn’t feel right. Yolan experienced several unusual body sensations, which she attributed to the drug.

Against her doctor’s wishes, Yolan went off Coumadin and her symptoms abated. She now takes 324 mg of aspirin every other day (more about aspirin in a moment) and says she feels much better.

I’ve gotta tell you, folks, the decision to go off Coumadin can be a very difficult one; patients and their doctors often struggle together for the right answer. So let me offer some guidelines to help make this decision easier for you.

Coumadin is your best therapy—mandatory even—to prevent blood clots if you have mechanical heart valves. Studies show that it’s more effective than aspirin with other anti-platelet drugs. It should also be your first choice if you’ve suffered an embolic stroke.

Coumadin has been shown to protect patients with left ventricular clots and from AF, which can cause thrombotic strokes. Now, if you have AF, a common cardiac condition—you may wonder if you can take aspirin instead of Coumadin. If you have AF, your best bet is still Coumadin. If you’re not on conventional blood thinners like Coumadin, your risk of stroke is at least 5–6 times greater than those who are. This in itself is a disaster! In fact, approximately 75,000 strokes a year are attributed to AF.

Remember, with AF, the upper chambers of the heart may fail to empty completely, creating a perfect breeding ground for blood clots and poor blood circulation. As clots are formed and pumped out from the heart, they can wander around in the bloodstream until they find a vessel too small to get through and then you can have a major log jam in the brain, the leg, the kidney, in fact, anywhere at all. But the carotid artery is the number one spot to worry about because it’s a direct shot to the brain as the blood is pumped out of the left ventricle.

At least 90 percent of my AF patients take Coumadin; the other 10 percent take aspirin. But aspirin is less effective for preventing clots and strokes, particularly in women and people over 75. The best advice I can give anyone with more than two episodes of AF a year is to take Coumadin. If you have fewer episodes of AF and no other health problems like diabetes, congestive heart failure, leaking heart valves, or an enlarged heart, aspirin is a second choice.

I receive lots of questions about a variety of heart conditions. And one of the most common I receive is about arrhythmias. Specifically, I am often asked how to determine if, in fact, you have an arrhythmia.

One of the first things you need to do is see a cardiologist so they can determine a baseline electrocardiogram (EKG) and do a Holter monitor evaluation. These are very basic, noninvasive tests that your insurance will pay for. Your arrhythmia may show up on the EKG, but your doctor will still want to assess how often it’s happening with the Holter monitor.

For the Holter, you will have a few (4) adhesive electrode pads placed on your chest.  Wires attached to those electrodes will be connected to a recorder box that you can wear on your belt (or in a sling if you prefer). You will be asked to keep a diary of your activity and your symptoms for the next 24 hours, including any awareness you have of skipped or fast heartbeats. You should also track and document your blood pressure levels.

The recording is then analyzed by advanced computers that show pictures of your heart’s rhythm so that your doctor can see what kind of arrhythmia you have. Fast heartbeats for long time periods can occur with what we medically refer to as atrial fibrillation (AF) and supraventricular tachycardias (SVTs: supraventricular identifies the source of the problem in the conduction system; tachy=fast, cardia = heart).

In the event that there is no arrhythmia during your EKG and you fail to experience any symptoms during the 24 hours of monitoring, you can use an event monitor for a month—a Holter-type device you connect to when your symptoms arise.

Once your doctor identifies the type of arrhythmia you have, he or she can look for underlying causes that need to be addressed, including enlargement of the upper chambers of the heart, aging, valve issues, and more. Should you have frequent episodes of AF, you may need to prevent blood clots that can form if your upper chambers are not pumping effectively during times of arrhythmia.