Blood thinners are commonly prescribed for people with atrial fibrillation and pulmonary embolisms. Common blood thinners, or anticoagulants, are coumadin and warfarin. These medications can be very important, but they do have some side effects that people, especially older men, need to be aware of. Here’s the important info you need to know about blood thinners.
Important Info on Blood Thinners
What They’re For
Blood thinners are commonly prescribed for atrial fibrillation. A fib, as it’s commonly shortened to, is a condition that causes the patient’s heart to beat irregularly. Defibrillation pads are also commonly used to address an acute incident of fibrillation, essentially stopping and restarting a heart that is beating irregularly.
Blood thinners are also prescribed for those suffering from pulmonary embolism. A pulmonary embolism is a blockage in one of the arteries of your lung. This is a problem, of course, as the lung is where your blood goes to receive oxygen. Blood thinners prevent your blood from clotting, thus breaking up the embolism.
Prescription
You can only get blood thinners via prescriptions. They’re not available over the counter. That’s because they have a lot of side effects that you should be aware of, and you should only take blood thinners as directed by your doctor. Blood thinners don’t actually thin your blood: they’re more accurately referred to as anticoagulants.
That’s because coumadin and warfarin primarily are given to prevent blood from clotting as easily. These medicines do so by blocking certain proteins in the blood from doing their job, preventing your platelets from clotting up.
Side Effects
As you may be guessing, there are some notable side effects to this type of medication. Since it prevents your blood from clotting, when you’re on anticoagulants, you need to avoid becoming injured. That might seem like silly advice, as you would of course normally avoid injury. However, being on anticoagulants means you should shift your priorities.
Since your body can’t create blood clots, you need to avoid any strenuous or dangerous activity altogether. Something as simple as a cut from a kitchen knife could be deadly if you can’t stop bleeding. This goes double for internal injuries. If you were to get in a car accident and had internal bleeding, it would be incredibly difficult to get it to stop.
If you do become injured while on blood thinners, wrap the injury and apply pressure to it, then call your doctor. If the bleeding is severe, call an ambulance and go to the emergency room. The same goes if you think you may have internal bleeding: don’t waste any time. Call an ambulance and get medical help as soon as possible.