What is Excessive Blood Clotting?
Excessive blood clotting is a condition in which the formation of blood clots takes place very easily or they don’t dissolve properly. Blood clots are normally formed to close small cuts or breaks on blood vessel walls in order to stop bleeding.
The slow speed of blood flow in the vessels also causes clots to occur. The narrowing of a blood vessel can slower down the flow of blood leading to clot formation.
What are the Other Names for Excessive Blood Clotting?
There are several other names with which excessive blood clotting is known:
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- Hypercoagulable disorders or states
- Hypercoagulation
- Thromboembolic states
- Thrombophilia (a name used mainly for genetic conditions)
- Thrombotic disorders
What are the Causes of Excessive Blood Clotting?
Normally the blood clots are formed to block small cuts in the blood vessel walls in order to stop bleeding. Once the bleeding stops and the cut heals the body breaks down and removes the clots.
Excessive blood clotting can occur when an alteration takes place with the body’s clotting process. The clots can form inside the arteries or veins which are placed inside brain, heart, kidneys, lungs, and limbs.
Other factors like genetic mutations and medicines can also contribute to clot formation in the body.
Who is at Risk?
People who have excessive blood clotting acquired and genetic are at a high risk. If a person smokes and has the Factor V Leiden mutation and atherosclerosis, they are at a higher risk than a non-smoker.
There are genetic reasons of excessive blood clotting if a person has:
- Family members who suffer from blood clots
- A history of blood clot occurrence before the age of 40
- A history of miscarriages for which the reason is not known.
- Antiphospholipid antibody syndrome is another risk factor which leads to excessive blood clotting.
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