The most commonly used antiplatelet is acetylsalicylic acid (ASA). Other antiplatelet drugs include clopidogrel, dipyridamole, prasugrel and ticagrelor. Because these medications work by removing vitamin K from the liver, the vitamin K content of your diet has an influence on their effect. For example, there’s a lot of vitamin K in foods like cauliflower, broccoli, beef and pork.
Robert is our health care professional reviewer of this website. He has a nursing and business/technology degrees from The Johns Hopkins University. Pradaxa belongs to the class of medications known as direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs).
Can Alcohol Cause Blood Clots?
When you drink heavily, your blood becomes thicker and more likely to clot. This increases your risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a condition in which a blood clot forms in a deep vein, usually in the leg. DVT can be very dangerous because it can break off and travel to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism (PE). Because alcohol impairs the function of the normal blood-clotting system, it also can adversely interact with over-the-counter and prescription medications that prolong bleeding or prevent coagulation.
Blood clots can be very serious, and PEs or DVTs can sometimes result in death, so it’s very important to try to prevent them from happening. Blood clots can be very serious, and PEs or DVTs can sometimes result in death, so it’s very important to try to prevent them from occurring. A pulmonary https://ecosoberhouse.com/ embolism is a blood clot that blocks and stops blood flow to an artery in the lung. In most cases, the blood clot starts in a deep vein in the leg and travels to the lung. When a blood clot forms in one or more of the deep veins in the body, it’s called a deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
Can I drink alcohol while taking blood thinners?
Heparins directly and immediately inhibit certain clotting factors in the blood. They have to be injected below the skin or into a vein to be effective. Because most people who regularly have to take long-term medication prefer to take tablets rather than inject medication, heparins are generally not used for long-term treatment.
They may switch you to a different medication or decrease the dose. Serious side effects from Pradaxa aren’t common, but they can occur. Call 911 if your symptoms feel life threatening or if you think you’re having a medical emergency. Most of these side effects may go away within a few days or a couple of weeks. But if they become more severe or don’t go away, talk with your doctor or pharmacist.
Alcohol’s Effects on the Blood-Clotting System
Researchers compared Pradaxa with enoxaparin (Lovenox), which is an anticoagulant in injection form. In comparison, DVTs occurred in blood thinners and alcohol 8.5% of people who took enoxaparin. PEs occurred in 0.1% of people who took Pradaxa and in 0.2% of people who took enoxaparin.
The usual action of thrombin is to convert fibrinogen to fibrin during coagulation. By blocking thrombin, fibrin is not produced and a thrombus does not develop. Fibrin that’s free in the blood or bound to a clot is inhibited by Pradaxa as well.