What mechanisms does the human body use to prevent and resolve blood clots? 🩸 #bloodclots #prevention #healthtips
Have you ever wondered how your body keeps blood clots in check? Let’s explore the fascinating ways our bodies ensure proper clotting without any unwanted complications.
Preventing Blood Clots:
1. Platelet activity regulation
2. Anticoagulant proteins
3. Blood flow regulation
4. Endothelial cells’ role
Resolving Blood Clots:
– Fibrinolysis process
– Clot removal by macrophages
– Endothelial repair mechanisms
Engage with your body’s natural defense system against unwanted blood clots and discover the intricate processes that keep you healthy and safe! 🩺 #healthysystem #wellness #bloodclotprevention
I found the following on [WebMD.com](http://WebMD.com)
# How the Body Clears Clots
When your body senses that you’ve healed, it calls on a [protein](https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/protein) called plasmin. Here’s the clever part: Plasmin is actually built into the clot itself. It’s there the whole time, but it’s turned off. It just hangs out and waits.
To turn it on, your body releases a substance known as an activator. It wakes up plasmin and tells it to get to work tearing things down. That mainly means breaking up the mesh-like structure that helps the clot work so well.
When your body senses that you’ve healed, it calls on a protein called plasmin. Here’s the clever part: Plasmin is actually built into the clot itself. It’s there the whole time, but it’s turned off. It just hangs out and waits.
To turn it on, your body releases a substance known as an activator. It wakes up plasmin and tells it to get to work tearing things down. That mainly means breaking up the mesh-like structure that helps the clot work so well.
For the full article, check this page – [https://www.webmd.com/dvt/dissolve-blood-clot](https://www.webmd.com/dvt/dissolve-blood-clot)
PubMed (StatPearls section) and Wolters Kluwers (Beyond the Basics) are probably better sources to learn about coagulation than WebMD.
Essentially, the blood vessels contain proteins that create a balance between clotting/clot prevention/clot breakdown.
The clotting factors also know as tissue factors are present in inactivated forms. Damage to blood vessels and platelet activation drive the ever increasing conversion of these factors to stabilize clots and promote thrombosis.
On the other side, there are proteins (anti-thrombin, Proteins c and S) that prevent the activity of these activated clotting factors.
Plasmin, as the other user described, is the activated form of plasminogen that breaks down formed clots.
The balance of these proteins is what leads to excessive bleeding or clot formation. It ranges from diet (example of Vitamin K necessary to form clots), inherited deficiencies (like Hemophilia in the European family), and medical conditions (ongoing therapy, malignancies).
This will be a little controversial (because large pulmonary emboli can be fatal), but your lungs.
The lungs block and break down small clots from reaching your brain, where even a blockage of a tiny vessel can cause permanent disability.
Other organs that filter the blood probably block small clots too, but the lungs are directly upstream from the brain.